Why one of the brightest Soviet actresses considered her beauty a curse: Natalya Kustinskaya

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

On April 5, the famous theater and cinema actress, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Natalya Kustinskaya could have turned 83, but she has been dead for 9 years already. In the 1960s - 1970s. she was called one of the most beautiful Soviet actresses, and in the last 20 years of her life she did not appear on the screens and was consigned to oblivion. She was worshiped by thousands of spectators, but she was not happy about this, because she considered her beauty a curse that destroyed her fate …

Favorite of Fortune

Natalia Kustinskaya from her youth often became the object of envy and gossip. She was considered by many to be a darling of fate - she was born into a family of pop artists and grew up in a creative atmosphere. Parents often took her to their concerts, and all the color of artistic bohemia gathered at their home: Lydia Ruslanova, Leonid Utesov, Klavdia Shulzhenko, Arkady Raikin, Isabella Yurieva, etc. Natalya studied at the elite music school at the Music School named after. Gnesins, she sang beautifully, danced, recited poetry, besides, from a young age she was an incredible beauty.

From the very first attempt, Kustinskaya entered VGIK, while still studying, she began acting in films. Although the teachers were categorically opposed to students pursuing a film career, an exception was made for her at the request of director Grigory Roshal, who saw her in the role of revolutionary Marusya in the third part of his film "Walking Through the Torment" called "Gloomy Morning". Later she recalled the first shootings: "". Both viewers and critics praised her debut role, and the young actress began to receive many new proposals, and most of them are the main roles. One could only dream of such a rapid start to an acting career.

The reason for envy was the fact that in her first year Natalya married director Yuri Chulyukin. Many were sure that this would provide the aspiring actress with a brilliant film career, but in reality it turned out quite differently. Kustinskaya wanted to play the role of the cook Tosya in her husband's film "Girls", but he secretly gave this role to Nadezhda Rumyantseva from her, allegedly for the reason that Natalia's appearance was too "thoroughbred" for the simpleton Tosya. In fact, the director was jealous of his wife for her success, did not want her popularity and resisted her being filmed for other directors. According to her, he feared that the beautiful wife would become the No. 1 actress and leave him.

The first beauty of Soviet cinema of the 1960s - 1970s

Both the envy of colleagues and the jealousy of her husband were in vain: Natalya Kustinskaya achieved success in the profession without the help of her husband-director, and their marriage broke up not because of her fame or infidelity, but because of his betrayal. Despite the setback in her personal life, her career took off. After the comedy "Three plus two" was released, Kustinskaya and Fateeva were named the most beautiful and promising actresses of Soviet cinema. After that, Natalya began to receive bags of letters with declarations of love, and in Paris, where she went as part of the Soviet delegation, the press included her in the top ten most beautiful actresses in the world, and her photo appeared on the cover of a glossy magazine with the title “Soviet Brigitte Bardot”.

Although in the 1960s - 1970s. Kustinskaya received one offer after another, very often she missed very promising chances. For example, the actress refused to star in "Prisoner of the Caucasus" due to the fact that she had already agreed to participate in the film "Zhenya, Zhenya and Katyusha", but before filming began she fell ill with pneumonia and had to give up this role. And for the actresses who played in these films, these works have become business cards and the key to a successful film career.

Sometimes Kustinskaya became the object of too persistent courtship of directors, who showed her unambiguous signs of attention, and for this reason she lost her roles. The actress often went abroad to represent Soviet films, but at home, due to her too bright "Western" appearance, she was deprived of roles - according to film officials, she did not correspond to the type of a Soviet woman. In addition, because of her beauty, she was not perceived as a serious actress, the directors saw in her only a frivolous seducer for vivid episodes - nothing more. Film critic Kirill Razlogov wrote: "".

As a result, her film career lasted 30 years, and during this time Natalia Kustinskaya played only 22 roles. Despite the powerful start and resounding success, she never became the # 1 actress. Her last creative peak was the role of director Yakin's passion in Leonid Gaidai's film Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession. After that, the main roles were not offered to her, and the episodes in the passage films were inconspicuous and unrecognizable.

Career decline and a series of misfortunes

In the 1980s. Kustinskaya practically stopped acting due to health problems. First, she broke her leg during a rehearsal of the play at the Film Actor Theater, then fell down the stairs at the entrance and received a serious injury to the base of the skull. Then misfortunes fell on her one after another: all her 6 marriages broke up, her husbands betrayed and left one at the most critical moments, the fourth and fifth husbands died, in 2002 her only son Dmitry died under unclear circumstances, and 10 years before that the 6-month-old grandson of the actress has passed away. After that, she began a prolonged depression, she abused alcohol, suffered from osteoarthritis and diabetes, and gained a lot of weight.

But most of all, her suffering was not caused by illness and personal misfortune, but by the fact that no one could recognize the first beauty of Soviet cinema in her. All her life, considering beauty to be her curse, she could not live without it. Patronage nurse Andrei Aseev - the only person who was with her in the last year of her life, said: "".

In 2010, after an attack of sciatica, the actress fell in the bathroom and received a spinal injury, after which she was bedridden. After 2 years, she fell ill with pneumonia and fell into a coma, in the hospital she had a stroke. On December 13, 2012, Natalia Kustinskaya, without regaining consciousness, passed away at the age of 74.

And in the memory of thousands of fans, she remained the first beauty of Soviet cinema: 20 photos of Natalia Kustinskaya, who was called "Russian Brigitte Bardot".