Andrei Mironov (actor)

Andrei Aleksandrovich Mironov (Russian: Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Миро́нов; 7 March 1941 – 16 August 1987) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor who played lead roles in some of the most popular Soviet films, such as The Diamond Arm, Beware of the Car and Twelve Chairs. Mironov was also a popular singer.
Mironov was born in Moscow to Maria Vladimirovna Mironova, a Russian, and Aleksandr Menaker [ru], a Russian Jew. His parents were both well-known actors and performed together as the comedy duo "Mironova and Menaker (Миронова и Менакер)".
Mironov studied in the Vakhtangov Theatre School during the early 1950s. From 1958 to 1962, he studied acting at the Moscow Shchukin School. From June 18, 1962, to 1987, Mironov was a permanent member of the trope at the Moscow Theatre of Satire. In 1961, he acted in his first film What If This Is Love? In 1963, he starred in the comedy Three Plus Two by Genrikh Oganesyan, and then in the film My Younger Brother by Aleksandr Zarkhi. His real success came with the release of the film Attention, directed by Eldar Ryazanov, in which he played together with Innokenty Smoktunovsky. 1969 marked the release of Leonid Gaidai's film ‘The Diamond Hand’, which became iconic for several generations of Russians and ranked No. 1 in terms of viewership (76.7 million). Mironov played Kozodoyev, the bumbling mate of a hooligan (Anatoly Papanov), opposite Yuri Nikulin, who played a model Soviet citizen. On December 18, 1980, he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR. He also received the Medal "For Labour Valour".
Andrei Mironov was known and loved for his roles in films directed by Eldar Ryazanov, Leonid Gaidai, Mark Zakharov, and other filmmakers. He had a wide comedic range and played diverse roles (e.g. a Soviet bureaucrat, Figaro, a romantic spy, a member of the intelligentsia, a con man, an American movie pioneer, a tale-teller, etc.).
On one of his tours through Latvia in 1987, he lost consciousness on stage while performing the lead role in The Marriage of Figaro. Thinking he was having a heart attack, the other actors hastily administered oral nitroglycerin, a drug commonly given to heart attack patients, but which can cause life threatening complications when mistakenly given to those suffering from cerebrovascular disease. He was driven to a hospital where two days later he was pronounced dead. His death occurred only eleven days after the passing of his close friend and frequent co-star Anatoli Papanov.
Mironov's parents, Aleksandr Menaker and Maria Vladimirovna Mironova, were known nationwide as a comedic duo. He was married twice, both times to Soviet actresses. First to Yekaterina Gradova, with whom he had one daughter, Maria Mironova, and second to Larisa Golubkina, a singer and actress best known for her role of the hussar maiden in Hussar Ballad. Maria Mironova and his adopted daughter Maria Golubkina (from his marriage to Larisa) had successful careers in Russian cinema. In 2006 Maria Mironova received the title of Honoured Artist of Russia.
A minor planet 3624 Mironov, discovered by Soviet astronomers Lyudmila Karachkina and Lyudmila Zhuravleva in 1982 is named after him.