Popov performed as a clown, combining his talents as a mime, a tightrope walker, and a juggler. At the 8th International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo in 1981, he received the coveted Gold Clown award as a tribute to his stellar career. His clown character followed the tradition of the Russian folk character “Ivanushka,” who fools other people and who is teased himself. In the early 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, he toured with a unit of the Moscow Circus in Germany for a number of years, where he eventually settled. He later performed extensively in Germany, in circus shows, on television, or with his own touring show. He married Gabriela Lehmann, a German circus performer in 1991.

She was 32 years younger. In 2006, Popov was invited to perform at the 30th anniversary of the International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo. Aged 75 years of age, he received a standing ovation. In 2015, he returned for the first time to Russia after 28 years’ of living in Germany; it was at the First “Master” gala event (the Russian circus equivalent of the Academy Awards ceremony) at the Sochi State Circus, where he was given a long standing ovation. The Russian Minister of Culture, Vladimir Medinsky read a welcoming message from President Vladimir Putin. In December 2015 he was one of the judges at the final show of “The Blue Bird” contest—a young talent competition on the Russia-1 television channel. Popov appeared in four films, Ring of Daring (1953), Ma-ma (1976), The Blue Bird (1976), and Ritzar bez bronya (Poland, 1966). He published a book of memoirs in 1967, which has been widely translated into numerous languages including English (as “Russian Clown”, 1970). From a first marriage with a violinist, Alexandra, Oleg Popov had a daughter, Olga (b. 1953). Popov died on 2 November 2016, aged 86, from a cardiac arrest while on tour, at a hotel in Rostov-on-Don.