84 years ago: Renowned theater and film director Mark Zakharov was born

Russian director Mark Zakharov hits the ripe old age of 84 on Oct. 13. He’s famous for directing the movies Formula of Love (1984), The Very Same Munchhausen (1979), and An Ordinary Miracle (1978).

He was made artistic director of the Lenkom (Lenin's Komsomol) Theater in central Moscow in 1973. In 1974 he staged Till, a rollicking musical comedy about the Middle Ages and the Inquisition - the Soviet audience understood the Aesopian language it used.

Zakharov gathered an incredible troupe of stage stars: Alexander Abdulov, Oleg Yankovsky, Inna Churikova, to name but a few. He’s also written several books about theater and has been awarded the USSR State Prize and three Russian State Prizes.

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