Anatoly Vasilyev turns 80: from The Crew and Svaty to leaving the series at the height of fame

The jubilee of the beloved 'grandpa from Svaty'

On November 6, 2026, People's Artist of Russia Anatoly Vasilyev turned 80. Audiences know him above all as the refined Professor Yuri Kovalev from the TV series Svaty, while the older generation remembers him as co-pilot Valentin Nenarokov from The Crew. Life.ru has prepared a feature on the behind-the-scenes side of his life.

From Nizhny Tagil to all-Union fame

Vasilyev was born in Nizhny Tagil, where his parents worked in tank production; in childhood the family moved to Bryansk, where he joined a drama club. His father insisted on an engineering technical college, but after two years of study Anatoly left for Moscow and was admitted to the MKhAT Studio School on his first attempt. He came to cinema already as an experienced stage actor: his debut was Sergei Bondarchuk's Steppe, and after The Crew was released, the whole country recognized co-pilot Nenarokov on sight. According to the actor's recollections, after the premiere strangers would shake his hand and call him 'one of their own.' He later declined to take part in the remake of The Crew, believing that the new generation saw the world differently.

Theater as his first love

After graduating, Vasilyev served at the Satire Theater, where he took over Valentin Gaft's roles, then spent 22 years performing at the Soviet Army Theater — audiences especially remember his Val in the production Orpheus Descending. Since 1995 he has been an actor at the Mossovet Theater. Bondarchuk once cast him as Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard for a joint project with Americans, but the production never materialized.

Leaving Svaty at the height of success

The second wave of fame came to the actor in 2008, when his Professor Kovalev appeared in the first season of Svaty directed by Yuri Morozov — the complete opposite of the village grandpa Ivan, played by Fyodor Dobronravov. The pair of matchmakers from city and village instantly became a source of catchphrases, yet Vasilyev himself admitted he had not expected such success. With each season he liked the project's direction less and less: he wanted a heartfelt comedy with laughter through tears, while the series, in his words, was turning into a sitcom with edgy jokes, where the humor was built on constant mockery of his character. While working on the fourth season, the actor left the project, and the screenwriters wrote Kovalev out of the series.

Family conflicts behind closed doors

The actor's personal life unfolded dramatically. In the early 1970s he married his MKhAT Studio School classmate Tatyana Itsykovich, who took her husband's surname and became famous as Tatyana Vasilyeva; in 1978 their son Filipp was born. In 1983 the actress left him for Georgy Martirosyan, and according to Life.ru, Vasilyev took the divorce hard. Filipp also became an actor, but his relationship with his father was difficult: they went for long periods without speaking. In July 2025, Vasilyev called his son on his birthday, but judging by the family's accounts, no full reconciliation followed. In January 2026, the actor's daughter-in-law Maria Bolonkina said on social media that, in her words, Vasilyev had blocked his son's and grandchildren's contacts several years earlier; she particularly highlighted the story of granddaughter Mirra, who was born on the same day as her grandfather and congratulates him every year without receiving a reply. The actor himself does not comment publicly on family matters.

A second family and the present day

In 1991, Vasilyev married for the second time, to Vera, who worked in television and later became editor-in-chief of the Kultura TV channel; a year later their daughter Varvara was born, and for her wedding her father gave her an apartment in central Moscow. Several years ago the actor suffered a heart attack, but recovered and continues to perform at the Mossovet Theater; once a year he vacations on the Baltic Sea. In February 2026, the drama My Friend, featuring him, was released. By his 80th birthday, as Life.ru characterizes him, he had arrived as a man without compromises: he turned down empty roles, left projects at the peak of their popularity, and never played to the audience in real life.