Olga Barnet is a Russian actress of Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).
She was born Olga Borisovna Barnet on September 3, 1951, in the Soviet
Union. Her father, Boris Barnet, was a
legendary Soviet film actor and director, who was in his fourth
marriage to Olga's mother, Alla Kazarnovskaya, an actress of Vakhtangov
Theatre in Moscow. Her father committed suicide in 1965, when Olga was
14. From 1968 -1972 she studied acting under A. Borisov at Shchukin
Theatrical School of Vakhtangov Theatre, graduating in 1972 as an
actress. That same year she made her film debut as Mother in
Solaris (1972) by director
Andrei Tarkovsky.
Since 1972 Olga Barnet has been a permanent member of the troupe at
Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). There her stage partners were such renown
Russian actors as Anatoli Ktorov,
Alla Tarasova,
Olga Androvskaya,
Angelina Stepanova,
Mikhail Yanshin,
Viktor Stanitsyn,
Aleksey Gribov,
Mark Prudkin,
Anastasiya Georgievskaya,
Vasili Toporkov,
Mikhail Bolduman,
Pavel Massalsky, and the next generation
of MKhAT actors - Oleg Efremov,
Tatyana Doronina,
Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy,
Oleg Tabakov, Kristina Babushkina,
Alla Pokrovskaya,
Kira Golovko,
Tatyana Lavrova,
Iya Savvina,
Nina Gulyaeva,
Elena Panova,
Darya Moroz,
Olga Litvinova,
Natalya Rogozhkina,
Ekaterina Semyonova,
Olga Yakovleva,
Raisa Maksimova,
Irina Miroshnichenko,
Evgeniya Dobrovolskaya,
Anastasiya Voznesenskaya,
Andrey Myagkov,
Stanislav Lyubshin,
Vladimir Kashpur,
Vladlen Davydov,
Viktor Sergachyov,
Vyacheslav Nevinnyy,
Evgeniy Kindinov,
Vladimir Krasnov,
Sergei Desnitsky,
Dmitriy Nazarov,
Sergey Sazontev,
Avangard Leontev,
Igor Vasilev,
Igor Vernik, Sergei Sosnovsky,
Mikhail Porechenkov,
Konstantin Khabenskiy,
Valeri Khlevinsky, Aleksei Agapov,
Valeriy Troshin,
Mikhail Trukhin,
Eduard Chekmazov,
Aleksey Kravchenko, and
Evgeniy Mironov among others. In the
1970s - 1990s Barnet made her best known stage appearances in
Anton Chekhov's classic plays as Olga in
'Tri Sestry' (aka.. The Three Sisters), and in 'Vishnevy sad' (aka..
The Cherry Orchard). She also made acclaimed performances as Fiery in
'Sinyaya ptitsa' (aka.. The Blue Bird) by Maurice Maeterlinck, and as
Countess-daughter in
Aleksandr Griboyedov's 'Gore ot
Uma' (aka.. Woe From Wit).
Olga Barnet was designated People's Actress of Russia, and received
numerous awards from the Soviet and Russian governments. Besides her
work at Moscow Art Theatre, Barnet made stage appearances at Moscow
Theatre of Oleg Tabakov. Outside of her acting profession Barnet has
been involved in humanitarian causes, such as pet rescue missions. Olga
Barnet is living in Moscow, Russia.
