He was born on February 26, 1941 in Moscow as the sixth and last child of the Soviet writer Leonid Zharikov. He spent his childhood in the Moscow suburbs, near Zagorsk, with his grandparents. From age four rode horses and mastered crafts. In 1959, he entered the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography and first appeared in a film in his second year of study. In 1964, after graduation, he went to East Germany, where for two years starred in the title role in the local series Russian for You. After his return, in 1966, he acted in theater, television, and film in Moscow. He became a member of the CPSU in 1970. He came to fame appearing in the 1970s television series:ru:Рождённая революцией|Born to a Revolution about the formation of the Soviet militia and its fight against crime in the 1920s. In 1970, at the height of his career, he was injured on the set of the film :ru:Смерти нет, ребята!|Death No, Guys! when he fell from a horse at full gallop, which injured his hip and caused a compression fracture of the spine. From 1988 to 2000, he was President of the Guild of Actors of Soviet Cinema. In 1999 he underwent two complex operations with prosthetics. He appeared in nearly 70 films and participated in the dubbing of more than 200 films.
Personal life
His first marriage was to figure skating coach Valentina Zotova and lasted 12 years, ending in divorce. His second marriage, with actress Natalia Gvozdikova, was registered after a year of dating on the set of the movie Born to a Revolution, in which they played spouses. Their son Fyodor Zharikov was born on August 2, 1976. He became a translator from French and now works as the chief information security officer in aircraft. From 1994 to 2001, Zharikov had an affair with journalist Tatyana Alekseevna Sekridova, who in 1995 gave birth to his son, Sergei and daughter, Katya. After Sekridova released information about this relationship, Zharikov ended it.
Death
He died January 18, 2012 of cancer at the oncology center at Botkin Hospital in Moscow. He was buried on January 21 in the actor's section in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.
