The cruel fate of the star of "Big Change": Why one of the most beautiful Soviet actresses disappeared from the screens

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

In the 1970s. Natalia Bogunova was called one of the most beautiful and most popular Soviet actresses. All-Union fame brought her the role of the Snow Maiden in "Spring Tale" and the teacher of Russian language and literature Svetlana Afanasyevna, the wife of Grigory Ganzha from "Big Change". But soon after her triumph, she disappeared from the screens. In the last 20 years of her life, the actress did not appear in public, almost nothing was known about her fate. Unfortunately, at this time she became a permanent patient of a psychiatric hospital, and due to a number of sad events her condition worsened …

Natalia Bogunova was born and raised in Leningrad. As a child, she was fond of dancing and dreamed of becoming a ballerina. At the age of 10, Natalya entered the ballet school at the Mariinsky Theater. She did not even think about cinema then, but once the director Igor Talankin came to their class, who was looking for young actors for his film "Introduction". So Bogunova got her first film role. After 2 years she was offered another role - in the film "Goodbye, Boys", after which she gained her first popularity and recognition. Due to the filming, her training regime went out of place, she lost her shape and gained weight, and the ballet had to be abandoned.

Bogunova graduated from school as an external student and entered VGIK from the very first attempt. The teacher Boris Babochkin called her an unearthly beauty with a pure soul and considered her the most talented on the course, although the competition was very strong - Elena Solovey, Natalya Gvozdikova and Galina Loginova (mother of Milla Jovovich) studied with Bogunova. By the time she completed her studies, she managed to star in several more films, starring in the film "Boy and Girl" and the role of Daisy in the film Runner on the Waves. After graduating from VGIK, she was admitted to the Theater. Mossovet, on the stage of which she performed for 17 years.

In 1971, a musical film "A Spring Tale" based on the play "The Snow Maiden" by A. Ostrovsky, where Natalia Bogunova performed the main role, was released. In this image, she was very organic - gentle, fragile, unearthly, “out of this world”, she seemed to be playing herself. And 2 years later, the whole country started talking about her - the role of Svetlana Afanasyevna in "Big Change" became her calling card.

When director Alexei Korenev invited her to read the script and choose a role, Natalya said without hesitation that it should be a teacher of Russian language and literature, explaining her choice by saying that "this character will always be loved." It was this image that she got. Due to the fact that she was approved for this role, Andrei Myagkov left the picture - initially the director saw in the main role, history teacher Nestor Petrovich, it was him. But the actor set a condition: he will be filmed only if his wife, actress Anastasia Voznesenskaya, is taken to the role of Svetlana Afanasyevna. Korenev did not agree to these conditions, and the audience saw Mikhail Kononov in the image of Nestor Petrovich.

Her heroine was the wife of Grigory Ganzhi, the character of Alexander Zbruev, and on the screens they looked such a beautiful couple that the audience immediately attributed the novel to them outside the set. In fact, the actress had only professional relations with Zbruev. While studying at VGIK, Natalya met Alexander Stefanovich, who was studying to be a director, and soon married him. He talked about Bogunova: "". Later, Stefanovich became the first husband of Alla Pugacheva, and Natalya Bogunova never married again, and she had no children.

Many were convinced that after the incredible success of "Big Change", Bogunova would not be rejected by new proposals, but after that she did not have any bright roles, and she appeared on the screens, mainly in television plays. At the same time, the directors did not deny that she had a very great potential. So, Boris Tokarev said about her: "".

However, the type of spiritualized, intelligent, pure and bright heroines in the cinema of the 1980s. ceased to be in demand - they were replaced by brighter, bolder and more relaxed heroines. She was invited to auditions, which she passed quite successfully, but at the same time other actresses were approved as a result. This happened with the role of Sonechka Marmeladova in the film adaptation of Crime and Punishment, where Bogunova even started acting, but was removed from the role, with the films The Only One and Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession. Because of this, Natalya Bogunova was very worried, which led to nervous breakdowns.

In the mid-1980s. colleagues Bogunova at the Theater. The Moscow City Council began to notice that she was behaving strangely. The actress on stage suddenly began to sing her lyrics, she could call one of her colleagues in the middle of the night, and then she did not remember about it. At first they thought she was having a nervous breakdown. Unfortunately, everything turned out to be much more serious. For the first time, she was taken to a psychiatric hospital directly from the theater. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In the spring and autumn, her condition worsened, her relatives called an ambulance, and Bogunova was taken to a psychiatric hospital, where she became a regular patient. The actress spoke evasively about the reasons for her departure from the theater, saying only that it was preceded by a “long, unpleasant story”.

In the 1980s. Natalia Bogunova practically did not act in films. Her last film work was a cameo in the movie "Running on the Sunny Side" in 1992. Her mental health deteriorated when in 2010 her only loved one, her mother, who fell out of the window of her apartment, passed away. The scammers took advantage of Bogunova's grave condition and, calling themselves her relatives, tried to fraudulently take away her apartment. After that, the actress spent a whole year in a psychiatric hospital.

Natalia was left all alone. Loneliness, creative lack of demand, personal dramas could not but affect her condition. One of the first beauties of Soviet cinema of the 1970s, about which hundreds of fans dreamed, suddenly turned out to be of no use to anyone. She had no friends. Actress Lyudmila Gladunko said: "". Lyudmila tried to support her, talked to her for hours on the phone. It seemed to Natalya that the neighbors were trying to squeeze her out of the light, that in her absence someone was at her house, that she was being watched. In 2013, the actress passed away at the age of 65. She had a heart attack due to nerves. Only 20 people came to say goodbye to her.

This film sparked in the 1970s. many disputes: Why the director of "Big Change" was complained about by school teachers.