Depression after Shurik, Belmondo's voice, the failure of "Strawberry" and other little-known facts about Alexander Demyanenko

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

On May 30, the famous theater and film actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR Alexander Demyanenko could have turned 84, but for 22 years he has not been among the living. His creative destiny could hardly be called happy: the role of Shurik, which brought him all-Union fame and adoration of millions, did not allow him to build a further film career, and the attempt to find his place in the new cinema caused a flurry of criticism. The incredible popularity caused irritation, and the cooled interest of the public inspired thoughts about the fallacy of the chosen path. And all this affected his physical and mental state and led to premature leaving …

Life before Shurik

Aleksandr Demyanenko inherited his artistry and love for the theater from his father, a member of the Blue Blouse theater and propaganda group, an opera theater artist and acting teacher at the Conservatory, Sergei Demyanenko. Sasha spent all his free time with his father in the theater and in the classroom in the amateur art circle, and in his youth he decided to follow in his footsteps. My father was a creative, impulsive, enthusiastic and fickle person. As soon as his son was born, he left the family for another woman, then returned to his first wife, and a few years later he left again, this time forever. Despite this, his father always remained an idol for Alexander, an example to follow and an unshakable authority. It was under his influence that he chose the acting profession.

His acting talent was not immediately noticed and appreciated. When representatives of the Moscow Art Theater admissions committee arrived in Sverdlovsk, where the family lived, Demyanenko was so worried that he failed the exam. Then he entered the local university at the Faculty of Law, and a year later realized that he had no right to miss his chance and went to the capital to storm the theater universities. This time they were ready to be admitted to the Shchukin school and to GITIS, and he chose the latter, since his father graduated from this institute.

He could hardly be called a diligent student - he missed more classes than all his classmates, he could raise his hand in the middle of class: "Can I go out?" - and leave for Sverdlovsk. But the teachers forgave him a lot, since Professor Joseph Raevsky considered him one of the most talented students, believed in his success and asked not to miss at least acting classes.

Already in the 2nd year, Demyanenko began acting in films, with directors Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov, and from the very first roles appeared in the images of modest, intelligent young men, noble and principled. In his first films, he played a photographer, architect, printing house worker, journalist, conductor - all representatives of the creative intelligentsia. Among these works were the main roles ("Adult Children", "Dima Gorin's Career", "Peace to the Incoming", "Empty Flight", etc.), but all of them taken together did not bring him the popularity that fell upon the actor after filming from Leonid Gaidai.

Shurik's starring role, fateful and fatal

In fact, Shurik was at first Edik (according to another version, Vladik) - that was the name of the hero in the scenario of Operation Y. For a long time, the director could not find an actor for the main role. More than 40 actors participated in the tests, and none of them impressed Gaidai. In many ways, he wrote off his hero from himself in his youth, an intelligent bungler who constantly finds himself in curious situations. and when someone showed him a photograph of a modest young man with glasses, he seemed to him very much like himself. The choice was surprisingly accurate, because Demyanenko's fit into the image turned out to be one hundred percent. The actor said: "".

For the role of Shurik, the brunet Alexander Demyanenko was repainted blonde. These manipulations with his appearance occurred so often that blisters appeared on his skin from endless staining, he miraculously did not go bald. However, these were not the biggest difficulties faced by the actor. After filming, he was so popular that he could not go out - everyone strove to go up to the artist, slap him on the shoulder and ask: "" Such familiarity pissed him off, he answered: "". No one remembered his real name, everyone identified the actor with his hero, and Demyanenko was very annoyed and depressed.

National fame, which all actors dream of, became a curse for him. Being a closed and modest man by nature, he could not stand familiarity, he was burdened by increased attention to his person and tried to spend all his free time away from everyone, at a dacha near St. Petersburg, where he read and listened to his favorite classical music a lot, and only in black glasses. This gave rise to rumors of his star fever, many mistakenly considered him too arrogant and arrogant.

Life after Shurik

Shurik played a cruel joke with him - not only the audience, but also the directors refused to see the actor in other images. After "Operation" Y "and" Prisoner of the Caucasus "he was offered many roles, but they, as a rule, were hardly noticeable episodes. The actor brilliantly coped with other roles, he created a very vivid image (of the clerk Ilya Sokhatykh) in "Gloomy River", but his next creative peak was the same Shurik at Gaidai, an engineer-inventor in the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession". And then history repeated itself again: until the mid-1980s. Demyanenko continued to act, but he was not offered significant roles.

The actor could not hide his despair due to the fact that Shurik had become a fatal role for him: "".

Attempts to find your place in the new cinema

In the second half of the 1980s. proposals were received less and less, the actor appeared on the screens only in films-performances and was very worried about his lack of demand. He lamented: "". During this period, he took up voice acting for foreign films and became one of the leading dubbing actors. The heroes of Jean-Paul Belmondo, Robert de Niro, Omar Sharif, Donatas Banionis spoke in his voice. The latter even said that Demyanenko sounded him better than he played.

In the 1990s. Alexander Demyanenko tried to find his place in the new cinema and agreed to star in the first Russian sitcom "Cafe" Strawberry ", which caused a flurry of criticism in his address. The project was called low-quality, colleagues in the shop considered the series cheap and vulgar. Of course, this hit the artist's pride and drove him even deeper into depression. All these experiences could not but affect the health of the actor.

He worked for wear and tear, constantly traveled from St. Petersburg to Moscow to shoot "Strawberry". On one of the shooting days, Demyanenko's retina was detached, he needed an operation, the recovery after which was very difficult. He was admitted to the hospital with a suspicion of a stomach ulcer, but it turned out that the actor had already suffered a second heart attack - he did not even know about the first. On August 23, 1999, he was scheduled for heart surgery, but the day before he was gone. Alexander Demyanenko passed away at the age of 62.

For the audience, the news of his departure came as a complete surprise, because no one knew about his heart problems. Just as about the actor's personal life: The last love of Alexander Demyanenko.