Nikolai Sergejewitsch Plotnikow

Nikolai Sergeyevich Plotnikov (Russian: Николай Сергеевич Пло́тников ; 5 November 1897 – 3 February 1979) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1966).

He was born in Vyazma into a family of a hairdresser. As a child, after he lost a majority of his family (mother from tuberculosis, father from myocardial rupture, and both sisters), he was sent to Saint Petersburg to have his uncle look after him. There, he studied in art school of Alexander von Stieglitz (now Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design).

In spring of 1916, he was drafted into the Western Front during World War I. After he returned, he began studying acting in Moscow Art Theatre under supervision of Michael Chekhov.

From 1945 to 1956, he was the director of Film Actor Theater-Study (now National Film Actors' Theatre).

He joined the Communist Party in 1954.

He died in Moscow, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

In Vyazma there is a street named after him.