Top box-office draw in the Soviet Union throughout the 1970s. Soviet audiences flocked to see him in fairy tales, romantic films and a 1972 cowboy film, The Headless Horseman (based on a Mayne Reed story), which sold some 300 million tickets. Despite this success, he was dissatisfied with his lack of creative control and went back to Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography to study directing.
Eventually made a critical film about the Soviet transport system, after which he was offered no leading roles. Defected from Yugoslavia and Austria to Rome, and eventually settled in Hollywood.