Biography
Nikolai Trofimov was born on January 20, 1920, in Sevastopol, USSR (now Ukraine). His parents were industrial workers. Young Trofimov began acting at school from the age of 10. From 1937- 1946 he studied under Boris Zon at the Theatrical Institute in Leningrad. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War. Trofimov worked as an actor with the troupe of Isaak Dunaevskiy during the siege of Leningrad. He was entertaining defenders and survived the hunger and horrors of the Second World War. From 1946-1963 he worked at the Lenigrad Theatre of Comedy under Nikolai Akimov.
From 1964-2005 Trofimov was a permanent member of the legendary troupe of Bolshoi Drama Theatre (BDT) in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) under directorship of Georgi Tovstonogov. Trofimov worked with Tovstonogov for 25 years. After the death of Tovstonogov, Trofimov continued his work with an outstanding ensemble of actors at BDT. There his stage partners were such stars as Oleg Basilashvili, Tatyana Doronina, Alisa Freyndlikh, Lyudmila Makarova, Svetlana Kryuchkova, Zinaida Sharko, Valentina Kovel, Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Sergey Yurskiy, Kirill Lavrov, Oleg Borisov, Vladislav Strzhelchik, Yefim Kopelyan, Evgeniy Lebedev, Vsevolod Kuznetsov, Pavel Luspekayev, Georgiy Shtil, Leonid Nevedomsky, Vadim Medvedev, Yuriy Demich, Roman Gromadskiy, Gennadiy Bogachyov, Andrey Tolubeev, and many other remarkable Russian actors. Among Trofimov's best remembered stage works were the roles in "Tri sestry" (The Three Sisters) by Anton Chekhov (1968), "Khanuma", and "Revizor" (Inspector-General) by Nikolay Gogol.
Nikolai Trofimov was designated the title of People's Artist of the USSR. He received numerous awards and decorations for his works on stage and in film. His filmography includes over 60 roles, he also played over 100 roles on stage. Nikolai Trofimov died on November 7, 2005, in St. Petersburg, and was laid to rest in the "Literatorskie mostki" Necropolis of The Masters of Art at Volkovskoe Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia.
