Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Nevinny was born on 30 November 1934 in Tula. His father worked at an armoury and his mother was a secretary of a railroad unit chief. Vyacheslav’s interest in acting revealed itself from childhood – the boy took part in stage productions of a drama circle. After finishing school in 1954 he tried to enter the MKhAT (Moscow Art Academic Theatre) School Studio, but did not pass the selection. In spite of the failure he did not give up his dream of stage. Instead, he got employed in the Tula Theatre for Young Spectators as a supporting actor and sometimes even managed to play some separate roles.

In 1955 Nevinny again took exams in in MKhAT School Studio and this time was a success. After graduating the Studio, where he had studied under Viktor Stanitsyn, Vyacheslav became an actor of MKhAT. He played in The Inspector General as Khlestakov, Guilty Without Guilt as Shmaga, Dulcinea del Toboso as Aldonza’s fiancé, The Old New Year, Ivanov, Duck Hunt, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya as Telegin, The Cherry Orchard as Yepikhodov, Woe from Wit as Famusov, Boris Godunov as Varlaam, The Marriage as Yaichnitsa, and other plays.

Viewers adored Vyacheslav Nevinny; he was huge, extremely charming and good-natured. All his life as an actor was connected with the Moscow Art Academic Theatre, where he truly served for more than forty years. For almost the same period he was into filming. The actor himself said: “It is always a pleasure for me to work. It is always captivating for me to work. Because you know, I am into the most wonderful thing in the world – theatre.”

In 1960 he debuted in cinema with a role of a young militiaman in Vladimir Gerasimov’s psychological drama Trial Perriod (Ispytatelnyy srok). Later he played a young kolkhoz worker in The Chairman (Predsedatel) (1964) by Aleksei Saltykov and the role of Farlaf in Ruslan and Lyudmila (1972) directed by Aleksandr Ptushko.

The actor’s most successful film roles were those of Serebrovsky in It Happened at the Police Station (Eto sluchilos v militsii) (1963) by Villen Azarov, Karpukhin in The Garage (Garazh) (1979) by Eldar Ryazanov, and Jussi Vatanen in For the Matches (Za spichkami) (1980) by Leonid Gaidai.

Yevgeni Gerasimov’s comedy Do Not Marry, Girls (Ne khodite, devki, zamuzh) (1985), in which Nevinny played one of the leads, was very popular with the viewers, as well as his roles in Eldar Ryazanov’s comedy Beware of the Car (Beregis avtomobilya) (1966) and The Promised Land (Nebesa obetovannye) (1991), Leonid Gaidai’s comedy It Can't Be! (Ne mozhet byt!) (1975), the children sci-fi movie Guest from the Future (Gostya iz budushchego) by Pavel Arsyonov, and the screen version of Dead Souls (Myortvye dushi) (1984) by Mikhail Shvejtser. Among the last vivid film roles of Vyacheslavа Nevinny was the remake of the famous Italian film Cops and Robbers (Politseiskiye i vory) (1997) by Nikolai Dostal.

A great variety of popular animation characters speak with the voice of Vyacheslav Nevinny.

For many years Vyacheslav Nevinny suffered from diabetes, which was getting worse and worse. In 2003 the actor found himself at hospital. His pain in the legs was aggravating, and he could not walk any more. He spent over a year at hospital, and this is where he celebrated his 70th anniversary.

In 2005 Vyacheslav Mikhailovich underwent a most serious operation: because of gangrene his left leg was amputated to the knee, which also affected the right leg. In 2006 due to its complication he lost his right leg also.

Still life went on… Vyacheslavу Mikhailovich had great support from his son Vyacheslav Nevinny Jr. and his faithful wife, the first and the only one, the Honoured Artist of Russia Nina Gulyaeva. To help her husband not feel cut off from the theatre, Nina Ivanovna rehearsed her roles together with him, and he, in his turn, prompted her some new moves. Vyacheslav was courageously bearing his disease, though he nearly stopped leaving home, would refuse from meetings and lived on a small pension.

The actor died on 31 May 2009, aged 74, in Moscow. Vyacheslav Nevinny was laid to rest in the Alley of Actors at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Sources:
    persona.rin.ru