Bonivour's wounded heart: why Lev Prygunov had to send his son to a boarding school

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

On account of Lev Prygunov more than a hundred works in films and TV shows, he starred not only for Soviet, but also foreign directors, including in Hollywood. However, his career has never been easy: he was forbidden to take pictures, was refused a job because of anti-Soviet views, and his bride was threatened with dismissal from her job if she married an "enemy of the people." And in his personal life, Lev Prygunov had to go through many trials and even send his only and beloved son to a boarding school.

Heir to the enemy of the people

He was born in 1939 in Alma-Ata. My mother was a teacher of literature, my father was a keen biologist and natural scientist. At the beginning of World War II, my father volunteered for the front, and after returning, very soon he was sent into exile almost to the border with China. The reason was very simple: Georgy Prygunov did not hide his negative attitude towards the prominent scientist Trofim Lysenko, whose theories, actively introduced in those years, were disastrous for science in general and for agriculture in particular.

In Pavlodar, the father of the future actor was appointed director of an orphanage, where the children of "enemies of the people" were brought up. Lev Prygunov's sister began to get sick in the new harsh climate, and my mother returned to Alma-Ata with the children, but began to seek the return of her husband. She constantly wrote to high-ranking officials, including Stalin himself, trying to achieve the reunification of her husband and father of two children with their family.

Her request was granted, but just a year later Georgy Prygunov died, falling off a cliff in the mountains. Leo was then only 10 years old. The father managed to teach his son a lot: shoot skillfully, defend his opinion in any situation and always live honestly. But how much more of his knowledge and experience did he not have time to give to his son?

Lev Prygunov decided to continue his father's work and entered the Pedagogical Institute at the Biological Faculty. However, he became interested in art, began to participate in student performances of fellow students from the Faculty of Philology. And one day I heard that he needed to enter the theater. And Lev, after the second year, went to Leningrad, where from the very first time he entered LGITMiK, having passed a competition of 250 people for a place.

Ban on filming

Already from the third year, Lev Prygunov began acting in films. His debut and first practice was the motion picture "Shore Leave", where he went through a good school. After receiving his diploma, the actor was supposed to go to the theater in Yakutia for distribution, but first he was invited to one of the main roles in the film "Morning Trains", and then Anatoly Efros accepted Prygunov into the troupe of the Central House of Theaters.

In 1964, he successfully starred in the film by Giuseppe de Santis "They went to the East", where he played the role of Bazzoki and managed to make a real scandal on the set. Then he was outraged by the difference in attitudes towards foreign actors and towards Soviet ones. After that, he was accommodated in a separate trailer and even increased his fee. But they didn’t forgive him for the demarche: they didn’t let him attend the premiere of the film They Went to the East, and after that they refused to all foreign directors who wanted to invite Prygunov to the shooting.

However, the Soviet film studios did not invite him to work either: there was an unspoken ban on the filming of an unreliable actor. Here he was reminded of both his paternal exile and his maternal grandfather, who was a priest and died in 1919 after being beaten and tortured by the Red Army.

Only Francis Muntian was able to ensure that Lev Prygunov was released on the set of the film "The Tunnel" in Romania. And in 1969 the actor played one of his best roles in the film "The Heart of Bonivour". At Mosfilm he was blacklisted, and his acquaintance with the professional card player Lucic Gardt, who was an admirer of the actor, helped him to return to duty. As soon as Lyusik called the film studio, the head of the acting department of "Mosfilm" took Prygunov into the state with open arms.

Personal drama

Lev Prygunov met Ella thanks to one of his many friends. At that time, the actor was already blacklisted at Mosfilm and was friends with the disgraced Joseph Brodsky. Eleanor Umanets was a representative of a special world: an employee of the Foreign Ministry who served at the American embassy. She was smart, educated and considerate. When at work they learned about the girl's intention to marry Prygunov, they set a condition: either she refuses to marry the actor, or she is fired from her job.

Ella made a decision instantly, choosing a loved one. The most amazing thing is that they left her at work. And Lev Prygunov found a home and family, as well as a loyal and devoted friend in the person of his wife.

In 1969, a son, Roman, was born in the family, who would later become a famous director. Four years after the wedding, Lev Prygunov received an apartment, and a little later he and his wife exchanged him and her housing for a huge apartment by Soviet standards in a house on Sadovo-Triumfalnaya Street.

It seemed that happiness settled in this family for many years, but in 1977 a tragedy struck. Lev Prygunov was in Alma-Ata at that time, and Ella and her son were visiting a friend in Riga. Before that, the couple quarreled over the fact that his wife did not let the sick Roman with his father, but she went with him to the Baltic States.

On November 8, Leo and his friend were in the mountains, but at some point the actor felt unwell, he had a fever for half an hour. 15 minutes after returning to my mother's house, a call came from Moscow. Ella and her friend were killed in a car accident. Fortunately, the sons of both women stayed at home that day.

When there is no other way out

Lev Prygunov was completely crushed by the loss of his wife. But he had no right to become limp and discouraged, because his son demanded constant attention and care. He had to be provided for and Lev Prygunov simply could not leave his job. While the actor's mother was alive, she helped her son raise his grandson, but when she was gone, he had to send his son to a boarding school.

It was a very good institution where the children of famous actors lived and studied, but every time he heard Roman persuading him to take him home, Lev Georgievich could hardly hold back his tears. He came to the child as soon as he had a free minute, and explained to his son: now there is no way to leave him at home alone, because dad works a lot. Three years later, when the boy grew up a little, the actor took Roman home.

The right to happiness

Several long years passed before Lev Prygunov again believed that he could be happy. He first saw Olga at Mosfilm and instantly realized that this was his wife. True, the girl did not respond to the actor's courtship for a long time and even avoided him.

They repeatedly crossed on the set, where Olga worked as an assistant director, and gradually became closer. She is 16 years younger than Lev Prygunov, but she has some special wisdom that helps her find a common language with almost any person. She was able to make friends with Roman, and for her husband she became a source of not only love, but also inspiration.

They have been together for 36 years. Olga shares the actor's passion for painting, and she herself, according to Prygunov, is a good artist. Lev Prygunov paints pictures professionally, his canvases are exhibited not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in London. He also writes poetry and is fond of Eastern philosophy. And in everything he finds support from the closest people: his wife and son.

In the very first film "Shore Leave" Lev Prygunov had a chance to play together with Vladimir Vysotsky. The actor and poet left, leaving a deep mark on this mortal land. Many people remember the "tape-recorder era", when the country laughed and cried along with the heroes of the songs of the poet and the bard. Vysotsky, who during his lifetime knew the nationwide love, continues to live today, immortalized in the paintings of artists, in the bronze creations of sculptors.