His life
He could not be decided for
The state chose his roles. After his divorce, the leading roles stopped. He lost his country and his career, and he kept himself.
This is his life in the order the memoir tells it.
In the memoir’s order
Chapters
01
Oleg Vidov as a small child in Mongolia, 1946
Stories from my childhood
Born on June 11, 1943, just outside Moscow, in the middle of a war. From 1951 his aunt Nyuta raised him in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. Her rule: "Whatever happens, you must always count on yourself and not on the state."
02
03
Oleg Vidov walking down a street
My first roles
In 1962 six places opened at VGIK, the state film school. Over 400 people auditioned. He got one.
04
05
Oleg Vidov at Cannes, 1967
The Red Mantle
A Danish director cast him as Hagbard in a Scandinavian saga. In May 1967 the film went to Cannes in competition. Soviet actors were rarely allowed to work abroad.
06
08
Oleg Vidov surrounded by fans
On a roll
Gentlemen of Fortune, one of the most popular Soviet comedies. In 1973 The Headless Horseman, the first Soviet western, and his most popular film at home.
09
10
Moscow, My Love, a still
Moscow, my love
In 1974 Aleksandr Mitta cast him opposite the Japanese star Komaki Kurihara.
11
12
Oleg Vidov at a cafe table
All roads lead to Rome
An American actor and his Italian wife took him into their home. They went with him to the US Embassy, which gave him political asylum.
14
15
Oleg Vidov, portrait by Aleksander Bondarev
Wild Orchid
He played opposite Mickey Rourke in Wild Orchid. In November 1989 he married Joan Borsten. He spent the rest of his life in California.
19
20
The 2001 New York courtroom, an artist’s recreation by Cedric Hohnstadt
The good, the bad and the ugly
A US federal judge, David Trager, ruled that the rights belonged to Oleg and Joan.
22
Epilogue
Joan Borsten Vidov and family at Oleg’s memorial plaque, Hollywood Forever
Oleg, farewell
He died in 2017, aged 73, in Westlake Village, California.
In his words
“I always followed my heart and that is my freedom.”
Oleg Vidov the closing words of the documentary OLEG
What he left
The films, the cartoons and the book
He saved a library of Soviet animation that nobody else would restore. Bill Murray, Charlton Heston and Shirley MacLaine voiced Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Stories from My Childhood in English.
He wrote his story before he died. Joan Borsten Vidov completed it.
