Yakov Smirnoff
#107,526 Most Popular
About
Russian dialect comic who was a popular performing act in the 1980s. He used his comic persona of a naive immigrant from the Soviet Union to both mock life under Communism and satirize American consumerism.
Before Fame
While living in Ukraine, he was employed as an art teacher in Odessa. When he and his parents moved to New York City in 1977 he worked as a busboy and bartender at Grossingers Hotel in the Catskill Mountains.
Trivia
He is a professor at Missouri State University, teaching The Business of Laughter.
Family Life
He had two children with his wife Linda before they divorced in 1999. He became an American citizen in 1986.
Associated With
He emigrated to America from the USSR; Sophie Tucker was another Ukraine-born comedienne.
