How Malchish-Kibalchish emigrated to the "bourgeois", and Plokhish died young: The fate of young actors from a heroic tale

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

As a rule, child actors who come to the set at school age rarely associate their fate with the acting profession in the future. So it happened with the main characters of the revolutionary-heroic "The Tale of the Boy-Kibalchish": Seryozha Ostapenko played only 2 roles in the cinema, and Seryozha Tikhonov - 3. It's amazing how their lives developed in the future: the actor who played the one who fought with the "bourgeois" Malchish-Kibalchisha, forever went to these same "bourgeois" and built a successful career in the USA, but his opposite Plohish worked in the USSR at a factory and passed away at the age of 21 …

Sergey Ostapenko

This film was filmed in 1964 at the Kiev Film Studio. A. Dovzhenko. Director Evgeny Sherstobitov said: "". The director found young actors for the main roles immediately, without any particular difficulties, because both boys had already starred in films and were in the filing cabinet of the film studio.

Seryozha Ostapenko from Kiev was a real Kibalchish in life, a positive hero and an example to follow - he studied well, studied music and mastered playing the piano, was an excellent student and an obedient "bookish" boy. At that time he was 11 years old, and he played his first film role at the age of 6: in the film "Military Secret" based on the story of the same name by Arkady Gaidar, he got the image of the main character, Alka Ganin. He was already a real Gaidar hero, so Sherstobitov had no doubts that the boy would cope with the role of Kibalchish.

There were a lot of curiosities on the set. The director recalled: "".

The role of Malchish-Kibalchish became the second and last for Seryozha Ostapenko. He was invited several more times to audition, but he decided to focus on his studies - filming in films was always just an additional burden for him. After graduating from school, Sergei received a higher education in mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and went to science. In the 1970s. he got married and had two children. And in 1988, as a good specialist, he was invited to work in Germany, where he spent a year in the city of Stuttgart. Returning to the USSR, Ostapenko defended his doctoral dissertation, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union he was left without work. And in 1992 he decided to emigrate to the United States, where he was offered to teach at the University of South Florida. He worked there until 2008, and then founded his own research company specializing in ultrasonic equipment.

His company's website says about him: "". Today, 68-year-old Sergei Ostapenko still lives in the United States. He considers his family to be his main achievement in life - they have lived with his wife for 48 years, raised children and grandchildren.

Sergey Tikhonov

13-year-old Seryozha Tikhonov also had filming experience: at the age of 11 he made his film debut, playing the main role in the film "Business People", in the short story "The Leader of the Redskins." Then he was noticed by the director Yevgeny Sherstobitov. Struck by the boy's acting talent, he said to his assistant: "". Thanks to a talented, charming boy, the director managed to convince the star of Soviet cinema Sergei Martinson to also star in this film. He doubted until he was on tests with Serezha. During filming, the actor said: ""

Tikhonov was a real bad guy not only in the frame - unlike Seryozha Ostapenko, he grew up as a bully and ringleader. The director recalled: "N". Bad guy, who agreed to help the bourgeoisie "for a barrel of jam and a basket of cookies," and in life was a terrible sweet tooth and devoured half of the sweets long before the end of the shooting day. When in the next take he needed to eat cookies again, he could no longer look at it and asked: ""

After 3 years, Sergei Tikhonov starred in another film - "Dubravka" - and since then has not appeared on the screens any more. It is not known exactly why he did not continue his acting career - all the directors who worked with him said that he had all the data in order to become a good actor. Sherstobitov asserted: "". But after the 8th grade, Sergei went to work as a turner at a factory, then served in the army.

And in 1972 he was gone. How this happened and for what reasons is still unknown. The newspaper "Soviet Culture" wrote that Sergei died in a car accident. According to another version, after the army, Tikhonov became interested in horse racing, constantly disappeared at the hippodrome, owed a large sum to local authorities, and was thrown under a tram. Evgeny Sherstobitov tried to find out the circumstances of his death, but this remained a mystery. The director admitted: "". At that time, Sergei Tikhonov was only 21 years old.

Unfortunately, Sergei Tikhonov was not the only young actor whose fate was tragic: 5 movie idols of Soviet teenagers who passed away too early.