Why the idol of Soviet women Peteris Gaudins doomed himself to loneliness: Secrets of the Latvian Aivengo

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

Latvian actor with the appearance of a fairy-tale prince Peteris Gaudins in the late 1970s - early 1980s. enjoyed immense popularity. After the release of the films "Theater", "Glass of Water" and, of course, "Ballads about the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe", thousands of Soviet spectators lost their heads from him. His Ivanhoe, to the songs of Vysotsky, gave the dream of eternal love, but the actor himself did not believe in such feelings. He has not appeared on screens for a long time, very rarely gives interviews and only recently confessed why he did not dare to connect his fate with anyone …

Peteris Gaudins was born in 1956 in Riga into a family of doctors. He was going to continue the dynasty and after school entered the medical institute, but after the first year he realized that he had chosen the wrong path. He dropped out and entered the theater department of the Latvian Conservatory. Already in the first year of his studies, Peteris began acting in films and performing on the stage of the Riga Dailes Theater, to which he gave his whole life.

In the late 1970s. actors from the Baltic States enjoyed incredible popularity in the USSR - they were the main "foreigners" of Soviet cinema. The film "Theater" became a real hit of those years, the star of the Latvian cinema Vija Artmane starred in it, for whom this work became a kind of summing up, because it was released specially for her 50th anniversary. But for the young actors Ivars Kalnins and Peteris Gaudins "Theater" became a successful start to their film career. Both actors were real beauties and drove thousands of Soviet spectators crazy.

After such a successful start, the Latvian actor has become a serious competitor to many Russian colleagues. Once he managed to get around even Alexander Abdulov. He really wanted to play the captain of the royal guard, security officer Arthur Meschem in the film adaptation of the play by French playwright Eugene Scribe "Glass of Water". According to the plot, several heroines fell in love with his hero at once, among whom were the Queen of England Anne and the Duchess of Marlborough. It would seem who else could have looked more convincing in this role, but the director nevertheless opted for the Latvian actor Peteris Gaudinshe.

The role of the Duchess of Marlborough in this film was played by the famous actress Alla Demidova. When she first saw Pēteris on the set, she could not contain her irony. The actor recalled: "".

Three years later, in 1982, “The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe” was released, after which Peteris became the embodiment of the image of an ideal man. This film became one of the leaders in the box office in 1983 - it was watched by more than 28 million viewers. It was also remembered for the fact that the wonderful songs of Vladimir Vysotsky sounded in it. True, Gaudins himself did not appreciate this work highly and spoke about it reluctantly: "".

He continued to act until the early 1990s, and then, due to the crisis in cinema, a 10-year hiatus came in his film career. In 2003, he returned to the screens, but since then has played only 9 roles. Peteris Gaudins continues to perform on the theater stage, and in his free time he works as a tour guide in Prague. He rarely gives interviews and, despite his chosen profession, does not like publicity. He says that he was tired of fame even in his youth, and the attention of his fans did not always please him, but annoyed him.

He looks great at 65, but he really doesn’t like to be complimented on his appearance. The fact is that Peteris considers his appearance to be the main reason for a not very successful film career. He had a lot of roles, but all the directors, basically, exploited his attractive appearance and gave the same type of roles to schematic handsome men. In addition, he always looked younger than his years, and the "eternal youth" was not approved for serious dramatic roles.

The handsome man, whom thousands of fans throughout the country dreamed of, has never been married and until recently lived with his parents. After his father passed away, his mother moved to the actor's sister - she needed care, and because of his work, he did not have enough time for this. Since then, the actor has lived alone. He explains his choice as follows: "".

There is one more reason for his voluntary loneliness: women have persecuted him all his life, sought meetings, showed attention, and Peteris is convinced that a woman should not take the first steps, and that a man needs to remain a hunter. The actor says: "". His knight Ivanhoe on the screens embodied the dream of eternal love, and the actor himself said: "".

This film was significant not only in the creative biography of Pēteris Gaudins: Why "Theater" became for Ivars Kalninsh fateful and fatal at the same time.