Aleksandr Nikolaevich Misharin (Russian: Александр Николаевич Мишарин), also known in English as Alexander Misharin (born 6 April 1939 — died 13 April 2008), was a Soviet - Russian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, actor and senior editor of Russian periodicals. An Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (2000), he was a close friend of Andrei Tarkovsky with whom he wrote several screenplays, including Tarkovsky's celebrated masterpiece Mirror.