Valentin Yosifovich Gaft (Russian: Валенти́н Ио́сифович Гафт; born 2 September 1935 in Moscow) is a Russian and Soviet actor, People's Artist of Russia (1984). Valentin Gaft was born in Moscow to a family of a lawyer Iosif Romanovich Gaft (1907–1969) and Gita Davydovna Gaft (1908–1993). The family moved to Moscow from Poltava, Ukraine. During the World War II Iosif Gaft served in the Red Army finishing with the rank of Major. Valentin Gaft graduated from the School-Studio at the Moscow Art Theatre (1953–1957). Among the students of the same course were future popular actors Oleg Tabakov and Maya Menglet. Gaft started his work for the cinema in 1956 in the Mikhail Romm's film Murder on Dante Street. After graduating Gaft worked for a number of theaters including the Mossovet Theater, Leninski Komsomol Theatre (under famous director Anatoly Efros), Theater of Satire. In 1969 he started to work for the Sovremennik Theatre and works there to the present time. Today Gaft is one of the most popular Russian actors both as a stage and as a movie actors. He also the author of poisonous but extremely popular epigrams against many theatrical and movie figures.