Vladimir Baranov

Vladimir Nikolayevich Baranov was born on 26 May 1956 in Ryazan, in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union. He grew up in a family with four children. His mother worked as a forensic expert, and his father, an agronomist by training who headed the regional agriculture department, died three days after Vladimir was born. He finished Ryazan secondary school No. 34 in 1974.

In 1974 Baranov entered the Yaroslavl Theatre School (now the Yaroslavl State Theatre Institute), where he studied under People's Artists of the USSR Valery Nelsky and Firs Shishigin, graduating in 1976. In 1979 Zinovy Korogodsky enrolled him directly into the third year of his studio at the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema (LGITMiK, now the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts), from which he graduated in 1981.

Baranov began at the Fyodor Volkov Yaroslavl Drama Theatre (1976 to 1979), playing Sanchik in The Silver Hoof, Ivan in Shukshin's Characters, Prokhor in Rozov's The Wood Grouse's Nest and Yefim in Gorbatov's The Youth of the Fathers. From 1979 to 1996 he was a member of the Bryantsev Leningrad Youth Theatre under Zinovy Korogodsky, with roles including Dromio in The Comedy of Errors, Swiss Cheese in Mother Courage and Her Children, Thorin in a Bilbo Baggins ballad play and the undertaker Adrian Prokhorov. He then spent three years at the Youth Theatre on the Fontanka (1996 to 1999) and more than ten years at Anatoly Praudin's Experimental Stage, playing Knurov in Without a Dowry, Menshikov in Tsar Pjotr, Mikhail Kuzmin in Singing Ghosts, the King in Goodbye, Cinderella and Winnie the Pooh in The House at Pooh Corner. He also appeared with the Satire Theatre on Vasilievsky and the Russian Antrepriza theatre. In 2013 he joined the Ryazan State Regional Youth Theatre, where he played 29 roles, including Werner in Princess Mary, Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet, Ivolgin in The Idiot, Papa Carlo in The Golden Key, the Old Man in The Golden Fish and the Mayor in The Government Inspector.

Baranov made his screen debut in the leading role of the young Sergei Korolev in Gennady Glagolev's Take-off (Razbeg, 1982). He followed it with the fighter pilot Syomushkin in Semyon Aranovich's Torpedo Bombers (1983), the young miner Yura Nikolayenko in Eight Days of Hope (1984), the tunneller Sherstobitov in Dmitry Svetozarov's Breakthrough (1986), a passenger in Wingspan (1986), Platov in Moonzund (1987) and Lavrushka in The Life of Klim Samgin (1988). He played the lead role of Tolyan in The New Scheherazade (1990), Jean-Luc Godard in Nicotine (1993) and the militia lieutenant Kolya Ryzhov in the crime comedy The Genius (1991). He appeared as Nicholas II in Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark (2002). On television he was best known as the beat officer Pavel Tochilin in Streets of Broken Lights (2004 to 2014), with further roles in Agent of National Security, Secrets of Investigation, Bandit Petersburg: The Prisoner, Gentlemen Officers, Cop Wars, Ashes and Leningrad 46. In all his filmography counted 88 roles.

From 2004 Baranov was the Russian dubbing voice of Disney's Winnie the Pooh, voicing the bear in Russian versions of The Tigger Movie, Springtime with Roo, Pooh's Heffalump Movie, Piglet's Big Movie, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, the 2011 Winnie the Pooh and the 2012 dub of Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin. In the 2018 live action film Christopher Robin he voiced both Pooh and the adult Christopher Robin in the Russian version. On news of his death, tributes described him as the Russian voice of Disney's Winnie the Pooh.

Baranov spent most of his working life in Leningrad and Saint Petersburg before returning to his native Ryazan in 2013. He had a daughter, who spoke to TASS after his death; her name has not been made public. Few other details of his private life have been made public.

Baranov is remembered as a character actor of unusual range, moving between children's theatre, experimental stage work, Soviet war and disaster cinema and popular crime television. Colleagues at the Ryazan Youth Theatre said that none of his characters left audiences indifferent and that he could make people both laugh and cry. A recorded audience announcement in his voice still played before performances in Ryazan the day after his death.

In 2022 Baranov received the title of Honoured Worker of Culture and Art of Ryazan Oblast.

Vladimir Baranov died on 10 October 2026, aged 70. The Ryazan State Regional Youth Theatre announced his death the same day on VKontakte. His daughter told TASS that he had been ill for a short time; the precise cause of death was not made public, and the place of death has not been confirmed in news reports. According to his daughter, a farewell will be held in Saint Petersburg on 13 October 2026, after which he will be cremated.