Forgotten Stars: Acting Genius and the Bitter Fate of Sister and Brother Gritsenko

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

The brother and sister had a five-year age difference and very similar acting fates. They were real stars, all of Moscow went to the performances with their participation, the roles played in the films were amazing in their authenticity and skill of embodiment. She was called one of the most beautiful women in the USSR, and he was a genius actor in the best sense of the word. They were famous and successful. But the ending of life, with a difference of 10 years, was very sad for both.

Trace in trail

Both of them were born in the Yekaterinoslav province (now Donetsk region) with a difference of five years. As a child, my brother and sister had to drive around the province after their father, a railroad worker. Nikolai, after graduating from a transport technical school, worked on the railway, at the same time doing amateur performances. Falling under the spell of the stage, the young man decided to become a professional artist.

Lilia showed vocal talent even in her school years, but she did not dream of a stage, hoping to enter an architectural school and build houses. She won several serious awards, first at a regional competition, then at an all-Ukrainian one. After performing in Kiev, she was invited to study in Moscow.

The head of the family, Olympia Gritsenko, was soon arrested, and the family moved to Moscow. Nikolai stubbornly searched for a suitable educational institution, eventually opting for the Shchukin School, which at that time was a school at the Vakhtangov Theater. After graduation, he was enrolled in the troupe of the theater.

Lily, too, did not immediately decide on the place of study. For two years she studied at the studio of the Bolshoi Theater, but later decided to graduate from the opera and drama studio at the Stanislavsky Theater. In the same way, like my brother, after graduating, she was accepted into the troupe of the Stanislavsky Theater.

At the performances with the participation of Nikolai Gritsenko, there was invariably a full house, and his relatives were always in the hall. Lilya tried not to miss the performances where Nikolai was involved, but it became more and more difficult for her to do it, because she herself served as an actress.

The actress's family life was not easy: her husband, Boris Ravenskikh was very jealous. And soon the young woman was carried away by another and left her husband for him. True, she did not manage to create a full-fledged family there either. Lilia was left without a family and, what is most offensive, without a theater, apart from which she could no longer imagine life. The actress began to seek solace in alcohol. Ironically, it was at this time that Nikolai's marriage fell apart. His wife left him.

Different similar destinies

Nikolai Gritsenko was called a genius actor. His art of reincarnation could not be overemphasized. It got to the point that the directors were sometimes afraid of the actor's appearance at the rehearsal. After being approved for the role, he was looking for the correct drawing of the role. And I found, only not one or two, like everyone else, but at least a dozen. He could appear at the same rehearsal several times in the form of the same hero, in the same clothes, but these were several completely different people.

The audience applauded him, but he was not lucky with women. He went through a series of stormy romances, married twice. In a marriage with Inna Malinovskaya, he had a daughter, Katya, and after an affair with Galina Klimt, a son, Denis, whom the actor had never seen.

He devoted all his strength and soul to work. Nikolai Gritsenko's talented colleagues on stage and on the set called him a genius and did not hide their admiration. His work in cinema made him a star of the first magnitude. He lived out each of his roles, and he played the image of Karenin in the film "Anna Karenina" in such a way that the tragedy of this abandoned man was visible and at the same time it was clear why Anna left him.

By this time, Boris Ravenskikh returned his ex-wife to the theater, she was able to leave her bad habits and breathe deeply again, going on stage.

Nikolay and Lilia Gritsenko played in the same films several times, invariably arousing the admiration of the audience. But their relationship by the end of their life was upset. What caused the quarrel between them, which led to the complete cessation of communication, is unknown. But at the end of their lives, there were no close people nearby for each of them.

The tragedy of loneliness 10 years apart

By the end of his life, Nikolai Gritsenko became distracted and forgetful. And all would be fine, but going on stage, fearing to forget your role, was painful. Colleagues, as best they could, supported the genius actor, they even wrote him huge posters with words that he could read from the stage. He could still play, but his last wife decided to put her husband in a psychiatric clinic. The ambulance took him straight from the theater.

One can only guess what the talented actor, the audience's favorite, felt when he was in a shelter for people with mental disorders. He was extremely happy every time a colleague from the theater came to see him. But he did not wait for his relatives. One night, he took other people's products in the refrigerator, confusing them with his own, for which other patients severely beat the actor. In December 1979 he passed away. His heart just stopped beating.

And almost ten years later, his sister's body was found in her own apartment. It was impossible to establish how much time had passed since her death.

They buried her next to her brother at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

On the screen, they played a variety of roles, behind the scenes they were worshiped and loved by millions of viewers. But in real life, no one is waiting for them outside the spotlights and camera flashes. Someone is happy alone, while someone lacks a close person nearby with whom they could just talk.