Vasily Livanov - 86: How Sherlock Created The Bremen Town Musicians And Charmed Carlson's “Mom”

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

July 19 marks the 86th anniversary of the famous actor, the legendary Soviet Sherlock Holmes, People's Artist of the RSFSR Vasily Livanov. Even if this role, which became his calling card, was the only one, he would forever go down in the history of cinema, but there are dozens of other striking roles in his filmography. But the actor is known not only for this. For what he was awarded the Order of the British Empire, why Astrid Lindgren wanted to meet him personally, how Livanov created The Bremen Town Musicians under cognac and other little-known facts about the famous artist - further in the review.

Successor of the acting dynasty

In some ways, his fate was predetermined from birth: Vasily's grandfather, Nikolai Livanov, known under the pseudonym Izvolsky, was a theater actor, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, his father, Boris Livanov, performed on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, was one of the best students of K. Stanislavsky and became 5-time winner of the Stalin Prize and People's Artist of the USSR. Creative bohemians gathered in their house: Alexander Dovzhenko, Boris Pasternak, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Vasily Kachalov. In such an atmosphere, it was difficult to choose another profession, but the father did not want his son to choose the same difficult path, and tried to introduce Vasily to painting - he graduated from an art school, entered the Art Institute. V. Surikov. And then he realized that he could not live without a stage, and took the documents to the Shchukin school. The father had to come to terms with his choice.

Years later, Vasily Livanov stated that both his grandfather and his father would surely be pleased with the way his creative fate developed, because he became a worthy successor of the acting dynasty. The artist said about his father: "".

Unique timbre and Roshal that lives on the roof

Vasily Livanov's acting career began with the role of … a corpse in the film-play "City at Dawn". He just needed to lie down and not move. After that, the artist joked: "". In the same year, at the age of 24, Livanov got his first leading film role in the film "Unsent Letter". It was this work that brought him his first popularity - not yet among the general public, but among filmmakers - and at the same time took away his voice!

The shooting took place in 20-degree frost, the actors were freezing for a long time on the street, and then they came to the studio to voice roles. Because of this, their voices were a little husky. As a result, Livanov caught a bad cold and lost his voice for 2 weeks. And when he returned, his timbre was completely different! At first, Vasily was very upset and discouraged, because the voice is one of the actor's tools. And only a few years later he realized that he had gained much more than he had lost, because his unique timbre cannot be confused with any other voice, and his trademark hoarseness has become a hallmark. This was especially useful to Livanov when he started dubbing cartoons. In his piggy bank - more cartoon characters, whom he voiced (about 300), than played roles in films. Recently, the actor has been dubbing audiobooks.

Probably the most famous cartoon characters voiced by Livanov were Gena Crocodile, Boa constrictor from 38 Parrots and Carlson. For the last character, the actor "stole" the voice from his friend, director Grigory Roshal. Livanov created a kind of parody of his manner of speaking, intonation, voice. And after the premiere of the cartoon, I waited for him to call and express everything that he thinks about him. But instead, the actor once received a telegram with congratulations, which was signed: "Roshal, who lives on the roof."

And when Carlson's “mother”, Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, came to Moscow, she saw this cartoon and wanted to personally meet the actor who gave her hero a unique voice. Livanov said: "".

"Bremen Town Musicians" with cognac

Vasily Livanov is known not only as an actor, but also as a director and screenwriter of cartoons: this is thanks to him in the late 1960s - 1970s. appeared "The Bremen Town Musicians", "The Blue Bird", "The Old Toy", "In the Footsteps of the Bremen Town Musicians", etc. Livanov told about how the script of the legendary "The Bremen Town Musicians" was created:"

Best Sherlock

Despite the fact that Sherlock Holmes has become one of the most popular literary heroes in cinema, the image created by Vasily Livanov is still called one of the best not only in Russia, but also abroad. The Soviet "Sherlock" was translated into 30 languages of the world. Even the British then said: "The Russians have returned our national heroes to us." In 2006, the actor received the Order of the British Empire, the only one of all Russian cultural figures.

Livanov played dozens of roles, but most viewers associate exclusively with Sherlock. The artist has not been surprised or upset by this for a long time. He says about this: "".

In "Dr. Watson" Vasily Livanov found not only a worthy partner on the set, but also a good friend: Behind the scenes "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".