Though never considered a star in the handsome-leading-man sense of the word, Zinoviy Gerdt was among Russia’s most beloved and respected character actors. Over his nearly five-decade-long career, Gerdt appeared in puppet theater, in dozens of feature films, and on various television shows. The respect accorded him by peers and fans was as much a product of his personal integrity as it was of his talent. He was not an overtly political man, though most of his films spanned the Communist era, but Gerdt refused to buckle under government pressure to appear in propaganda films and productions.
Instead, he would only perform in productions that did not offend his personal values.
Read more here