Igor Yasulovich was a Russian and Soviet actor, film director, voice actor, and teacher. He performed extensively in theatre and cinema, directed three films, taught at VGIK and GITIS, and received the State Prize of the Russian Federation, the title People's Artist of Russia, and the Order of Honour.
Background
Igor Nikolaevich Yasulovich was born on September 24, 1941, in the village of Reinsfeld, now Zalesye, in Samara Oblast. His birth took place during the first year of the German-Soviet War, when many families were displaced or evacuated within the Soviet Union. His father's family had Belarusian ancestral roots.
Yasulovich spent part of his youth in Tallinn, where he participated in a theatre circle led by Ivan Rossomakhin, an actor from the city's drama theatre. The circle introduced him to stage performance and included several future actors among its participants. Before entering the profession, Yasulovich considered a naval career, following the example of his father.
Education
Yasulovich studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, commonly known as VGIK, one of the Soviet Union's principal institutions for training filmmakers and screen actors. He completed the acting faculty in 1962 and later returned to VGIK to study directing in the workshop of Mikhail Romm, graduating from the directing faculty in 1974. Romm's workshop brought together actors and directors within the integrated artistic environment that characterized VGIK during the 1960s and 1970s.
Yasulovich began his theatrical career in 1962 with the Experimental Theatre-Studio of Pantomime, known as Ektimim, led by Alexander Rumnev. The studio developed performance through movement, rhythm, and physical expression, and its demanding training helped establish Yasulovich as a stage actor. He also created pantomime sequences for Pyotr Fomenko's production of King Matt the First and assisted with plastic movement during the creation of Maya Plisetskaya's ballet The Seagull at the Bolshoi Theatre.
From 1964 to 1994, Yasulovich performed at the Theatre-Studio of Film Actors in Moscow. The organization was created to provide professional theatrical work for film performers and formed part of the Soviet system linking cinema production with stage performance. Yasulovich entered cinema in 1961 and appeared in more than 120 films, becoming known for precise character work, distinctive voice performances, and roles that often gave strong definition to supporting characters.
From 1993 until his death, Yasulovich was an actor of the Moscow Young Spectator's Theatre. The theatre, founded for young audiences, developed a broad dramatic repertoire that also included major works of Russian and world literature. Yasulovich performed there under directors including Kama Ginkas and Henrietta Yanovskaya, appearing in productions such as The Storm, The Black Monk, and other classical and modern plays. He also acted in productions at other Moscow theatres, including Chebutykin and Ferapont in The Three Sisters and Creon in Medea.
After completing his directing studies, Yasulovich directed the short film The First and the Second in 1974, followed by He Is Missing and Found in 1976 and Hello, River! in 1978, the last made with co-directors. He did not abandon acting for directing; instead, cinema direction became a parallel part of a career centered on performance, theatre, and teaching.
Yasulovich taught acting and directing at VGIK and at the State University of Circus and Variety Arts. From 1992 he taught at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts, now GITIS, whose long theatrical tradition dates to the Russian Institute of Theatre Art's development from earlier Moscow theatre schools. From 2002 he led an acting workshop at VGIK and continued pedagogical work at GITIS, training actors for musical theatre and the stage. He also worked extensively in dubbing, audiobook production, animation voice acting, and video-game voice performance.
Achievements
Yasulovich built a career encompassing more than 120 film roles, extensive stage work, dubbing, animation voice acting, and audiobook production.
He directed three films: The First and the Second, He Is Missing and Found, and Hello, River!, combining his acting career with formal training in film direction.
He trained actors at VGIK and GITIS and led an acting workshop at VGIK from 2002, contributing to the education of later generations of Russian stage and screen performers.
Works
children's film
Hello, River!
(Children's film directed by Igor Yasulovich together with...)
1978
feature film
He Is Missing and Found
(Film directed by Igor Yasulovich, centered on a child's s...)
1976
film
Nine Days in One Year
(Yasulovich's early screen appearance; he played a researc...)
1962
The Twelve Chairs
(Yasulovich played Engineer Shchukin in Leonid Gaidai's ad...)
(Yasulovich appeared in Leonid Gaidai's comedy film.)
1969
short film
The First and the Second
(Short film directed by Igor Yasulovich after his graduati...)
1974
television film
The Same Munchausen
(Yasulovich appeared in Mark Zakharov's television film ba...)
1979
television series
Guest from the Future
(Yasulovich played Elektron Ivanovich in Pavel Arsenov's S...)
1984
Views
Yasulovich regarded theatre as a continuing process of inquiry rather than routine performance. In interviews, he argued that repertory theatre gave actors and directors the time necessary for experimentation, revision, and sustained attention to the quality of a production.
His public reflections emphasized responsibility to the audience and to the artistic work itself. He opposed purely commercial approaches that weakened long-term theatrical institutions and considered disciplined collaboration a central condition of serious acting.
Membership
Yasulovich was a member of the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation and the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation. These organizations represent theatre and film professionals, support artistic collaboration, and participate in the development of professional standards and cultural policy.
Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation
,
Russia
Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation
,
Russia
Personality
In interviews, Yasulovich presented himself as a disciplined theatre professional who valued rehearsal, repertory continuity, and sustained work on roles. Colleagues and published profiles described him as modest, intelligent, humorous, and resistant to self-promotion.
Quotes from others about the person
Yasulovich's theatre colleagues associated his work with thoughtful character acting and a strong commitment to repertory theatre. Director Kama Ginkas emphasized the importance of action and motive in performance, principles that were central to Yasulovich's approach to stage roles.
Interests
Pantomime, theatre pedagogy, voice acting, dubbing, and audiobook performance.
Connections
Yasulovich was married to Natalia Egorova, an art historian and the daughter of film director Yuri Egorov. Their son, Alexei Yasulovich, became an actor and film director. Igor and Alexei appeared together in the film Once, Twenty Years Later, directed by Yuri Egorov.
Wife:
Natalia Egorova
Art historian and daughter of film director Yuri Egorov.
Son:
Alexei Yasulovich
Actor and film director who appeared with Igor Yasulovich in Once, Twenty Years Later.
References
VGIK biography of Igor Yasulovich
Institutional biography documenting Yasulovich's acting and directing education, teaching career, professional titles, and workshop leadership at VGIK.
GITIS biography of Igor Yasulovich
Institutional biography documenting Yasulovich's education, theatre work, teaching at GITIS, pantomime activity, and film career.
