Veniamin Borisovich Smekhov (born August 10, 1940 in Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian actor of stage and screen, and a director of the stage, television and documentary film. He was the winner of the Petropol Award (2000) as well as the Tsarskoselsky Artistic Prize (2009). He refused the title of People's Artist of Russia, which was offered to him on his 70th birthday. Smekhov has long worked in the Moscow Taganka Theatre where his roles included Woland in a stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. His portrayal of the main antagonist of the story is considered to be the best of any adaption of the novel. In film, he is best known and loved for the role of Athos in a Russian version of The Three Musketeers (1978) and its sequels (1992, 1993). He also has written children's poetry, scripts, memoirs and comedic materials. Veniamin Smekhov spent his childhood in Moscow on Second Meshchansky Street (present day Gilyarovsky Street). He saw his father only after he returned from the war in 1945. From 1947 to 1957 he was a student at School № 235 on Pal'chikov Lane where he was a part of the Palace of Pioneers drama club. V.E. Struchkova led the club and Rolan Biykov worked with the students. In 1957 Veniamin was accepted into the B.V. Shchukin Theatre School, the conservatory of the E. Vakhtangov Theatre. He studied in the class of V.A. Etush. It was Veniamin's uncle, Lev Smekhov, who encouraged him to study at the school. In 1959 he was removed from his class and began the second year of study as an auditor. This was a probationary measure. In April of 1959 he regained his student status. His graduation performances included Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in which he played Covielle, and Ostrovsky's Warm Heart in which he played Narkis.In 1961 Veniamin graduated from acting school and was sent to the Kuybiyshevsky Drama Theatre where he worked for one year. Upon his return to Moscow in 1962, director A.K. Plotnikov accepted him into the Moscow Theatre of Drama and Comedy. In 1964 Yuri Lyubimov became head director of the theatre. Lyubimov reorganized the theatre and it became the Taganka Theatre. From 1985 to 1987 Veniamin worked in the Sovremennik Theatre where he, along with Leonid Filatov and Vitaly Shapovalov, fled after Lyubimov's expulsion from the Soviet Union. Veniamin returned to the Taganka Theatre in 1987 and worked there until 1998.

For more information press the link below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veniamin_Smekhov