The fading star of Nina Krachkovskaya: How an actress found herself in the shadow of her famous daughter-in-law

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

On March 12, theater and cinema actress, Honored Artist of the RSFSR Nina Krachkovskaya passed away. For the general public, her departure went unnoticed, because in recent years she rarely appeared on screens, and in the world of theater and cinema, she was long overshadowed by a star with the same surname - her daughter-in-law Natalya Krachkovskaya. Even during their lifetime, because of the same surnames, the actresses were often confused, although outwardly they were completely different from each other. It so happened that the meteoric rise in popularity of Natalia put an end to the acting career of her husband's sister.

Tests of the Krachkovsky family

Nina Krachkovskaya was born in 1930 in an intelligent Moscow family: her father was an academician, dean of the railway department of the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers, a specialist in the construction of railways, and her mother, a graduate of the Institute of Noble Maidens, was engaged in raising children, Nina and her older brother Vladimir. Nina's childhood was happy, the family lived in the center of Moscow, at first they did not need anything. Everything changed when Nina was 8 years old: in 1938 her father fell under a wave of repression. He was arrested, sentenced to death and shot; his mother spent about a year in prison. Their apartment was taken away, the children had to live with relatives and friends. After her release, her mother got a job as a dressmaker in an artel, the family could barely make ends meet.

Since his youth, Nina's elder brother was fond of cinema and sound engineering, and after him, her sister also decided to link her fate with art. In 1949, she entered the acting department at VGIK, after which she became an actress at the Mosfilm film studio, and then at the Actor's Studio Theater.

Parallel film paths of Nina and Natalia Krachkovsky

At first, her acting career was quite successful: she became one of the leading actresses of the theater, immediately after graduating from VGIK, Nina Krachkovskaya began acting in films. And although she did not get the main roles, even the episodes with her participation turned out to be very bright and memorable. In the second half of the 1950s. several films were released with her participation: "The Commander of the Ship", "Dagger", "Pedagogical Poem", "There is such a guy", "They were the first", "Star Boy", "Warrant Officer Panin" and others.

In 1962, Nina's brother, sound engineer Vladimir Krachkovsky, on the set of the film Flood, drew attention to a young girl from the crowd, Natalia Belogortseva. She was 24 years old, he was almost 40, but he began to look after her, despite the fact that both his mother and sister did not approve of his choice. At that time, Natalya worked as a laboratory assistant at the Institute of Metallurgy of the USSR, although she dreamed of an acting profession. However, she had to leave her studies at VGIK after she was hit by a car, seriously damaged her eyes, and doctors forbade her to continue her studies and work under the bright light of spotlights. She did not want to give up her dream, and therefore agreed to be a statistician even in the tiniest episodes. In the late 1950s - 1960s. her name was never even mentioned in the credits. Soon she accepted the offer of Vladimir Krachkovsky and after the wedding took his last name.

Who knows how the further fate of Natalia Krachkovskaya would have developed if not for the help of her husband. Most likely, the path to the cinema would be closed for her. However, Vladimir persuaded Leonid Gaidai to invite an unprofessional actress to audition for the role of Madame Gritsatsuyeva in The Twelve Chairs, because this is the type the director needed. From that moment on, the meteoric rise of her film career began.

Two actresses Krachkovsky - too many for cinema

By that time, Nina Krachkovskaya was already a fairly well-known actress, and there should not have been a second artist with the same surname so that there would be no confusion. Gaidai understood this, and therefore suggested that Natalya be mentioned in the credits under the double surname Belogortseva-Krachkovskaya.

However, Natalia Krachkovskaya's film career developed much more rapidly and successfully than that of her sister-in-law; over time, part of the surname disappeared from the credits. And then confusion began: the script intended for one actress was sent to another, the titles of the films in which Nina and Natalya Krachkovsky were shot were mixed in publications about them. Nina said: "".

The end of the film career of Nina Krachkovskaya

Outwardly, they were absolutely not alike and it was impossible to confuse them, but the same surnames did their job. Natalia Krachkovskaya's bright type, charisma, comedic talent and the scope of her creative personality eclipsed the modest charm and less memorable texture of her sister-in-law, and soon, when this name was mentioned, both the directors and the audience remembered only Natalia. Both of them soon began to forget about Nina.

She herself never blamed her daughter-in-law, because she understood that she was inferior to her in the range of acting talent. In addition, Nina could not help but notice that in Soviet cinema there were many dynasties, whose representatives bore the same surnames, but were successful at the same time: the Mironovs, Yakovlevs, Vasilievs, Borisovs, etc. Therefore, claims were inappropriate here.

Nina Krachkovskaya continued to act in films, but was still content with only small episodes. For all her way to the cinema, she never played a single leading role. Since the mid-1980s. there were fewer and fewer new proposals, the pauses between filming lasted 5 years. The actress dubbed foreign films, performed on the theater stage, but in the mid-1990s. the halls were empty, and they had to leave the theater too. At the beginning of the new century, the actress starred in 6 films and TV series, and after 2015 she did not appear on the screens. This was the end of her acting career.

She was not worried about a failed creative life while her husband, the famous documentary filmmaker Vladlen Troshkin, was alive, with whom they raised their daughter Elena. After completing her career, the actress devoted herself to taking care of the family. But in 2015 her husband passed away, and since then her life seemed to have lost its meaning for her. After that, she stopped seeing colleagues and limited her social circle to her daughter's family. On March 12, 2021, Nina Krachkovskaya passed away. In a month she would have turned 91.

Filming in "The Twelve Chairs" brought fame and success to the actress, but became a stumbling block in the further development of her career: How Natalia Krachkovskaya became the best Madame Gritsatsuyeva, and how it turned out for her.