Why the "mustachioed nanny" disappeared from the screens: Two lives of Sergei Prokhanov

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

For almost 30 years, this actor has not acted in films, and at the end of the 1970s. his name thundered all over the country, because he created one of the most recognizable and beloved movie heroes among the people - the charming Kesha Chetvergov in the film "Mustache Nanny". Many people also remember him from the films "The Young Wife", "The Mystery of the Snow Queen" and "Genius". True, the role that became his calling card played a cruel joke on him. Therefore, at the peak of popularity, Sergei Prokhanov decided to leave the acting profession for another cause, which he still considers the main thing in his life …

As a child, Sergei Prokhanov dreamed of a musical career, but after a failure at the first vocal competition, he gave up this dream. In addition, at this time he was carried away by classes in a theater studio, and he decided to connect his future with the acting profession. From the very first attempt he managed to enter the Shchukin School, and after graduation he was accepted into the troupe of the Theater. Mossovet. While still a student, Prokhanov began acting in films and conducting entertainment programs on television. From the very first roles, he formed the role of "his boyfriend", charming, cheerful, active and cheerful. His name was to play either pioneer leaders in children's films, or young workers in production dramas. By the age of 25, he managed to play more than 10 such roles.

All-Union fame came to him after the main role in the film "Mustache Nanny", where he played a disorderly bully who was sent to work in a kindergarten for the purpose of re-education. For a long time, director Vladimir Grammatikov could not find an actor who would be able to find contact with twenty children, because he had to communicate with them both in the frame and behind the scenes throughout the entire filming process. In addition, the actor had to be able to play the guitar and sing. And suddenly it turned out that there are a lot of charming, singing, talented applicants, but none of them could cope with the children.

And then 25-year-old Sergei Prokhanov came to audition. At first he seemed to the director too arrogant, because from the doorway he said: “I know you are looking for a hero. You don't have to search anymore. It's me! As it turned out, there was every reason for this self-confidence. He was sent to the kids' room and left for a few minutes. And he succeeded in what all other applicants could not cope with. After 10 minutes, silence reigned in the room, and when the director looked in there, he saw Prokhanov wriggling on the floor, portraying a silent fish, and all the children repeated his actions after him. From the very first minutes, the children were carried away by playing with him and imbued with sympathy for him. On the set, the same thing happened: the shots with the kids looked so authentic, because they behaved as in ordinary life, perceiving everything that happened as a fun game.

The children believed Sergei Prokhanov so much and became so attached to him that when in the final of the film his hero Kesha was drafted into the army according to the script, some of them completely sincerely burst into tears, saying goodbye to their favorite. Interestingly, then the actor really received a summons and had to go back to work. They did not have time to finish the film by this moment, and the shooting had to be postponed. At the last moment, the fate of the film and its protagonist was decided by Marshal Vasilevsky, the grandfather of Prokhanov's wife. Thanks to his intervention, the actor was not taken into the army, and the work on the film was completed.

After this role, incredible popularity fell upon the young actor. Posters with his portrait were pasted all over Moscow, kilometer-long queues were lined up at cinemas before the screening of "Mustache Nanny", in the cities of the USSR, where Prokhanov came to creative meetings, full stadiums gathered. However, this medal also had a downside. Later, Sergei Prokhanov admitted: "".

After this film, the directors really bombarded him with new proposals, but they were all the same type. Sergei Prokhanov, despite dozens of films, risked forever remaining an actor of one role. And he agreed to shoot in those cases when he saw in his characters something new, not like Kesha Chetvergov. A year later, he was fortunate enough to get a role that became another of his creative peak and took him beyond the role of a "nice guy."

Although in the film "Young Wife" Sergei Prokhanov got a supporting role - the former fiancé of the main character, his character turned out to be bright and memorable. And although he was a negative character, a traitor and a scoundrel, the actor was glad to have the opportunity to embody on the screens an image that was radically different from Kesha. True, the shooting in this film left not only pleasant memories for the actor. According to the plot, the heroine of Anna Kamenkova was supposed to slap her ex-fiancé in the face, and this scene still did not seem plausible to the director. He asked the actress to hit her partner for real, backhand. Which is what she did 5 takes in a row. Her hand turned out to be heavy, and after that Prokhanov became deaf in one ear for 3 days! Nevertheless, he later called the role in the film "Young Wife" one of his most beloved films.

In the 1980s. he continued to act, but these were again the roles of a machine operator, chauffeur, free-rider student, track fitter, etc. The most striking was his last film work - the speculator Kostik in the film "Genius". Sergei Prokhanov was so convincingly reincarnated as a swindler that after the film was released, “criminals” took him on the streets for their own. The actor said: "".

However, in the early 1990s. They stopped making films, besides, Prokhanov had not been offered interesting new roles for a long time, and he still remained a "mustachioed nanny" for the majority of viewers. Then he decided to say goodbye to cinema forever. Since then, his second life began, completely devoted to the theater. If before the directors guided him on the set, now he himself led the entire creative process.

In the early 1990s. Sergei Prokhanov created the creative cooperative "Masquerade" at the theater, and then became the director and artistic director of the "Tetra of the Moon" created by him. Every year new performances were prepared in it, the plays for which were written and revised by Prokhanov himself. In addition, he opened a studio for children "Little Moon" at the theater, and in the late 1990s. took up teaching activities, becoming the head of the course at the Russian Academy of Theater Arts.

The role in this film became significant not only for Sergei Prokhanov, but also for his partner Anna Kamenkova: Behind the scenes of the film "Young Wife".