The American fate of Oleg Vidov: How the life of the famous Soviet actor developed after his escape from the USSR

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

On June 11, the famous film actor Oleg Vidov could have turned 76 years old, but 2 years ago he passed away. In the 1970s. he was one of the most successful actors, who starred both in the USSR and abroad, and was remembered by the audience for the films "Blizzard", "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "The Bat", "Gentlemen of Fortune", "Headless Horseman" and others. He was called the first handsome Soviet cinema, but in the early 1980s. he was suddenly out of work. What woman played a fatal role in his fate and forced him to start a new life at 42, having escaped from the USSR, and how his fate in emigration developed - further in the review.

Oleg Vidov grew up in a family that had nothing to do with the world of cinema - his father was an economist, and his mother was a teacher. When Oleg was little, his father left the family, his mother began to get sick, and at the age of 14 he had to go to work. After graduating from 8 classes, Vidov changed several professions - he was an assistant cook, and a loader, and a storekeeper, and an orderly, and an assistant to an electrician. In parallel, he continued his studies at the school for working youth. There he once caught the eye of the assistant director of the film "My friend, Kolka!" He invited the textured young man to play an episodic role, and from that moment Vidov understood what he really would like to do in life.

After that, Oleg Vidov graduated from the acting department of VGIK and began acting in films. At first, he was offered only episodes, and his name was not even mentioned in the credits. In the film "I Walk Through Moscow" he got the role of "a boy on a bicycle", but thanks to this episode he was noticed by director Vladimir Basov, who offered Vidov the main role in his film "Snowstorm". With this work, the start of his successful film career began.

Then they said that he owed his success to a large extent to his influential wife. The actor's first marriage was a student and short-lived - he lived with the artist-designer of the film studio Marina for only 2 years and broke up due to the jealousy of his wife. And Vidov's second wife was Galina Brezhneva's friend, the daughter of a KGB general, Natalya Fedotova. After their wedding and the birth of a son, she allegedly used all her connections so that her husband would appear not only in the USSR, but also abroad - in Yugoslav, Soviet-Cuban, Soviet-Italian, Danish-Swedish films. The Battle of the Neretva, The Red Mantle, Waterloo and The Headless Horseman brought him incredible popularity.

But the situation changed dramatically when Vidov decided to part with Fedotova. She never considered him equal to herself and reproached him, while constantly arranging scenes of jealousy. The actor said that she was very domineering and ambitious, and wanted her husband to make not only an acting, but also a political career, which was alien to him. The last straw was her passion for Fidel Castro. After that, all the doors closed in front of him. The ex-wife made every effort to stop filming him. And when he graduated from the directing department of VGIK, she even tried to interfere with obtaining a diploma.

It was for these reasons that Oleg Vidov decided to flee the USSR. Later, he said that he had not left for mercantile reasons - he was a Soviet man to the core, and money was never in the foreground for him. But the circumstances were such that he simply could not stay in the country. "" - said the actor.

He was helped to formalize a fictitious marriage with a citizen of Yugoslavia, and the actor went to his wife on a guest visa for 72 days. And there he was offered to shoot in a new project, and he stayed in Yugoslavia for 2 years, where during this time 4 films and 2 television series with his participation were released. In 1985, he was called to the police and told that he had to leave the country in 72 hours. Friends helped him leave for Austria, and from there he fled to Italy, where he met his last wife, American journalist Joan Borsten. Together they moved to the United States.

When Vidov left the USSR, he was 42 years old. He admitted that at first in America he felt like he was on another planet. He was helped by the fact that in the United States he met many of his compatriots, who helped him adapt to the new reality. At first, he worked at a construction site and did not even dream of continuing his acting career. His wife, Joan Borsten, whom Vidov called his guardian angel for all 32 years spent together, until the end of his days, helped him to believe in himself and achieve success in American cinema.

Oleg Vidov starred in several Hollywood films. Arnold Schwarzenegger was his co-star in Red Heat, and Mickey Rourke in Wild Orchid. About the latter Vidov told: "". After moving to the United States, Oleg Vidov returned to shoot in Russia only once, when he was invited to play one of the roles in the series "The Enchanted Plot". And in America, the actor continued to act until 2014, as long as his health allowed. In his filmography there were about 20 films, and there could be even more of them if Vidov agreed to play the same type of roles of Russian villains that were offered to him there.

In addition to filming a movie, Vidov helped his wife in their joint business - a rehabilitation clinic for alcohol and drug addiction, which has become one of the most famous in Malibu. In one of the interviews, the actor said: "".

Later, the actor said that he needed to move to the United States for another reason. American doctors discovered he had a brain tumor, which in the USSR could not be diagnosed. After filming the movie "Wild Orchid" he underwent surgery, which prolonged his life by 28 years! In one of the last interviews that the actor gave in January 2017, he admitted that he no longer wants to act: "". And on May 15 it became - Oleg Vidov died of cancer at the age of 74.

They say that another emigrant actor played an important role in his decision to return to the United States in the acting profession - Savely Kramarov: Why the Soviet actor lost his viewer.