Oleg Stefan

After graduating from high school in 1976 he entered the Shchepkin Theatre School in Moscow As a secondyear student he played two roles on the stage of the Maly Theatre In 1979 his television and film career began After graduating from theatre school in 1980 he was accepted into the troupe of the Academic Maly Theatre of the USSR where he played with such actors as Smoktunovsky Tsarev Ilyinsky Zharov the Solomin brothers and Martsevich He worked on radio television and in cinema He toured many cities in the Soviet Union with his solo concert program In 19851986 he served in the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces in the Moscow region in the engineering troops On the stage of the Maly Theatre he played in more than 20 plays Some of them are Long Days Journey into Night Agony Cyrano de Bergerac and The Shore In early 1992 Stefanko emigrated to the United States Living in New York he mastered new professions waiter taxi driver bartender car dealer security guard kickboxer was engaged in the sale of insurance policies At the same time he worked in the modeling business theater played on the stage of the Theater of New York City In New York Oleg starred in his first American film In 1994 he moved to Los Angeles worked in television and film He was accepted into two American acting guilds SAG Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA American Federation of Television and Radio Artists In Los Angeles he continued his education at the LA Actors Circle Theater School Having received American citizenship he changed his last name to Oleg Stefan Under this name he starred in 14 Hollywood films working with such actors as Robert De Niro Michael York Gene Hackman Sigourney Weaver Jude Law James Belushi Leonardo DiCaprio Matt Damon Alec Baldwin Vincent Perez Julia Roberts Clive Owen Paul Giamatti Tom Wilkinson Denis OHea and others He later returned to Russia where he continued acting Oleg Stefanko gained wide fame for his role as Leonid Zubov in the TV series The Forester In total Stefanko has 76 film and television works in 54 of which he played the leading roles Personal life First wife Larisa Stefanko Daughter Kristina Son John Ivan born in the late 1990s It was decided to call him Ivan But after some time his name was changed to John as it sounds better to Americans Second wife Anna Stefanko