Vladimir Mashkov
Vladimir Lvovich Mashkov (Russian: Владимир Львович Машков; born 27 November 1963) is a Soviet and Russian actor and theater director of cinema, known to Western audiences for his work in the 2001 film Behind Enemy Lines and 2011 film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Mashkov has also worked as a film director, producer and writer for the 2004 Russian film Papa. Politically, Mashkov is noted for his public support for Vladimir Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Biography Early life and education Mashkov was born on 27 November 1963, in Tula, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia). His mother, Natalia (1927–1986), was a puppet theatre director, and his father, Lev Mashkov (1925–1987), was an actor. He made his debut on stage as a child, took part in the productions of a school theater group, performed with his parents in the Novokuznetsk Puppet Theater. In the late 1970s, Mashkov entered the biological faculty of Novosibirsk State University, but studied there for only a year, after which he entered the Novosibirsk Theater School, from which in 1984 he was expelled because of improper behavior. In 1990, he graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School, studied at the course of Oleg Tabakov. Career In 1989–1990 he was an actor of the Moscow Art Theater named after A.P. Chekhov. Since 1990, he joined the troupe of the Oleg Tabakov Theater. He starred in the productions The Sailor's Silence (Abram Schwartz), The Inspector General (The Governor), The Myth of Don Juan (Don Juan), The Mechanical Piano (Platonov), Anecdotes (Ivanovich, Ugarov). Since 1992, Mashkov has also become one of the directors of the Tabakov Theater. He staged performances there of Star Time on Local Time (1992), Passion for Bumbarash (1992) and Death Room (1994). In the Satyricon Theater, he staged the play The Threepenny Opera (1996), in the Moscow Art Theater named after A.P. Chekhov - "No. 13" (2001). In cinema, Mashkov made his debut in 1989 in the movie Green Goat Fire. After that came roles in the movies Do It — One! (1990), Ha-bi-Assi (1990), Casus improvisus (1991), Love on the Isle of Death (1991), Alaska, Sir! (1992) and Me Ivan, You Abraham (1993). However, in 1994, he was best known for his starring roles in Denis Yevstigneev's Limit and Valery Todorovsky's Moscow Nights films. In 1995, Mashkov also played the main role in Karen Shakhnazarov's melodrama American Daughter. One of the most notable works of this period was the role of Tolyan in the picture The Thief (1997), subsequently nominated for an Oscar. In 2000, he played the role of Emelian Pugachev in the historical film of Alexander Proshkin Russian rebellion. In the early 2000s, Vladimir Mashkov starred in several Hollywood films: Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000), 15 Minutes (2001), An American Rhapsody (2001) and Behind Enemy Lines (2001). Mashkov played the Russian millionaire Platon Makovsky, whose prototype was Boris Berezovsky, in Pavel Lungin's 2002 drama Tycoon. The next year, he appeared on television as merchant Rogozhin in the adaptation of Fyodor