Which Soviet actor changed his real name to a pseudonym and for what reason

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

Modern creative people often change their names and surnames to a more euphonic one, or in order to create an intrigue around themselves. But in Soviet times, actors under artistic pseudonym were quite rare. However, some celebrities still had to take fictitious names and surnames to hide their social origin, nationality, or dissonance. Who are these actors and actresses, further - in our publication.

Leonid Osipovich Utesov -Lazar (Leizer) Iosifovich Weisbein

Leonid Utesov (1895 - 1982) - Russian and Soviet pop artist - singer, reader, conductor, orchestra leader, entertainer, actor; People's Artist of the USSR (1965). By the way, Utesov was the first pop artist to be awarded this title. In addition to his film roles, he performed songs in various genres - from jazz to urban romance.

Lazar Weisbein was born in Odessa in 1895 into a large Jewish family. From a young age he took part in amateur performances, played in the orchestra, performed with gymnastic numbers in the circus. In 1911, the Odessa artist Yefim Skavronsky invited the guy to his miniature "At the Broken Mirror". But at the same time he set a condition: "No Weisbeins!" In his opinion, Weissbein's surname was unsuitable for a young comedian.

- from the memoirs of Leonid Osipovich Utesov.

During his artistic career, Leonid Utyosov really achieved tremendous heights in creativity, became the People's Artist of the USSR and the RSFSR, created the first jazz orchestra in the country and became famous for his roles in films. In 1917, in Odessa, he starred in a film for the first time, playing the role of lawyer Zarudny in the film "The Life and Death of Lieutenant Schmidt", which was released on the screens of the country in the summer of the same year.

In the 1920s, he performed with performances in which he performed dramatic and buffoon-comic roles, gymnastic numbers, played the guitar and violin, and conducted a choir and orchestra. His cinematic career also continued. In 1934, the movie "Merry Fellows" was released with the participation of Utesov in the title role. The actor's filmography is small, but the song repertoire is very wide - from jazz compositions to urban romances.

During the war years, Leonid Utyosov often went to the front and spoke to soldiers. Repeatedly during such trips, he fell under bombing. The 5th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment was presented with two La-5F aircraft, built with funds raised by the musicians of the Utyosov Orchestra. These planes were called "Funny guys". The artist died at 86.

Also read in our magazine: "Incomplete lower" education and 9 more interesting facts from the life of the famous Odessa citizen Leonid Utesov.

Ranevskaya, Faina Georgievna - Fanny Girshevna Feldman

Faina Ranevskaya (1896 - 1984) - Russian and Soviet theater and film actress, laureate of three Stalin Prizes (1949, 1951, 1951), People's Artist of the USSR (1961). Fanny Feldman was born in 1896 in Taganrog into a wealthy Jewish family. Hirsh Haimovich Feldman (1863-1938), a native of the town of Smilovichi, Minsk province, a merchant of the 1st guild, owner of a dry paint factory, several houses, a shop, a mill and the ship “Saint Nicholas”, later a major manufacturer. Mother - Milka Rafailovna Zagovailova, a native of Lepel, Vitebsk province. In the post-revolutionary years, the father, mother, brothers and sister of the actress left Russia and settled in Prague, while Fanny remained in her homeland.

At the age of 14, Fanny, a girl from a Jewish family, decisively declaring to her parents that she would be an actress, enrolled in a theater studio. Although the father and mother were not very happy about this, they did not object. At the age of 21, she moved to Moscow and continued her acting career, wandering around Russia as part of various troupes. Once in Kerch, after receiving a money order from her parents, the girl walked out of the cash register and the money she was carrying suddenly fell out of her hands, and a strong wind scattered it at the same moment. The actress, taken aback, did not run for the bills, but only sadly said: … The young actor, accompanying Fanny, broke off his tongue: He remembered one of the heroines of the play "The Cherry Orchard". By the way, Chekhov was one of the actress's favorite writers, and soon the real name and surname in the programs and credits was replaced by the pseudonym "Faina Ranevskaya".

For more information on the greatest actress of the Soviet era, read our publication: Doomed to loneliness: why Faina Ranevskaya considered her talent a curse.

Georgy Frantsevich Millyar Georgy Frantsevich de Mille

Georgy Millyar (1903 - 1993) Soviet theater and film actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR (1988). In 1902, a son was born to the family of French bridge engineer Franz de Mille, a native of Marseille who came to Russia to work, and the daughter of the Irkutsk gold miner Elizaveta Zhuravleva. George. The boy was left without a father early, but with his mother he lived in luxury. George had foreign tutors, he spoke several languages from childhood, studied music. Even before the First World War, Elizabeth de Milier and her son moved from Moscow to Gelendzhik, but this did not save them in the future. The outbreak of the revolution deprived the mother and son of everything. Of the property in their possession, only one room remained in a communal apartment.

At that time, it was decided to change the surname. Since it was unsafe to demonstrate your aristocratic origin. And Georgy Millyar eventually became a master of buffoonery, the most recognizable Koschei and the brightest Baba Yaga of world cinema. He starred in sixteen films by Alexander Rowe. In addition to fairy tales, he starred mainly in episodic or secondary roles, dubbed, dubbed Soviet, foreign films and cartoons. The actor's filmography is more than a hundred films, he has dubbed more than 10 films and over 60 cartoons.

Millyar loved anecdotes and for his addiction to them called himself "The Old Man Pochabych". According to the recollections of friends and colleagues, Millyar was an erudite, cheerful, easy-going person, he loved children. The director of the documentary about Millyar, Yuri Sorokin, spoke about the episode when the actor was invited to a children's party, and he drew 850 pictures with Baba Yaga to give one to each child.

Read more about the actor: Georgy Millyar: Honored Baba Yaga and the Lonely Gentleman of Soviet Cinema.

Mark Naumovich Bernes - Menachem-Man Neuhovich Neumann

Mark Bernes (1911 - 1969) - Soviet film and dubbing actor, pop singer, People's Artist of the RSFSR (1965), winner of the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1951). One of the most beloved Soviet pop artists of the 1950s-1960s, an outstanding Russian chansonnier.

Menachem Neiman was born in the city of Nezhin, Chernihiv region. He grew up in a poor Jewish family. His father, Neuh Shmuelevich (Naum Samoilovich), a native of Starobykhov, Mogilev province, was an employee in an artel collecting waste materials; mother Fruma-Makhlya Lipovna (Fanya Filippovna) Vishnevskaya was a housewife. In 1917, when Mark was five years old, the family moved to Kharkov. Parents dreamed that Menachem would become an accountant, but he decided to dispose of his fate himself and linked his life with acting. Having moved to Moscow, a 16-year-old guy signed up as an extra in several theaters. At the same time, he decided to choose a pseudonym for himself. In Hebrew, "bar" means "son", "nes" is translated as "miracle."Subsequently, the "a" in the first syllable was replaced by "e". Under his new name, Mark Bernes became known throughout the Soviet Union.

During his lifetime, there were incredible legends about Mark Bernes, various kinds of rumors and gossips, as about a successful businessman with an exceptional nose, and not very groundless. By nature, being a business man to the marrow of his bones, he contrived to turn such scams that no one could even think of such a thing.

About the vicissitudes of the life of the idol of the public, read our publication: The fatal love of Mark Bernes, because of which the people's favorite and ladies' man fell into disgrace.

Zinovy Efimovich Gerdt-Zalman Afroimovich Khrapinovich

Zinovy Gerdt (1916 - 1996) - Soviet and Russian theater and film actor, People's Artist of the USSR (1990). Zalman Khrapinovich was born in the district town of Sebezh, Vitebsk province. In the circle of friends and relatives, as well as in theatrical circles, he was known under the diminutive name Zyama. He was the youngest (fourth) child in the family of Afroim Yakovlevich Khrapinovich and his wife Rakhil Isaakovna.

The artist's father before the revolution was a salesman, then a traveling salesman in commercial companies, after the revolution - an employee of the local regional consumer union. The acting skills of the future artist were manifested in childhood. Zyama took an active part in school amateur performances, wrote poetry in Russian and Yiddish. In 1932 he moved to his brother in Moscow, where he entered the school of the V. Kuibyshev Moscow Electric Plant. There he met and became friends with Isai Kuznetsov, in the future - a writer and screenwriter. Together with a friend, he began to play in the theater of working youth. In 1939 they became members of a theater studio named after its founder A. Arbuzov - “Arbuzov Studio”.

Initially, the self-taught artist performed under his real name Khrapinovich, then under the artistic pseudonym Gerdt. The name and patronymic Zinovy Efimovich appeared much later. According to the memoirs of Isai Kuznetsov, the pseudonym was proposed by A. Arbuzov after the popular ballerina Elizaveta Pavlovna Gerdt in the 1920s. The name and patronymic are consonant with their native Jewish, but more familiar in the Russian environment. Under a new pseudonym, he performed all his life, and when the war began, he went to the front as a volunteer.

The artist had an amazing timbre that drove his fans crazy, skillful hands - he did a lot in his house himself, and an unfulfilled dream - to buy a Bosch drill abroad. The filmography of the artist is 80 films, 10 roles in a TV show and the same number played on the stage.

During his creative career, Zinovy Efimovich Gerdt became for the audience the personification of the holiday and gushing humor. This is what our publication is about: An artist is not at all the same as an actor: the post of adoration of Zinovy Gerdt.

Innokenty Mikhailovich Smoktunovsky - Innokenty Mikhailovich Smoktunovich

Innokenty Smoktunovsky (1925 - 1994) - Soviet and Russian theater and film actor, master of artistic words (reader). Innokenty was born in the village of Tatyanovka, Tomsk province in the family of Mikhail Petrovich Smoktunovich (1899-1942) and Anna Akimovna Makhneva (1902-1985). Was the second of six children. As a child, he and his brother were given to an aunt to be raised - mother and father could not feed everyone. the future actor grew up as a mischievous, but at the same time capable child. From lessons, he ran to the theater, where he played in the crowd. Innocent did not finish school. Parents wanted to send him to medical assistant courses, but Smoktunovsky once again showed character - he went to study at a technical school as a projectionist.

There is a version that the Smoktunovichs (Polish: Smoktunowicz) come from an ancient clan of Volyn gentry, exiled to Siberia for participating in the 1863 uprising. However, according to the actor himself, his great-grandfather was neither a nobleman nor a Pole, and he himself was Belarusian by blood. In one of the interviews he told about his great-grandfather Nikolai Smoktunovich (Belorussian Smaktunovich): “He served as a gamekeeper in Belovezhskaya Pushcha and in 1861 he killed a bison. Someone "snitched", and he was exiled to Siberia - along with the whole family."

In 1929-1930s, father and grandfather were dispossessed and repressed. Maternal grandfather, merchant Akim Stepanovich Makhnev was a merchant. He was dispossessed, arrested in 1930, sentenced to 10 years and immediately shot. Akim Makhnev was rehabilitated only in 1989. The actor's father was a miller. He was also dispossessed, sentenced to a year in prison and three years in exile for "exploiting labor" and selling bread at an inflated price. The actor's uncle, Grigory Petrovich Smoktunovich, was shot in 1937 in the "case of creating a monarchist cadet organization."

Bibliographers who studied the life of the actor are sure that it was for this reason that Innokenty Mikhailovich changed his last name during the war. … The actor himself said that he changed his last name because of its dissonance.

For more details about the actor's personal life, read our publication: Innokenty Smoktunovsky and his Sulamith: "If you ask what Smoktunovsky is, then this is in many ways my wife."

Semyon Lvovich Farada - Semyon Lvovich Ferdman

Semyon Farada (1933 - 2009) - Soviet and Russian theater and film actor, People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1999) Semen Ferdman was born in 1933 into a Jewish family in the village of Nikolskoye, Moscow Region. He became interested in theater while still in school, but his parents forbade him to enter a theater university. Semyon did not go to the military academy either, but graduated from the Bauman Institute, becoming an engineer. After the army and completing his studies, Semyon Ferdman worked for seven years in his specialty and combined work with his favorite hobby - he performed in the theater and played in the cinema. In 1972, when the patriotic film “Forward, Guards!” Was to be released at Tajikfilm, the actor was offered to change his name in the credits: “Think of some charade!” - said the director of the picture. So Farad's pseudonym suddenly appeared. The actor became known under this name. After a while, he wrote a statement to the authorities and formalized his pseudonym.

Andrey Alexandrovich MironovAndrey Alexandrovich Menaker

Andrei Alexandrovich Mironov (1941 - 1987) - Soviet theater and film actor, pop artist, People's Artist of the RSFSR (1980). Andrey Menaker was born in 1941, fatal for the country, into a family of pop artists Alexander Menaker and Maria Mironova. Since childhood, he lived in a theatrical environment and decided on his future profession at school. From birth, Andrei bore his father's surname - Menaker. But in the late 1940s, the so-called "fight against cosmopolitanism" began in the USSR. In those years, representatives of the creative intelligentsia with Jewish surnames were deprived not only of their profession, but also of freedom. According to the calculations of the Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg, from the beginning of the campaign until 1953, 217 writers, 108 actors, 87 artists, 19 musicians were arrested in the USSR - a total of 431 people. The anti-Semitic mood in the country forced the boy's parents to change his last name. Because the real one - Menaker - could prevent the future actor from taking place in the profession … Andrei went to the third grade with his mother. Under it, he became famous.

Read interesting facts from the life of the actor and about his last day in our publication: The fatal role of Andrei Mironov: What turned out to be "Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro".

Toma Svetlana Andreevna Fomicheva Svetlana Andreevna

Svetlana Toma (born in 1947) - Soviet, Moldovan and Russian actress, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (2001), People's Artist of Moldova (2008). Svetlana Toma was born in Chisinau, Moldavian SSR. Father - Andrei Vasilyevich Fomichev was from the village of Somovka, Lipetsk region. He worked as the chairman of a collective farm in Moldova. Mother - Ides Shoilovna (in everyday life Ida Saulovna). The parents met while their father was studying at the Chisinau Agricultural Institute, where his mother worked as a secretary.

The actress took a pseudonym for herself during the filming of the film "Tabor Goes to Heaven" (1975), which made her famous throughout the world. In the cinema, young Svetlana turned out to be by chance. Assistant director Emil Loteanu saw the girl at the bus stop and offered to star in the film. At that time, the girl was studying to be a lawyer, and did not even dream of an artistic career. The movie "Red Glades" (1966) became her debut. And the picture that made Tom "the main gypsy of the USSR" was the tenth in a row. She gained international fame. The rights to show the picture "Tabor Goes to Heaven" were bought by 112 countries of the world.

It is worth noting that she got a sonorous pseudonym from her great-French grandmother, so the emphasis in it is on the last syllable:

Interesting facts from the life of a famous actress, read our publication: Actor's drama "Rada's Gypsies": Why Svetlana Toma considers the film "Tabor Goes to Heaven" a gift of fate and a curse.