In opposition to the "Hollywood Great Four" - as De Niro, Al Pacino, Hoffman and Nicholson are called - Russia can name the one of its own: Makovetsky, Mashkov, Mironov, Menshikov - the four M.

Oleg Menshikov was born on the same day as Alain Delon. Although it happened a quarter of the century later (Oleg will be 39 on November 8). And he is also a star, an idol, a heaven-born actor. His acting career is full of coincidences, intersections, nonrandom meetings.
Take, for instance, his first cinema role. It was the film "I Wait And Hope" - a very symbolic title. Unknown Roman Balayan was an assistant to the director. Later Menshikov would call him one of his cinema "godfathers", and they'd share "Flights In Dreams And In Reality". Then, in the early 80s, Balayan let the debutant-actor act in Mikhalkov's "Kinfolk". Kinfolk or not, but Nikita Sergeevich became Menshikov's second "godfather" and shot him in three films. And what kind of films they were! However, we'll discuss that later, and now a couple of words about the roles he didn't play. Menshikov wanted to act in "The Reefers", but Svetlana Druzhinina (the director) chose Vladimir Shevelkov for the role he liked. However, Menshikov still dubbed that role. (In fact, as Menshikov told himself, Druzhinina wanted to see him in her film, it was he who refused; although later he dubbed one of the characters; by the way, it was not the character played by Shevelkov. - K.K.)

Onstage: he surpassed Vanessa Redgrave.

Along with the work in cinema, his theatre life was very busy too. The actor changed five Moscow theatres - from the Maly Theatre to the Theatre of the Soviet Army, where he met Denis Evstigneev. Years later this meeting would lead to a film - Denis Evstigneev's "Mama" where he would act with Nonna Mordyukova, who impressed Oleg on the set of "Kinfolk". By the way, in this film based on a story of the Ovechkins family band that tried to hijack a plane Menshikov's character's brothers would be played by his "the Great M brothers" - Vladimir Mashkov and Evgeny Mironov.
Theatre gave him the roles of Caligula, Robespierre, Vaslaw Nijinski in Moscow. And in London Menshikov acted brilliantly in the duet with legendary Vanessa Redgrave in the performance "When She Danced" describing the love story of Sergey Esenin and Isadora Duncan. Menshikov was awarded with the prestigious Laurence Olivier Prize for that role. Vanessa Redgrave wasn't given such an honour, although she had already played Duncan in the film "Isadora" and received the Cannes film festival award for the role in 1969.

On the screen: totally defeated.

"Burnt By The Sun" was yet another meeting with Nikita Mikhalkov. This role - which could be named Menshikov's most significant one - is a tragic story of Mitya who betrayed love and himself, couldn't bear the excruciating feeling of guilt, shame and hurt and then paid for everything with his own blood.
1994 brought the actor the Triumph and Golden Aries awards for the best male performance of the year. The film received the second prize of the Cannes festival (after Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction") and then the Oscar award.
Then there was Sergey Bodrov's "Prisoner Of The Mountains", which also received many awards. After the comfort of Moscow and London the actor found himself in the conditions of the previous century - the shooting took place in the oldest Dagestan village Richa. Working conditions were extremal. There was almost no light in the evening. They whiled away the spare time in various ways. Menshikov and Bodrov, Jr. rolled the dice. In the upshot, hazardous Menshikov was totally defeated, he even had to take off his jacket - it was a precious trophy for Bodrov. In one of his interviews the latter confessed, "You know, at school we wrote compositions "Who you dream to be like". I'd choose Menshikov".
Once the whole crew was announced captive by their own guards. They demanded ransom. In the end, they were persuaded to release the crew, although money played its role too. The sum wasn't too big, but many nerves were strained. Menshikov suffered from the exacerbation of ulcer. But his colleagues found that out only in Moscow.
Anyway, the actor luckily avoided the star fever. Actually, it's rather understandable. He is a reserved person; he doesn't like all the fuss, interviews. Still the life brings him to the centre of action all the time. There he was - the jury president of the XX Moscow International Film Festival. They say it was the first time when the jury worked on pure enthusiasm. And here he is - a director of the performance "Woe From Wit", where he plays Chatsky. He has just finished working with French director Regis Wargnier, who shot "French Woman" and "Indochina". In his film "East-West" Menshikov played a Russian emigrant. His partners were Catherine Deneuve and Sandrine Bonnaire.
On February 20, Mikhalkov's "The Barber Of Siberia" will be premiered in the State Kremlin Palace. The director offered Menshikov the role of cadet Andrey Tolstoy 18 years ago. (Actually, it was 10 years. - K.K.) The project didn't come about then. And now the actor plays a character who is 18 years younger.

In life: he doesn't like "personal" questions.

Dozens of lives - beautiful and horrifying, happy and tragic - are lived onstage and on the screen. He travels through time and everywhere is to the point - in the costumes of the Ancient Rome and the tsarist Russia. The old Moscow, Arbat and Okudzhava's songs, the 60s with their physicists and lyric poets also suit him.
And what kind of a man is he? Very little is known about it: Menshikov doesn't like to talk to the press, can't stand familiarity and questions about private life. He doesn't need advertising. The actor is not married. He doesn't like to celebrate birthdays. (In fact, Oleg said himself that he did like to celebrate birthdays. - K.K.) He rides in a jeep "Mercedes". And he is simply a very nice young man. Black eyes; vivid, smart glance and devilishly charming smile did him a very good favour. In the summer of 1981, when Mikhail Kozakov was looking for an actor for the role of Kostik Romin in "The Pokrovskie Gate", his wife drew his attention to Oleg Menshikov - "a charming young man". He heeded the woman's advice. We all know what came of it.