How a descendant of a noble family became a soldier of the Red Army, a servant of Munchausen and a friend of Pope Carlo: Yuri Katin-Yartsev

2023 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 13:10

July 23 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the famous Soviet actor and teacher, People's Artist of the RSFSR Yuri Katina-Yartsev. He played more than 100 movie roles, but most of the audience remembered his roles as Giuseppe from The Adventures of Pinocchio and the servant of the protagonist from the movie The Same Munchausen. Few viewers know that Katin-Yartsev was not only an actor, but also a legendary teacher who raised several generations of movie stars, as well as a front-line soldier who went through the entire war. No one knew about his noble origin, but everyone admired his aristocracy, no one saw him in the main roles, but the episodes with him are remembered by millions.

Descendant of a noble family

Many of those who were personally acquainted with Yuri Katin-Yartsev paid attention to his innate nobility and aristocracy. One of his students, Konstantin Raikin, said about him: "". And there was nothing surprising in this - on the line of his father, he was a descendant of the ancient noble family of the Katins-Yartsevs from the Ryazan province, the first mention of which dates back to 1594. When Yuri was 8 years old, typhus took his father's life, and his mother never married again, devoting herself to raising an only child.

Frontline actor

During his school years, Katin-Yartsev began attending two theater studios at once and after that he easily entered the school at the Theater. E. Vakhtangov, but he studied there for only a month - in 1939 he was called up to serve in the Red Army, and he gave her 7 years! After 2 years, the war began. At first, he served in the railway troops, built bridges in the Far East, and then ended up in the active army. Katin-Yartsev took part in the battles on the Kursk Bulge, distinguished himself in a number of battles, was awarded medals "For Military Merit" and "For Victory over Germany", became a Knight of the Order of the Red Star.

Legendary teacher

After demobilization, Yuri returned to the theater school, which by that time had received the name of Boris Shchukin, and after completing his studies he became an actor of the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya and performed on its stage for almost 45 years, until the end of his days. Katin-Yartsev remained faithful to his native school: immediately after graduation, he began teaching acting skills there, in 1981 he was awarded the title of professor. For many years he was called the best teacher of the department of acting. His students were Natalya Gundareva, Konstantin Raikin, Natalya Varley, Yuri Bogatyrev, Veniamin Smekhov, Leonid Yarmolnik, Yuri Vasiliev, Galina Belyaeva and many other actors. Evgenia Simonova admitted: "".

He was a teacher from God. Alexander Shirvindt told about him: "".

Favorite of millions of viewers

His main love was theater. He did not dream of cinema and for a long time refused to cooperate with film studios. Katin-Yartsev performed his first film role only at the age of 33, and at first he played only episodic roles and appeared on screens mainly in television plays, and therefore was not known to the wide audience. Many remember him only in adulthood, because he began to receive major roles after 50, and all-Union fame came to him at 54, when the actor played Giuseppe, a friend of Pope Carlo, in the film "The Adventures of Pinocchio".

The audience probably remembered him for his roles as a faithful servant of Baron Munchausen, a grenadier from the movie Three Men in a Boat, Excluding a Dog, a music school teacher from A Visit to the Minotaur, a photographer from Primorsky Boulevard, and others. The actor himself called his favorite film work the role of Suvorov in the film "Bagration". Katin-Yartsev was proud of both his external and internal resemblance to the great commander. Although during the filming he was overcome by an illness, he rode horseback in the mountains and withstood serious physical exertion.

He rarely got the main roles in films, but even from the episodic role, Katin-Yartsev knew how to make a vivid performance that was remembered by millions of viewers. Director Elem Klimov, who filmed the actor in two of his films, then said about him: "". Although the actor came to the cinema rather late, he managed to play more than 100 roles. He went on stage and set until the last days, even when doctors prescribed him to bed rest.

He was not only a man of great acting talent, but also the owner of rare personal qualities: he had neither enemies nor ill-wishers, because the actor never spoke badly of anyone. Mikhail Ulyanov, for whom Katin-Yartsev became both a mentor and a friend, said about him: "".

Yuri Katin Yartsev was not the only front-line artist: Famous Soviet actors who went through the war.