How actor Vasily Merkuryev saved 6 human lives and why he never considered it a feat

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

Vasily Merkuriev played more than 70 roles in films, embodied many vivid images on the theater stage, the audience remembered the good-natured and weak-minded forester in the fairy tale "Cinderella". But the main achievement in his life was not even the work, which he loved very much and which he devoted himself to the very end. Together with his wife Irina Meyerhold, the actor saved six human lives. Vasily Merkuriev never considered this a feat, he just lived as his conscience told him.

The fate of the actor

Vasily Merkuryev was born in 1904 and was probably the luckiest of all six sons of Vasily Merkuryev and his wife Anna Grossen. At least, only he and, possibly, his older brother Eugene, who went abroad in 1917 with a relative, survived to old age.

At the age of 16, Vasily Merkuryev began to try himself as a theater actor, and at the age of 20 he made his film debut. On his account there were many bright works, the audience fell in love with the heroes of Vasily Merkuriev in "Cinderella" and "Heavenly slug", in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and in the film "Loyal Friends". But the country's leadership highly appreciated the work of the actor in the films Donetsk Miners, Glinka and The Story of a Real Man, for which Vasily Merkuryev was awarded the Stalin Prizes.

Vasily Merkuryev himself was fascinated by the profession all his life, worried before each of his steps on the stage, like the same 16-year-old boy who had yet to learn all the joys and sorrows of the acting profession.

Colleagues treated the actor with great warmth. He was a man of great soul and amazing nobility. Surprisingly, even the demanding and rather selective in her passions Faina Ranevskaya invariably spoke of Merkuriev with great respect.

She was even credited with an affair with Vasily Vasilyevich, although they only worked together in the fairy tale "Cinderella". At the same time, Vasily Merkuryev played the role of a soft and even partially weak-tempered spouse of the absurd stepmother Cinderella. Faina Georgievna even regretted that she did not have the opportunity to act with Merkuryev anymore. According to Ranevskaya, the actor was unusually modest, delicate and kind, for which she fell in love with her colleague.

By the way, it was Ranevskaya who persuaded the officials from the Ministry of Culture not to remove the actor from the role of the forester. The functionaries believed that a person who starred in patriotic films cannot appear in a children's fairy tale in the role of a forester, desperately afraid of his grumpy and quarrelsome wife.

Head of family

Vasily Merkuriev was one of those people who do not betray either their profession or their feelings. His wife was Irina Meyerhold, the daughter of the legendary and at the time of her acquaintance with Merkuriev, the already disgraced director Vsevolod Meyerhold. Although at the time when Vasily Merkuryev was going to marry Irina, there were "well-wishers" who warned the actor about the consequences of this marriage.

But he was sure: there can be no barriers to love. Most importantly, the actor has never regretted his choice in his entire life. The spouses had to go through many trials, and in any situation they invariably supported each other.

In this marriage, three children were born. Anna was born in 1935, and five years later - Catherine, in 1943 Peter was born. The year the actors' youngest daughter was born was very difficult for the family. In February, Irina's father, Vsevolod Meyerhold, was shot, and after a while a message came about the death of Peter Merkuryev, the younger brother of Vasily Vasilyevich.

Pyotr Vasilyevich had a seriously ill wife and three young children who had to be urgently saved. The family council was very short-lived. Irina Vsevolodovna and Vasily Vasilyevich decided to take and raise Vitaly, Evgeny and Natalia.

In 1943, the couple, along with all the children, went to evacuation. In the same year, their youngest child was born. During the return from evacuation in 1944, two more children were added to the six children already growing in the family (in some sources we are talking about three). Irina Meyerhold picked up the kids who had fallen behind the train. Naturally, Vasily Vasilyevich did not object to the decision of his wife. It is known that in 1947 the actor told this story on the radio and the lost children were taken home by their happy mother, who no longer even hoped to meet with them.

There was another saved life on the account of Vasily Merkuriev. In 1955, a housekeeper appeared in their house. During the war, a young woman was in German captivity, and after returning she found herself without work and without a registration. She was not accepted anywhere. Vasily Vasilyevich called her his niece, registered her in his and his wife's apartment and paid a salary for simple help to his wife around the house.

The actor felt like the real head of the family and was happy surrounded by his loved ones. The adopted son Eugene became, like his father, an actor. Pyotr Vasilievich decided to devote himself to music, graduated from two music schools, in Leningrad and in Moscow, received a higher choirmaster education at the Kharkov Institute of Arts, led a children's studio. At the same time, he acted in films a lot and fruitfully throughout his life, was a music journalist.

In 1978, Vasily Vasilyevich Merkuryev was delivered by an ambulance to the intensive care unit right from a rehearsal at the Leningrad Theater. Pushkin, where the actor was preparing to play the role of Rembrandt. On May 12, the actor died, and three years later his beloved wife, who was most worried about whether she could meet there, in the best of worlds, with her beloved husband, also passed away.

Vasily Merkuriev and Irina Meyerhold were called Romeo and Juliet for their touching display of feelings. They lived in perfect harmony for 44 years, having managed to preserve both youthful ardor and adult tenderness. Their whole life has passed under the sign of endless kindness, which they generously shared with others.