Veniamin Borisovich Smekhov (; born August 10, 1940 in Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor and director. He was the winner of the Petropol Award (2000) as well as the Tsarskoselsky Artistic Prize (2009). He refused the title of People's Artist of Russia, which was offered to him on his 70th birthday. Smekhov has long worked in the Moscow Taganka Theatre where his roles included Woland in a stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. His portrayal of the main antagonist of the story is considered to be the best of any adaption of the novel. In film, he is best known and loved for the role of Athos in a Russian version of D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978) and its sequels (1992, 1993). He also has written children's poetry, scripts, memoirs and comedic materials. Family Father: Boris Moiseyevich Smekhov (January 10, 1912, Gomel, Belarus - October 8, 2010, Aachen, Germany - professor, doctor of economics. Grandfather - Moisey Yakovlevich Smekhov - accountant. Mother: Maria Lvovna Schwartzburg (1918-1996) - doctor, head of her department in a Moscow clinic. Grandfather - Lev Aronovich Schwartzburg, born in the town of Shpola in Kiev Province, and then moved to Odessa. He was a shoemaker. Uncle (father's side) - famous book illustrator Lev Moiseyevich Smekhov (1908, Petrovichi - 1978). He was the father of artists Arkady Lvovich Smekhov (b. 1936) and Zinovy Lvovich Smekhov (b. 1939). Veniamin's other uncle (father's side), Yefim Moiseyevich Smekhov, was the head artist for the publication Meditsina. Alla Aleksandrovna Smekhova, a radio editor, was Veniamin's first wife and the mother of his daughters Alika (b. 1968), an actress and singer and Elena (b. 1963), a writer. His grandchildren include Elena's son, Leonid Smekhov (b. 1987), and Alika's sons, Artem Smekhov (b. 2000) and Makar Smekhov (b. 2007). Veniamin has been married to Galina Aksenova (Galina Gennad'evna), Candidate of Art, professor at the Moscow Art Theatre School, translator, and film and theatre scholar, since 1980. Biography Veniamin Smekhov spent his childhood in Moscow on Second Meshchansky Street (present day Gilyarovsky Street). He saw his father only after he returned from the war in 1945. From 1947 to 1957 he was a student at School № 235 on Pal'chikov Lane where he was a part of the Palace of Pioneers drama club. V.E. Struchkova led the club and Rolan Bykov worked with the students. In