Herardo Contreras, sometimes under the name Gerardo Contreras or Kontreras (Russian: Херардо Контрерас), was born on April 16, 1940 in Mozhaysk. His Basque parents fled the Franco regime to the Soviet Union; his father was a pilot in the Spanish Civil War, his mother a teacher. In 1967, Ivan Karpovich graduated from the Karpenko-Karõi National Theater, Cinema and Television Institute in Kyiv. Until his death, he was an actor at the Estonian SSR State Russian Drama Theater (Russian Theater), performing more than 120 different roles there. In addition to his theatrical work, Herardo Contreras performed with long acting programs and participated in feature films. Contreras died on March 1, 2009 in Tallinn.