Lenin with tattoos, the broken heart of Bystritskaya, the prototype of the hero of "Gangster Petersburg" and 3 more facts about Kirill Lavrov

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

14 years ago, on April 27, 2007, the heart of the famous actor, artistic director of the BDT, People's Artist of the USSR Kirill Lavrov stopped. His name became a legend during his lifetime. He was repeatedly offered to write an autobiographical book, but he never took it. But another film could be made about his fate. He often played Lenin in the movies, but once because of this he incurred the wrath of officials. Elina Bystritskaya herself was in love with him, but he rejected her for the sake of another woman. He was familiar with the real Humpbacked, whose image he embodied in the TV series "Gangster Petersburg". The audience probably did not know such Kirill Lavrov …

From aircraft mechanics to actors

When the war began, Kirill Lavrov was only 15 years old. He was evacuated to Novosibirsk, on the way he fell ill with typhus, and after recovering he decided not to go to school, but to a military plant, where he worked as a turner. From the first days of the war, he was eager to go to the front and, although he had a reservation from the factory and knew that due to his young age he would be refused, he constantly visited the military registration and enlistment office. Years later, the actor recalled: "".

In 1943, at the age of 17, he finally joined the ranks of the Red Army, where he served until 1950. He never got to the war, since he finished his studies only in 1945. Lavrov graduated from the Astrakhan military aviation school of mechanics and after 5 years of study he worked at an air base on the Kuril Islands, where he served bombers. It was there that he realized his real vocation: together with his colleagues, they organized an amateur theater, and Lavrov took part in all of its productions. After demobilization, he went to storm the capital's theater universities and did not qualify for any of them. Then he went to Kiev to his father-actor, who served in the Russian Drama Theater. Lesia Ukrainka. Kirill Lavrov was also accepted there. This is how his acting career began - without specialized training at the university and even without a certificate of secondary school education.

Failed marriage with Elina Bystritskaya

Kirill Lavrov stayed in Kiev from 1950 to 1955. There he met young Elina Bystritskaya, a student at the theater institute. They began an affair, Lavrov even thought about getting married and introduced his chosen one to her father. Tom did not like her - Bystritskaya was a serious girl and did not appreciate the witticisms released by him. The father gave his son his verdict: "". However, they parted for another reason.

Once the actor was leaving with the theater on tour, and Bystritskaya came to see him off to the station with a bouquet of flowers. And next to him on the platform was a girl. "", - Lavrov introduced her, without explaining anything. The proud beauty Bystritskaya threw the bouquet into the trash can and left. He did not catch up with her, and soon married his colleague, actress Valentina Nikolaeva, and lived with her all his life.

Football passions

From a young age, another actor's passion was football - he played himself and was an ardent fan of the St. Petersburg Zenit. Lavrov was rooting for the team even in those years when it did not achieve success, was friends with the coach and football players, and it is no coincidence that he was the one who read the offscreen text in the documentary film “Gold of Zenith”. Even his work schedule at the BDT Lavrov built according to the calendar of Zenit's home matches, and on the day of the game he was sure to be at the stadium.

In addition, in his youth, Lavrov was engaged in fencing, skiing and gymnastics, all his life he remained in good physical shape and himself more than once went to the football field. In 1975 he became the first captain of the BDT football team. Once, while filming a film about pilots, the actor had to run a 200-meter distance, and the director was ready to shoot several takes - he doubted that Lavrov would be able to cope with this task as easily as his young filming partners. To everyone's surprise, the actor ran to the helicopter very first, and no other takes were needed.

Lenin the recidivist

During the Soviet era, the opportunity to play the leader of the proletariat, Vladimir Lenin, was considered a sign of special trust and honor for an actor. Such roles were not trusted by everyone - as a rule, only actors with "positive charm" and an impeccable reputation. On the one hand, such a role promised great prospects in the future in the cinema, the favor of the authorities and numerous awards and prizes, on the other hand, it limited the range of the actor's possibilities, because after Lenin it was necessary to choose roles very carefully. This is what Kirill Lavrov did not take into account.

At the beginning of his film career, one director, looking at the actor's photograph, said: “”. Lavrov really got this image three times in the cinema and several times in the theater. He so merged with this image that it was difficult to imagine him in other roles, especially non-heroic ones. However, Lavrov did not want to limit himself to one role. And then one day one of the Leningrad high-ranking party officials saw him on the screen in a negative role - a criminal businessman, and even with tattoos on his body. He was indignant: they say, what kind of a repeat offender? How could you make up the respected artist who played Lenin like that? He was even more surprised when he learned that the tattoos were not drawn, but real: as it turned out, in his youth, the actor got a tattoo depicting a large tiger.

Lavrov never regretted that he played Lenin. On the contrary, at the age of 80, he lamented that he did not have time to reveal all the facets of this image, which was interesting both humanly and as an actor: "".

The prototype of the hero from "Gangster Petersburg"

The range of roles played by the actor was incredibly wide - he appeared on screens in the images of military men, pilots, workers and aristocrats, tried on the roles of Ivan Karamazov, Anton Makarenko, Yaroslav the Wise, Pontius Pilate. There were also unexpected and atypical works for Lavrov in his filmography: for example, in 2000, he starred in the first season of the series “Gangster Petersburg” as a thief in law nicknamed Baron. As it turned out, this hero had a real prototype, and Lavrov was familiar with him.

The prototype of the Baron became famous in the 1970s. in the criminal circles of Leningrad, the thief of antiques Yuri Alekseev, nicknamed the Humpbacked. (No, this has nothing to do with the leader of the Black Cat gang from The Meeting Place). He stole custom-made antiques, paintings, icons and spent almost half of his life behind bars - about 30 years. It was on his biography that they were guided when creating the image of the Baron, very convincingly played by Lavrov. Once on the street, a man approached the actor, handed him his business card, on which was written "The chief expert on antiques", and offered his help in any difficult situations.

Controversial image

One of the most recent and most significant film roles of Kirill Lavrov, which he played at the age of 80, 2 years before his departure, was the role of Pontius Pilate in Vladimir Bortko's film The Master and Margarita. This work was for him in many ways a kind of summing up in the profession, although it caused a lot of controversy, like the 2005 film adaptation itself. The film was criticized for its discrepancy with Bulgakov's aesthetics, the director - for the poor choice of actors, including the role of Pontius Pilate.

The director was urged to think about another candidate for this role - to find an actor younger, more textured and powerful. Bortko recalled: "". Among the critics were those who shared the director's opinion. One glance of Lavrov-Pilate was enough to feel all the inner strength and power of his character. The actor was very grateful to the director for his choice and confessed: "".

Fortunately, with his departure, the creative line did not interrupt: Secrets of the acting dynasty of Kirill Lavrov.