The difficult path to happiness of Marina Neyelova, or Life after 40 is just beginning

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

January 8 celebrates her 71st birthday People's Artist of the RSFSR, theater and film actress Marina Neyelova … Creative success came to her early, when, while still a student, she starred in the film "Old, Old Tale". But the path to personal happiness has become much longer and more difficult: she gave birth to a daughter at 40, and met her fate at 42.

Since childhood, Marina Neyolova dreamed of becoming an actress, and her mother saw her daughter as a ballerina, so from the age of 4 the girl began to practice ballet. After school, she entered the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography (LGITMiK), and even during her studies she made a successful film debut. The film "The Old, Old Tale" received favorable reviews from critics and earned popularity among viewers. In 1974, the actress came to Sovremennik, and since then her entire creative life has been associated with this theater.

The artist has always been complex because of her thinness and short stature - it seemed to her that next to stately beauties she looks like a gray mouse, not feminine and attractive enough. She always weighed 45 kg and was upset that she could not get better. Oleg Tabakov said about her: "Two matches of legs, two matches of hands, eyes and a lower lip."

On the set of the film "The Color of White Snow", where she played the main role, Neelova met the director Anatoly Vasiliev, who became her husband. They lived together for 8 years, after which they broke up and stopped communicating. Both do not like to talk about the reasons. “Everyone has their own cockroaches. I treated her and treat her with great reverence, she is an amazing actress. After our divorce, I watch her as a spectator,”says Vasiliev.

In 1984, a scandal erupted: the 37-year-old actress had a whirlwind romance with the 21-year-old chess player Garry Kasparov. His mother, whose authority he admired, was categorically against her son's relationship, which distracted him from his career. Obeying the will of his mother, Kasparov broke up with Neelova, and in 1987 the actress gave birth to a daughter, Nika, with whom Kasparov never recognized his relationship, despite the obvious outward resemblance. Then almost the entire Moscow artistic audience stood up to defend Neelova. V. Gaft said that after that Kasparov would not be accepted in any decent house.

Years later, Kasparov wrote: “Our close communication with Marina Neyelova lasted more than two years. She was 16 years older than me, like all my then friends. Partly because I matured very quickly. But much more due to the fact that peers, as a rule, sought to get married as soon as possible. Of course, I could not even think about this, as I was preparing for my first world championship match. Marina suited me because she did not want to get married. She understood the true nature of my struggle and gave me support and support. … But in 1986 I was very concerned about the preparations for the rematch … I almost stopped seeing Marina. Parting was becoming inevitable. Therefore, I was completely sure that the child she was carrying could not be mine. Each of us already had a separate personal life. I tried to get it all out of my head and focused on chess."

Neelova was very upset by this break and for two years led a reclusive lifestyle, and then at one of the receptions she met diplomat Kirill Gevorgyan. He became her second husband, with whom she finally found true happiness.

For several years, the artist lived in two countries, since Gevorgyan, as an adviser to the Russian embassy, was sent on a business trip to Paris. 2003 to 2009 Neelova lived with her husband in the Netherlands. Then they returned to Russia, the actress continues to play in the theater and act in films. Her daughter Nika is engaged in painting and sculpture, and in 2010 she became the winner of the European competition "New Sensations" and held her solo exhibition in London.

After her first film, Neelova refused the roles of princesses in order not to become a hostage of one image, but still she was remembered by the audience as one of the most beautiful princesses of Soviet cinema.