The final take: 3 Soviet actors who died while performing stunts

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

It's no secret that during the filming of dangerous episodes, actors are most often replaced by stuntmen, and it is their lives that are often threatened. They only manage to avoid injury thanks to their own professionalism and special training. However, in the history of cinema there were also such tragic cases when the actors themselves took on complex stunts and paid for it with their lives. This happened with three Soviet actors, whose lives ended prematurely and ridiculously …

Inna Burduchenko's film career was cut short as soon as it began. The very first role in the film "Ivanna" (1959) brought her success, and the audience began to call the actress Ivushka by the name of her heroine. She played the daughter of a priest who denied God, which later became the reason for persistent rumors that this film was anathematized by the Pope. These rumors were born after Soviet footballers visited Rome for the Olympic Games and heard about the anathema there. Decades later, the press again started talking about the curse supposedly hanging over the picture - the death of the 21-year-old actress seemed too ridiculous.

Her life was cut short just a year after the successful film debut. On the set of the film "Nobody loved so much," Burduchenko's heroine had to carry the banner out of the house, engulfed in flames. The actress worked without an understudy. They shot several takes, and during the last one a tragedy occurred: Inna's heel got stuck in the wooden boards, and at that moment a burning beam fell on her. Miner Sergei Ivanov, who starred in the crowd, rushed into the house and carried out the actress. Unfortunately, it was too late - she received 78% of burns, and it was not possible to save her. The director of the film was sentenced to 4 years in prison and suspended from filming.

Yevgeny Urbansky's film career was short, but very bright. After the first role, he won popularity and love of the audience. His film debut was the film "Communist" (1957), for his participation in which he received main prizes at festivals in Kiev and Venice. Two years later, he starred in the film Unsent Letter. After 36 years, Francis Ford Coppola took over the restoration of this painting and financed its rental in the United States. In 1961, the success of Evgeny Urbansky was consolidated by the film "Clear Sky", which was recognized as the best picture of the year in the USSR. It seemed that a brilliant future awaited him, but despite all the prerequisites, he did not succeed in becoming one of the first Soviet movie stars. he managed to star in only 9 films.

In 1965, on the set of The Director, an accident took place that took the life of a 33-year-old actor. He had a permanent stunt double, a professional athlete, but the actor preferred to perform most of the stunts on his own. The first take was filmed without incident, but the director suggested making the stunt more difficult so that the car jumped higher and filming another take. The truck, which was driven by Evgeny Urbansky, jumped on a sand dune, unexpectedly overturned. The actor broke his cervical vertebrae and died on the way to the hospital. After the tragic death of Urbansky, the picture was closed, and 4 years later, it was re-shot with another actor.

Urbansky's sudden death immediately gave rise to many ridiculous rumors that made his colleagues indignant. So, Alexei Batalov told with indignation: "".

Andrei Rostotsky, the son of the famous director Stanislav Rostotsky, often starred in military and heroic adventure films, was engaged in staging stunts and participated in them without resorting to the help of understudies, since 1997 he worked as an instructor at the transnational school of survival "Vitalis", deputy general Director of the Foundation for Russian Expeditions and Travels, led expeditions to the Crimean caves, was a member of the jury of the Moscow International Stunt Festival. No one doubted his experience and professionalism.

In 2002 Rostotsky went to the shooting of the film "My Border", which took place in the area of the ski resort near Sochi. The places where the stunts were supposed to be filmed, he usually examined himself. Relying on his athletic training, he tried to climb the mountain slope near the Maiden's Tears waterfall without belay and fell down from a 40-meter height. It was not possible to save the actor - he died in the hospital without regaining consciousness. Rostotsky's widow said: "".

Unfortunately, in the history of cinema, these are not isolated cases of the premature death of talented artists: favorite actors who passed away at the peak of fame.