Durov came from the illustrious Durov family whose members included memoirist Nadezhda Durova and animal trainer Anatoly Durov. His aunt’s husband Prov Sadovsky Jr. [ru] ran the Maly Theatre in 1944-1947. Lev Durov married actress Irina Kirichenko (1931-2001) in 1954. Their daughter Ekaterina is also an actress.

Durov attended the Moscow Art Theatre School, where his teachers included Sergey Gerasimov and Sergey Blinnikov. He joined the troupe of Anatoly Efros in 1954 and was a mainstay of Efros’s productions until 1984. For some 30 years, he worked at the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre both as an actor and as a director. He was the theatre’s principal director from 2003 to 2006.

Lev Konstantinovich Durov (Russian: Лев Константинович Дуров, IPA: [ˈlʲef kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ ˈdurəf]; 23 December 1931, Moscow – 20 August 2015, Moscow) was a Soviet/Russian theatre and film actor who appeared in more than 200 films and numerous stage productions between 1955 and 2008. He was named a People’s Artist of the USSR in 1990.

Durov was also known for his voice acting, most notably as Sharik the Dog in Three from Prostokvashino and its sequels. He published three books of memoirs, in 1999 and 2008. Lev Durov died on 20 August 2015 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.