Anatoly Yabbarov: A Life in Russian Stage and Screen

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The news from kino-theater.ru confirms that theater and film actor Anatoly Yabbarov has died at the age of 86. The notice notes the date of passing as November 6.

Difficult childhood in a large family

Anatoly Yabbarov was born on August 24, 1937, in the village of Karachukhur near Baku. He grew up as the youngest of seven children in a family that faced serious hardship from the start. His father passed away when Anatoly was an infant, leaving a breadwinner gap that the family had to fill. The onset of war only deepened the struggle to survive and to keep the family together.

His mother worked as a kindergarten teacher and also took on night shifts to stretch every ruble further. Neighbors stepped in with help, yet the family suffered losses, and only four of the seven siblings survived into adulthood.

After the war, life brightened a little for the Yabbarov family. They were awarded a one-room apartment in Baku, a modest but significant improvement that offered a space to dream beyond daily survival.

Yabbarov first tasted acting at age 14, performing with theater and choreography groups and taking to the stage with them. His love for creative work tugged at him, but the family’s financial instability pushed him toward a more practical path. He began studies in physics and mathematics at a local institution, hoping to secure a stable future while nurturing his artistic impulses.

After finishing school, he enrolled at Ashgabat University. While pursuing his studies, he took a part-time job to help the family stay afloat. He lasted a year and a half in the physics and mathematics program before redirecting toward Russian language and literature. Yet the call of acting remained strong, and he made the bold move to Moscow to enroll in GITIS, Russia’s premier acting school.

Back home in Baku, his mother and brothers pursued professional careers — one became a neurosurgeon, another a scientist, and the third a professor of architecture. Anatoly visited his relatives annually until 1988, when the death of his last remaining relative cut those ties. He would later tell reporters that he missed Baku and cherished his Azerbaijani roots, even though his career blossomed elsewhere. Although he was a native of Baku and spoke Azerbaijani, he often found himself acting primarily in Russian-language productions. When he did work with compatriots in Moscow, he communicated in Azerbaijani.

In Moscow, Yabbarov built a family life. He is survived by a son and a grandson, who continue his legacy in the arts.

Actor career

While still a student in his third year at GITIS, Yabbarov made his film debut in the drama Once Upon a Time There Was an Old Man and an Old Woman. That early appearance led to invitations to the films Loneliness and Odessa Holidays. Soon after, he crossed paths with renowned directors Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov, earning several episodic roles that expanded his screen presence. He portrayed Vanya in A Bad Joke, the White Guard in Running, a blind man in The Legend of Tila, and appeared in The Secret of Nardo or The Dream of the White Dog, Clock Without Hands, and Mona Lisa on the Asphalt.

Yabbarov graced many films, though most of his parts were episodic. His popularity grew with Gentlemen of Fortune (1971), The Two Captains (1976), and Prison Break (1977). Audiences were especially moved by his performances in negative roles, which earned him strong reactions and critical recognition. Directors later noted that his intelligence off screen made it easier for him to inhabit villainous characters with credibility.

“I think I’ve had good fortune overall,” he once said. “Even when I played villains, I found a way to render them human and to justify my characters within the story.” His work in Lyubertsy Panorama captured that sentiment well.

Yabbarov was not limited to acting; he also directed. He joined the Film Actors Theater during the late 1980s, a period he recalls as the onset of perestroika. He observed that the 1990s brought fewer worthy projects and a drift toward crime dramas, which he preferred to avoid.

“The era brought a rift in the theater world. I aligned with the older generation — Lyubov Sokolova, Ivan Ryzhov, Lydia Smirnova. I brought the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, based on Hoffmann’s fairy tale, to Oleg Strizhenov, a board member at that time. He asked how quickly we could stage it. We rehearsed daily, and I told him we could prepare in a month. He smiled and said, Let’s begin. The premiere, however, came later because funds for costumes and set design were scarce. The audience finally saw the production on the eve of 1990.”

In the following years, Yabbarov directed the musical From Afar, Confused and the fairy tale Exactly at Twelve. The theater management then asked him to stage The Wisdom of Eve, adapted from the Mary Orr story. At first, the project did not appeal to him; the script seemed dull. Yet he found a fresh approach that kept the production running for years and won the crowd over. Yabbarov also appeared as the theatrical agent Bert Hinkle in the production lineup.

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