Born on 12 July, 1937 in Ishimbay. After his mother’s death in 1947, he moved in with his grandmother in Ulyanovskaya oblast, where he graduated from school and then worked as a high school laboratory assistant. In 1954 he left for Salavat, where he worked as a locksmith and constructor. Since his childhood, he developed his acting skills, acting in amateur performnces and studying dance, voice, and drama in the Palace of Culture.
In 1955, he applied to GITIS (to I.M. Rayevskiy’s studio). A.A. Goncharov invited him, while still a fourth-year student, to the Moscow Drama Theatre on Spartakovskiy Square. In 1962, the theatre moved to Malaya Bronnaya, and here Grachyov worked until 1993. “Efros was and remains for me the main reference point in art,” the actor avowed.