Nikolai Vladimirovich Olyalin was born in the village of Opikhalino, Vologda Oblast, RSFSR, USSR. People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1979). He entered the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography (LGITMiK) in the course of A. A. Yan. In 1964, after graduating from the institute, he was sent to Krasnoyarsk, where a Theater for Young Spectators was being created. That was when his first admirers appeared. Among them was the one who became his lifelong companion — a girl named Nelli, who worked as second secretary of the district Komsomol committee. Just a month after they met, Nelli and Nikolai became husband and wife. They had two children — Vladimir and Olga. In 1965 Olyalin made his film debut with the role of a test pilot in the film novella "Flying Days." In 1970 he appeared in Grigory Lipshitz's television film "There Is No Way Back." And a year later he played the lead role in the military adventure film "Audacity." In the 1970s he reached the peak of his popularity. He began to be invited for a wide variety of roles.

In Yuri Dubrovin's sports drama "The World Guy" he played Viktor Loginov. In total, during his first ten years of work in cinema he appeared in eighteen films. In the 1990s he created the studio "Rapid" and acted as director and screenwriter of three pictures — "A Warm Mosaic of Retro and a Little Bit...," "Unshot Music," and "Will." For many years the actor did not appear in films at all. Nikolai Vladimirovich wrote essays about his colleagues and tried his hand as a screenwriter. The vicissitudes of recent years could not but affect the artist's health. In the mid-1990s Olyalin underwent serious heart surgery — a coronary artery bypass. The state did not find the money for the expensive operation for the nationally beloved actor; Olyalin's friend, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force Pyotr Deynekin, helped. In 2003 he appeared in two projects at once — the series "The Tote" and the television version of "Night Watch." He passed away in Kiev. He is buried at Baikove Cemetery (plot No. 49a).