Meritorious Artist of the RF Leonid Moiseevich Shikhmatov was born on 9 July 1887.He graduated from the Medical Faculty of Moscow University (1914-1918).He was Yevgeny Vakhtangov’s student (1919-1921) and one of the founders of the Vakhtangov Theatre, an outstanding actor and teacher.He worked at the Vakhtangov Theatre from 1920 till 1970.Since 1926 he was a teacher at the Schukin Theatre School (since 1946 – an associate professor).Leonid Shikhmatov works were always remarkable for the depth of emotional experience, charisma and subtle humour.Together with his wife – an actress and teacher Vera Konstantinovna Lvova (1898-1985) he trained a large number of first-class actors.Among his students were: Yuliya Borisova, Evgeniy Simonov, Lyudmila Fetisova, Mikhail Ulyanov, Rolan Bykov, Nina Doroshina, Vladimir Zemlyanikin, Аleksandr Shirvindt, Leonid Kanevskiy, Yuriy Nazarov, Igor Okhlupin, Mikhail Derzhavin, Ekaterina Raykina, Lyudmila Chursina, Mikhail Kokshenov, Аleksandr Kalyagin, Valentin Smirnitskiy, Nikolay Burlyayev, Аnastasiya Vertinskaya, Natalya Vilkina, Ivan Dykhovichnyy, Аleksandr Kaydanovskiy and Leonid Filatov.Leonid Moiseevich Shikhmatov died in 1970.