Efim Zakharovich Kopelian (Yefim Kopelyan) was born on April 12, 1912,
in Rechitsa, Gomel province, Russian Empire (now Rechytsa, Homel
province, Belarus). He studied architecture at the Academy of Arts in
Leningrad (St. Petersburg), but after a year he dropped out of college
and joined the stunts at the Bolshoi Drama Theatre (BDT). In 1935 he
graduated from the Acting Studio of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre (BDT) and
became a permanent member of the main troupe. In 1941 Kopelyan married
actress
Lyudmila Makarova.
Kopelyan was one of the leading actors of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre
(BDT) in Leningrad for 43 years. He began his acting career under
directorship of
Aleksei Dikij and then
Boris Babochkin. Among his highest
achievements were remarkable stage works under the directorship of
Georgi Tovstonogov. Kopelyan's stage
partners at the BDT were a stellar troupe of actors, including such
prominent film stars as
Lyudmila Makarova,
Oleg Basilashvili,
Tatyana Doronina,
Valentina Kovel,
Svetlana Kryuchkova, Zinaida Sharko,
Kirill Lavrov,
Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy,
Sergey Yurskiy,
Vladislav Strzhelchik,
Oleg Borisov,
Evgeniy Lebedev,
Vsevolod Kuznetsov,
Nikolay Trofimov,
Pavel Luspekayev, and many other
remarkable Russian actors.
Kopelyan shot to fame in the Soviet Union with his legendary narration
in the TV series
Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973).
Kopelyan's special and enigmatic voice in that narration gained him
such a wide popularity that he became a hero of many popular jokes. A
brilliant film actor, Kopelyan played major film roles in the trilogy
'Neulovimye Mstiteli' (1966-1971),
Opasnye gastroli (1969), and
Povest o chelovecheskom serdtse (1976)
among other popular Russian films. Kopelyan himself considered his part
as Ataman in epic film
Dauriya (1972) as
his best work in film.
Yefim Kopelyan was designated the title of People's Artist of the USSR.
He died of a heart failure on March 6, 1975, and was laid to rest in
Necropolis of The Masters of Art "Literatorskie mostki" at Volkovskoe
Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Rembrandt(1963)
Vechnyy zov(1973)as Mikhatil Kaftanov, Mikhail Kaftanov (1976)
Povest o chelovecheskom serdtse(1976)as Nikolay Burtsev
Jaroslaw Dabrowski(1976)as Prince Bebutow
Posledniy den zimy(1975)as Mavrin
A Golden-coloured Straw Hat(1975)as Monsieur Beaupertuis
Legends of World Cinema(2004)as Self
Chtoby pomnili(1993)as Self
