Oleg Vidov

Oleg Borisovich Vidov was born in the suburbs of Moscow on 11 June 1943 to Varvara Vidova, a teacher, and Boris Nikolaievich Garnevich, an economist. As a child he lived with his mother, who worked for the Soviet government in the field of education in Mongolia and East Germany. When his mother was sent to China on assignment, he went to live with his aunt Anuta in Kazakstan. Eventually he moved with his mother and aunt to Moscow. At 18, competing against hundreds of would-be actors, he was accepted to the acting department of the state film school VGIK. Oleg appeared in 50 films since 1961, mostly in starring roles. He was a sex symbol of his generation in Russia, and many of his films are still played on Russian television today. Here his credits include "Red Heat", Wild Orchid (1989) and Thirteen Days. In 1985, he defected to the U.S. and began acting in films and television there. Oleg and his wife obtained international distribution rights to the award-winning Soyuzmultfilm Studio animation library in 1992 and helped popularize Russian animation around the world. Together they produced numerous series based on animation they digitally restored from the Soyuzmultfilm animation library including "Animated Classic Showcase", Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories from My Childhood (1998), Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book", "Masters of Russian Animation", "The Adventures of Cheburashka and Friends", and "Animated Soviet Propaganda". In 2007 they sold the library to a Russian oligarch.