Rolan Bykov was a Soviet and Russian actor, theatre director, film director, and screenwriter. People's Artist of the USSR. In his fighting spirit Rolan resembled his father, and he inherited his love of art from his mother. Bykov received his name in honor of the French writer Romain Rolland, though the actor's mother did not realize that Rolland was a surname. From 1939 he studied for some time at the theatre studio Rodnik under the direction of Olga Larina. In 1947 the future actor finished school and applied simultaneously to VGIK, GITIS, and the Moscow Art Theatre School. He was not accepted anywhere, leaving only the Shchukin Theatre School at the Vakhtangov Theatre. He was taken in there. After graduating from the school, in 1951 he joined the troupe of the Theatre of the Young Spectator. He was then an actor at the Leningrad Leninsky Komsomol Theatre. In 1957–1959 he led the student theatre of Moscow State University. He played a huge number of vivid, memorable roles in films, among them "Beware, Grandma!", "I Walk Around Moscow", "The Marriage of Balzaminov", "Aybolit-66", "The Adventures of Buratino", "12 Chairs", "About Little Red Riding Hood" and others. Rolan Bykov was very drawn to work in films for children.

He was the founder and head of the International Fund for the Development of Cinema and Television for Children and Youth (the Rolan Bykov Foundation). He tried himself as a director. After the successful release of his first directorial work, "Seven Nannies", Bykov finished the comedy "Summer Is Gone" for another director, and the film won one of the main prizes at the youth competition of the Cannes Festival. The hardest work for Rolan Antonovich was the film "Scarecrow"; the pressure from critics and officials was not easy to withstand. Bykov was also involved in business and politics. In the 1995 State Duma elections he headed (together with Irina Khakamada and Vladimir Dzhanibekov) the electoral bloc "Common Cause". He headed the non-party social and political "Movement 95" - the Union of Public Organizations of Workers of Culture, Science, Education and Ecology. He was president of the bank "Help". The actor was married twice: his first wife was the actress Lidiya Knyazeva, his second was the actress Yelena Sanayeva (adopted son - the writer Pavel Sanayev). Rolan Bykov died in Moscow of lung cancer. He is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot No. 10).