Sergei Vasilevich Makovetsky was born on June 13, 1958, in Darnitsa, a suburb of Kiev, Ukraine. Though he excelled at swimming and water polo and had aspirations to join the Soviet Olympic Team, his single mother encouraged him to pursue a more creative line of expression. When his application to study acting at Kiev Theatrical College was denied, Makovetsky moved behind the scenes working as a set decorator in Kiev before relocating to Moscow. Rejection from several Moscow theater schools and acting companies was bolstered by a more welcome r…