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The Russian Sambo Champ Turned UFC Star Turned Movie Actor. Oleg Taktarov was a sambo fighter who was known for his gutsy style, acrobatic submissions, and calm attitude. He won the UFC 6 tournament, beating Tank Abbot in the finals. After he retired from NHB fighting, he turned to acting. Look for him National Treasure. Here is his bio: Oleg Taktarov fought his way into acting. Literally. The intensity that made "The Russian Bear" a star in the Ultimate Fighting Championships equipped him with the determination to become one of his country's foremost actors in motion pictures. Taktarov's road to Hollywood began early in his life with childhood training in Judo and Sambo. Not a natural athlete, he learned that practice develops skills, and by age twelve, Taktarov was a recognized martial arts expert.Later he joined the Russian army and resisted the officers who ordered him to limit his training. Taktarov's defiance got him discharged, but he returned to his province as a hero. In Gorky, during his early twenties, he became a successful employer, taking time away from business only to compete in contact sports. While he fought, he dreamed of acting in the movies. Without a green card or any knowledge of English, Taktarov came to America in 1994 to build his dream. As he learned English and studied acting at the L.A. Playhouse, Taktarov attracted a global fan base with his fights in the U.F.C. and won its championship just six months after his arrival in the States. He electrified a partisan American crowd when he defeated the larger David "Tank" Abbott in July, 1995. Taktarov scored another important victory when he landed a small role in Wolfgang Petersen's "Air Force One" (1997) with Harrison Ford. He was more visible in "Counter Measures" (1998), thanks to a fight scene with Michael Dudikoff, but director John Herzfeld's "15 Minutes" (2001) presented him with his first scene stealing opportunity. Taktarov seized the challenge. As a criminal rampaging through Manhattan with a camcorder to film his atrocities, Taktarov riveted audiences with a high impact performance that required him to brutalize Robert De Niro's cop. He got the "15 Minutes" (2001) job after auditioning with De Niro and competing with more than a thousand actors for the role. During the shoot, De Niro shared acting advice with Taktarov, who returned the favor with pointers for realistic fight scenes. He depicted a more sympathetic baddie in Jerry Bruckheimer's "Bad Boys II" (2003), but John McTiernan's remake of "Rollerball" (2002) demonstrated his charisma as a screen hero. He played an extreme athlete who stands up to his league's greedy owner (Jean Reno). Reflecting events in his own life as a fighter, Taktarov's character incites wild cheering by sports fans when he competes in a Kazakhstan arena. Taktarov returned to villainous roles with his portrayals of a bank robber in the pulsating "44 Minutes" (2003) and a menacing hit man opposite Jennifer Garner in an episode of "Alias" entitled "The Two" (2003). "National Treasure" (2004) showcased him in another one of Bruckheimer's blockbusters. While contributing to American theatrical and television hits, Taktarov has also supported the emerging film industry in his homeland by accepting roles in Russian produced projects. The atmospheric "Red Serpent" (2002) effectively uses Moscow settings and enables Taktarov to display complex emotions in his portrayal of a KGB agent determined to avenge the slaughter of his family. Besides his grief, the character must endure physical and mental tortures inflicted upon him by the ruthless members of a drug cartel. Taktarov proves again in "Serpent" that he is not just another athlete who muscled his way into film jobs. He is an accomplished actor defined by talent that makes him compelling to audiences around the world. He relaxed the screen intensity for a comedic role in the colorful "Call Me Genie" (2005), a Russian production that featured the star as a master thief's free-spirited henchman. The former ring champion has created an unprecedented career in movies and television on a global stage. He is both a Hollywood actor and an effective cultural ambassador for Russia. In each of his screen appearances, Oleg Taktarov makes a memorable first impression with his commanding physical presence, punctuated by expressive blue eyes. But, it is his dynamic talent as an actor that makes the lasting one. SURVIVOR When he gives instructions on the martial arts, world champion Oleg Taktarov declares the first rule of success to be "no free space." The Russian powerhouse insists that unprotected space between a martial artist and an opponent leaves the artist open to attack and subject to defeat. In life, in business, and in his arts, Taktarov knows the skills to survive, and he teaches from personal experiences that most people could not imagine over several lifetimes. With his will to overcome any challenge, the actor could legitimately declare his own motto to be "no free time." He has worked tirelessly to achieve star billing in the world's two most notorious arenas: the fight ring and Hollywood. Taktarov's story begins in Sarov, Russia, an industry town for weapons manufacturing that was surrounded by an electrical fence. As a boy, Oleg would not be confined by a fence. He explored the vast natural terrain and lake areas around Sarov. He describes his childhood as "wonderful" and says, "My memories of my childhood are idyllic, and I often reflect on the years spent camping and running through the forest. Sarov had the best conditions to live in." While growing up, Oleg played on soccer and basketball teams, but he learned early that he preferred individual sports. He began to study sambo at ten, and by twelve, he was competing in tournaments. At his sambo school, Oleg developed stamina that sustained him for the challenges ahead in his life. "Training there was difficult," he says, "because we would get up in the morning at six o'clock and have breakfast, then train for three hours. By then we were almost dying." "After a short break," he continues, "we would play soccer for two hours to develop endurance. It was actually like wrestling with soccer and was very dangerous. Then I would lift weights for another thirty minutes and go to class and sleep and not learn anything. In the evening I worked out for an hour and a half and spent time training. Sometimes I would spend eight hours a day working out." Fulfilling mandatory service requirements in the Russian Army, Oleg followed his own instincts on the training methods that suited him best. His independence got him into trouble. "Before my army days," says Oleg, "I trained three times a day. My morning exercise would be two and a half hours. And I had afternoon and evening sessions too. But morning sessions in the sports division were too easy, so I would get up at five o'clock, jump over the fence and go to the place where I usually trained for the morning session. One day I was caught training too early, hours before anyone else, and I got busted for that and they kicked me out of the army." Oleg left the army with a sergeant's ranking, and though he got "busted" for remaining true to his regimen, he was recalled by the military to be a member of a special counter-terror team. Taktarov trained other soldiers in hand-to-hand combat and survival skills. He says, "The soldiers liked me. I have some pictures with the guys that I trained. I have also trained law enforcement personnel from tax police to FSB." After the army, Oleg tackled the challenge of running a business during the darkest days of Russia's precarious entry into a capitalist economy during the early 1990s. At just 24, he became his state's most successful businessman, heading a supply company that employed fifteen hundred people. His success was threatened by both mobsters and bureaucrats, but Oleg courageously defied the odds and the threats. For emotional relief, he returned to competitive fighting, and his championships in Asia and Europe set records. Once the grappling businessman had achieved every goal imaginable in Russia by his mid-twenties, he turned his compass toward the U.S.A. Film acting in Hollywood had been Oleg's dream job since his happy childhood days in Sarov. When he crossed the Pacific for America in November, 1994, he did not speak English. He knew nothing about the American system. Neither obstacle stopped him. "I looked for opportunities in Hollywood," Oleg says, "but I couldn't speak English and had no green card. In fact, I was in the office of Michael Dudikoff's agent, and he said that he'd seen people without a green card but with some English language ability, and vice versa, but he had never seen a person without both." To make it into movies, Oleg again followed his own unique survival instincts. He returned to fight competitions, building his name and another championship record in the UFC, while he strengthened his acting skills with work at the L.A. Playhouse. On the road to triumph in the UFC, he overcame greedy management. And, on his way to Hollywood, Oleg endured the insults of thoughtless Playhouse actors who belittled him for his accent and his broken English. Again Oleg's endurance brought rewards. After small parts in films such as "Air Force One," he won the role as one of two ferocious baddies in "Fifteen Minutes" opposite Edward Burns and Robert De Niro. "Once I had the part," he says, "It seemed easy to communicate with my fellow actors. Working with people at that level, they respect people who have accomplished something before, regardless of the arena. Successful people surround themselves with success." At last Oleg had connected to a professional setting where his independence was an asset and his instincts were appreciated. Director John Herzfeld invited him to help with the creation of his character. Oleg adds, "I also had input into the set design and my character's wardrobe. My acting was natural and primarily improvisation. I was given a great deal of latitude with my character and my choices with about eighty percent of my dialogue being improvisation." Oleg's extraordinary performance in "Fifteen Minutes" captured the attention of both audiences and film makers. Top listed directors and producers sought his talents for blockbusters like "Bad Boys 2," "National Treasure," and the remake of "Rollerball." The big budgets backing these productions did not always eliminate the dangers, and Oleg has often protected himself and others on film sets. "Rollerball" was especially notable for dangerous stunts. "I was being pulled on my skates by a motorcycle at 50 miles per hour toward a ramp and a guy hanging by some cables about 15 feet off the ground," recalls Oleg about one treacherous "Rollerball" sequence. "I was supposed to fly off the ramp and hit the guy below the waist so he would spin and we would both fall. Unfortunately the guys on the cables didn't know how far to lower him and I ended up hitting this guy above the waist with my shoulder in his kidney area. I took a huge impact myself and he almost got knocked out. Imagine 220 pounds flying up in the air and hitting you in the kidneys with his shoulder pads." His protective nature on the "Rollerball" set was triggered early in the shoot. Oleg remembers his first day on location when, "I saw a girl almost cut her throat going over the plexiglass. I asked the guy who was standing nearby with a microphone to call somebody to put some pads over the sharp parts of the plexiglass, and he said, 'It's not my business.' I said, 'What do you mean it's not your business? It would take seconds.' He said, 'Don't bug me.' I said, 'Please just call somebody here or this fist is going to be right between your ribs pulling out your liver.' My face had a serious expression that matched exactly what I was saying." "Later we were shaking hands because he knew I was right and he appeared to be a great guy, just he was busy, but he was DP so everyone else was scared. They thought Oleg was some kind of barbarian, but they knew I was the only one who could save and protect them. Then they would come to me with all their problems. It was very strange, going from one thing to another." Another life-threatening episode confronted Oleg on a recent film location. Members of the cast and crew including Oleg were left without transportation in a remote patch of African wilderness. News that Oleg had gone "missing" reached the Russian press and spread quickly through the internet. Losing forty pounds as he led the trek by his colleagues to the Angolan border, the "Russian Bear" endured another set of physical and mental challenges in a lifetime of experiences that have made him a legendary role model to his fans around the world. Oleg Taktarov is a survivor. He is a fighter and a protector. He follows his own instincts, and though he doesn't always select the easiest paths to success, he chooses the right ones. Oleg's independence and endurance have led him to claim two titles that would not be denied him: Champion and Hollywood Star. W. Gantt --------------------------------------------------------------------------------