Wladimir Alexejewitsch Konkin

Vladimir Alekseyevich Konkin (Russian: Влади́мир Алексе́евич Ко́нкин , born 19 August 1951, Saratov, USSR) is a Soviet/Russian cinema and theatre actor, who appeared in 45 films. He is best known for his roles in How the Steel Was Tempered (1975, Pavel Korchagin) and The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979, Vladimir Sharapov). Vladimir Konkin, a Meritorious Artist of Russia (2010), is also a published author of short stories and essays.

Vladimir Konkin was born in Saratov, into the family of a railway engineer who served at the Privolzhskaya Railway. As a schoolboy Vladimir studied at the theatre studio courses of the actress and writer Natalia Sukhostav; upon graduation he enrolled into the Saratov Theatre college, the class of Dmitry Lyadov. In 1972 Konkin joined the Kharkhov Theatre for Children; a year later he moved to the Moscow Mossovet Theatre. Konkin debuted on the big screen in Nikolai Mashchenko's How the Steel Was Tempered (1975), after Nikolai Ostrovsky's autobiographical novel, shot at the Kiev-based Dovzhenko Film Studios. The film made the young actor famous and earned him the Lenin Komsomol Prize. The actor has never lost the respect for his character, seeing him as the epitome of moral strength. "I love Korchagin and even today, at 60, I think I would have been on his side," he said in a 2011 interview.

In 1974–1978 Konkin appeared in several successful films, including Andrei Konchalovsky's A Lover's Romance, Boris Ivchenko's Marina, and Georgy Kalatozishvili's The Caucasian Story. Konkin has never served in the Army (due to poor health) but, somewhat ironically, played mostly the military men, invariably romantic, mild and intelligent. The part of Sharapov in Stanislav Govorukhin's The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979) marked the peak of Vladimir Konkin's cinema career. "The character of Sharapov hasn't lost its relevance. Regardless of whether we accept today's 'rules of the game', what we look for is straight honesty in those people who are there to protect us," Konkin asserted in a 2002 interview.

In 1979 Konkin joined the Moscow Ermolova Theatre (where he played young Vladimir Lenin in Kazan University) and continued to appear in films, notably Fathers and Sons (directed by Vyacheslav Nikiforov; as Arkady Kirsanov) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Stanislav Govorukhin, as Doctor Robinson). During the 1980s and 1990s he worked in several theatres, including Taganka Theatre (Zakhar Bardin in Maxim Gorky's Enemies, 1995). In the late 1990s he hosted for a while the Home Library show at ORT. His best known role in the 2000s was that of Colonel Kobylyansky in the history drama Romanovs. The Crown.

Vladimir Konkin and his wife Alla Lvovna Konkina spent 39 years together. In 2010 she died of cancer. They had twin sons, Yaroslav and Svyatoslav, and a daughter Sophia who sadly drowned in a sports club pool on 24 September 2020.