A modest movie legend - 88: Why one of the most sought-after actresses got her first leading role at 75

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On May 18, theater and film actress Valentina Ananyina will be 88 years old. She became one of the most sought-after and recognizable domestic actresses, performed more than 230 roles in films, while she acted in episodes all her life, she played her first main role only at the age of 75, and did not receive any titles for her 60-year-old film career. Her face is familiar to many, in her filmography there are almost all the most famous Soviet films, but other actors became their stars, and her name was often not even mentioned in the credits. Why the most filmed actress remained the modest master of the episode - further in the review.

Unknown heroine of legendary films

Valentina Ananyina was born in 1933 into a family of native Muscovites. Parents divorced early, and the girl was raised by her stepfather. In addition to her, the family had three more children, and they all huddled in a communal apartment. Valentina went to first grade in Nizhny Tagil, where the children were sent to relatives in evacuation with the outbreak of the war. It was there that she first thought about the stage: the girl studied in a drama club, sang, danced, participated in concerts for wounded soldiers in hospitals, and once they wrote about her in a local newspaper - they say, this talented child probably has the future of an artist ahead of her. It was then that she herself began to dream of theater and cinema.

True, at first Valentina very much doubted that she would be able to become an actress - it seemed to her that this was the lot of the elite, and at first she entered the Institute of Economics and Statistics. I studied there for a year and realized that I had made a big mistake. Without telling anyone, she submitted documents to VGIK, and she was immediately accepted to the course of Yuri Raizman. The girl finished her studies with honors and became an actress in the Theater-Studio of Film Actor, where she worked until 1990. This theater was actually a branch of Mosfilm: few performances were staged there, but the actors were actively filming.

At 22, Ananyina began acting in films. Among her first works are the hits "Soldier Ivan Brovkin", "Girl without an Address", "The Cranes Are Flying", "The Case of the Motley", "The Ballad of a Soldier" and "I Walk Through Moscow", but there her name was not even mentioned in uncredited. From the very beginning of her acting career, Valentina resigned herself to the fact that the roles of romantic heroines go to other actresses - bright beauties, and she considered her appearance the most ordinary and unremarkable.

The modest friend of the main characters

They said about such actresses: "". Of course, Ananyina was worried about this and after years admitted: "". The actress did not refuse to shoot in advertising, and the general public was remembered in the image of a grandmother, who gives milk to her grandchildren, in an ad for "House in the Countryside".

The actress never refused the proposed roles, and if she was not called, she did not ask for it. She confessed: "". From her youth, Valentina was very modest, unassuming, restrained - not at all what many of her fellow actresses were, punchy, bright and self-confident. No one knew about her feelings, because she hid all emotions from those around her, even when she lost her parents one by one. And this negatively affected her health. She was only 26 years old when she had a heart attack. The actress spent a month in the hospital, another 2 months at home, and after that she went back to the shooting.

New cinema and new vocation

In the new century, her acting fate was much more successful. It so happened that Valentina Ananyin got her first leading role only at the age of 75, in the TV series "St. John's Wort". Her colleagues, who gained national fame in Soviet times, usually complained about the lack of good roles in the cinema of the 21st century. But Valentina saw in him a lot of new opportunities and prospects: "".

Although Valentina Ananyina did not recognize the deafening fame, she acted in films for as long as she could remember. But she considered her main vocation a completely different matter, which she began to engage in already in her mature years. Back in 1979, after the sudden departure of her 49-year-old husband, the actress began going to the temple and found the only consolation there. Since then, she has been involved in charity work, works in a children's Sunday school at the Novodevichy Convent, helps to organize and conduct children's parties, puts on performances there.

The actress says: "". All her relatives say that they do not know a person kinder and more generous than she. On the screens she played mothers and grandmothers dozens of times, but in real life she never played these roles. Throughout her life, Valentina Ananyina has given her warmth and love to millions of viewers, although many of them do not even remember most of her works. It remains only to thank the wonderful actress for her work and wish her good health and many years to come!

Valentina Ananyina is among 24 most filmed actors of Soviet cinema: popular and popular.