Oleg: The Oleg Vidov Story

Based on his soon-to-be published autobiography, OLEG reveals the incredible life story of Oleg Vidov. Born in communist Russia to a schoolteacher, by the age of 25, Oleg had become one of the Soviet Union's most celebrated actors of his time. However, no amount of fame could save him from the political system that tried to control his life. He married into General Secretary Brezhnev's inner circle only to wind up blacklisted, threatened with death, and forced to defect to the West. Reinventing himself in Hollywood, his efforts to counter anti-Russian stereotypes were attacked by the same forces that ruined his career decades earlier. Finally, in October 1991, with Oleg's fears of persecution calmed by the rise of perestroika, he returned to Moscow to star in a Danish film. Then, two months later, on Christmas Day 1991, President Gorbachev resigned from office and the USSR collapsed.