Imperfect hero Andrei Krasko: Why did the actor sew clothes and became famous only after 40

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

15 years ago, on July 4, 2006, a month before his 49th birthday, the life of the famous actor, the favorite of millions of viewers, Andrei Krasko, was cut short. Only in the last 10 years of his life he was in demand in the profession, and before that for a long time he could not prove his creative solvency even to his own father, actor Ivan Krasko. Neither in the frame nor behind the scenes did he strive to look better than he really was, did not hide his bad habits, did not try to please anyone. Perhaps that is why the audience adored him - he was a living and real, imperfect "superhero from the people", with a lot of flaws and weaknesses.

In the footsteps of his father

It would seem that his path was predetermined from birth - Andrei's father Ivan Krasko was an actor who performed at the Theater. V. Komissarzhevskaya, and since childhood, his son often attended his performances. When he was 3 years old, he first appeared on stage, only it was an unplanned "debut": seeing his father, Andrei jumped from his seat in the auditorium and ran to him shouting: "This is my dad!" After that, they began to use him in New Year's performances, where Ivan Krasko was Santa Claus, and his son was a bunny or Pinocchio. At the same time, he was not going to follow in his father's footsteps, dreaming, like many of his peers, to become a firefighter, then a driver, or an astronaut.

Just before the very end of school, Andrei suddenly announced to his father that he was going to enter a theater university. However, at the same time, he did not bother to spend enough time on preparation, did not properly learn an excerpt from Platonov's prose and was cut off on the very first round of entrance exams at LGITMiK. For a year after this failure, Andrei worked as a set maker in his father's theater and was preparing for the second attempt at admission. The preparation turned out to be more thorough, and this time it was accepted.

Studying at the institute was very difficult for him. Later, the actor recalled: "". After completing his studies, Krasko went on assignment to the Tomsk Youth Theater, where he acted as an actor for about a year and even tried himself as a director for the first time: when their director was removed after 7 months of unsuccessful rehearsals, Krasko decided to save the performance and together with a friend undertook to bring it before the premiere. He succeeded, which surprised many of his colleagues: seeming at first glance careless and frivolous, he could at the right time show strength of character and take responsibility.

Army experience

A year later, Krasko returned to his native Leningrad and made his film debut in Dinara Asanova's film Useless. At the same time, in the early 1980s, he began performing on the theater stage, but his very first major role brought him big trouble: his policeman in the play did not like the party leadership very much - they say that the created image “does not correspond to the moral character of a soldier of law and order, a hero commits acts incompatible with the title of a Soviet policeman. The director was reprimanded, and the actor was immediately sent to the army.

He served in the Air Defense Forces, which he deciphered as "wait until you do - they will cancel". According to him, their main occupation was "making spring", that is, clearing the parade ground from snow and painting fences. At that time he was almost 27 years old, but in the army Krasko faced bullying. However, he quickly stopped it, which he later told about: "". Despite the fact that he did not have the best impressions from the army, in the future Krasko played people in uniform more than once, and these heroes in his performance looked very worthy and aroused the respect of the audience.

Years of inactivity

After returning from the army, Krasko did not have a relationship with the director in the theater, and he left Leningrad for Dimitrovgrad, where he performed on the stage of the local theater and led discos. This continued until 1986, when the actor was offered a role in the film "Breakthrough". For the sake of filming, he left the theater and returned to Leningrad, but then a protracted crisis began in the cinema, and Krasko was again unemployed. During this difficult period, he did a lot of things - a private cab driver, setting up fences at a cemetery, sewing clothes and bags. The last thing was going very well with the actor - together with a friend, they passed off their own-made jeans as branded ones, and they were in great demand.

Simple in the acting profession dragged on for almost 10 years. From time to time he acted in films, but these were subtle episodes. Even his father did not believe in his future in this profession, who said that Andrei had lost his time in the theater and in the cinema. He urged him not to indulge himself with illusions and forget about acting, but his son, fortunately, did not listen to him.

Finest hour

In 1999, a turning point came in his life: he was offered the role of law enforcement officer Andrei Krasnov in the TV series "National Security Agent". At the same time, initially there was no such character in the script. The actor recalled: "". And it so happened that the comic character of the second plan, a charming dolt who was supposed to be "in the wings", overshadowed the main character performed by Mikhail Porechenkov and won the sympathy of millions of viewers.

Only after 40 years, Andrei Krasko finally received fame and recognition and was able to prove both to himself and to his father that he did not choose this path by chance. Since then, he has gone headlong into work, starred a lot, participating in several projects every year, even agreed to tiny roles, refusing only outright hack. For most of the works he was not ashamed, but Krasko admitted: "".

He looked like an ordinary person from the crowd, far from perfect and not hiding his shortcomings and bad habits. But this was what attracted the audience - they believed him, they recognized themselves in him, and an excellent sense of humor, merciless self-irony and incredible charm allowed him to acquire a whole army of fans. He turned out to be subject to completely different images, about which the actor himself said: "".

The worst habit is workaholism

Having received the long-awaited recognition, the actor gave all his strength to the profession. He worked so selflessly that he was injured more than once on the set. Once he almost chopped off his finger and had 25 stitches. Another time he broke his ankle. Krasko went on set, despite health problems, and as a result, he received a discrepancy of the abdominal muscles. Injuries happened behind the scenes. The actor said: "".

He always lived backhand, did not spare himself, and in recent years he worked practically without breaks for rest. Krasko never paid enough attention to his health, and this had fatal consequences for him. During the next filming, the body malfunctioned, and the audience did not see his last role: on July 4, 2006, Andrei Krasko died of acute heart failure.

In the last film work by Andrei Krasko, he was replaced by another actor: What's left behind the scenes of the series "Liquidation".