3 marriages and the unrequited love of the soldier Ivan Brovkin: What accelerated the departure of Leonid Kharitonov

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

The glory of Leonid Kharitonov in the 1950s was simply incredible. As soon as the film "School of Courage" was released, he literally woke up famous. And after the premiere of the film "Soldier Ivan Brovkin", the actor's popularity became simply phenomenal. Yesterday's graduate of the Moscow Art Theater School bathed in adoration of fans and female fans. He himself was an addicted person: Leonid Kharitonov had three beautiful wives and one, as it turned out, unrequited love.

Craving for art

Leonid Kharitonov was born in May 1930 in the most ordinary family of a doctor and engineer. Leonid and his younger brother Victor brought a lot of trouble to their parents. Either the neighbor's glass will be smashed during the game of football, or else they will somehow make a mischief. At the same time, there was an agreement between the boys: the younger always takes all the blame, so that they were less scolded for pranks.

When the Great Patriotic War began, 11-year-old Leonid fled to the front, they caught him almost on the front line and, of course, returned home to Leningrad. And then there was a blockade. Leonid was on duty along with the adults, dropping incendiary bombs from the roofs. In the worst time they survived thanks to a small supply of fish oil, which my mother acquired in pharmacies in the pre-war years. She, as a doctor, together with her youngest son was evacuated at the beginning of the blockade, her father and Leonid were taken out of the city much later. On the way through Ladoga, according to the memoirs of Viktor Kharitonov, dad and Leonid ate soap. This, of course, will affect the health of the future actor with a stomach ulcer.

After lifting the blockade, the whole family returned to Leningrad. Then they lived very modestly, but Leonid and Viktor Kharitonovs studied at the best school in the city - 239th. There was a wonderful theatrical circle, where both Leonid and Victor later studied. It was the stage of the school assembly hall that became the first theatrical stage of Leonid. The talented boy was often trusted to play the main roles.

The school was for men, but on holidays girls from the girls' school came to them, they immediately drew attention to the handsome guy who played so incendiary in theatrical performances. And Leonid, of course, in high school managed to survive more than one hobby.

Despite the obvious craving for art, after graduating from school, Leonid Kharitonov applied to the law office, but a year later he realized his mistake, took the documents and entered the Moscow Art Theater School. There he not only took the first steps in the profession, but also met a girl whom he fell in love with.

Svetlana Sorokina

The romance of Leonid Kharitonov and Svetlana Sorokina proceeded in front of all students and teachers. They seemed very different: tall red-haired Svetlana and small, thin and snub-nosed Leonid. But somehow it became clear to everyone around that the guys were serious. In the third year, the lovers became husband and wife, settled in the same apartment with the wife's parents.

In 1954, Leonid Kharitonov starred in the film "School of Courage", where he played the main role and immediately became famous. For his sake, they even made an exception, because even in the last courses of the Moscow Art Theater School, students were not allowed to play in the movies. In the same year he received his diploma, and a year later the film "Soldier Ivan Brovkin" was released, which made the young actor a real star.

After such success, the directors literally bombarded Leonid Kharitonov with proposals, and he also became a member of the troupe of the famous M. Gorky Moscow Art Theater. Here he played the main role of Alyoshka Vronsky in the production of "The Road Through Sokolniki", which was a tremendous success thanks to the actor's fame: 400 sold-out houses in just a few months. But there will be no more leading roles in the theater for him.

Gemma Osmolovskaya

In 1957, the actor on the set of the film "The Street is Full of Surprises" will meet his young colleague Gemma Osmolovskaya, whom he will fall in love with. The girl, knowing that Leonid is married, will resist her feelings for a long time. But after meeting the parents of Leonid Kharitonov, to whom he will invite the entire film crew, the actress will surrender. When the picture is released, Gemma Osmolovskaya and Leonid Kharitonov will already be husband and wife.

Svetlana, Kharitonov's first wife, was going through a divorce for a very long time. But it was her ex-husband who came to her aid when she killed a woman in her car. The relatives of the deceased petitioned the court to mitigate the punishment for the actress, and she was sent to settle in the Vladimir region for three years. Leonid Kharitonov supported Svetlana financially and even visited her.

He was happy with Gemma, the couple had a son, Alexei, and the theater gave the young family a room in a communal apartment. Leonid Kharitonov loved his son very much, tried to devote all his free time to him. But his second marriage lasted only seven years. Gemma could not put up with everyday difficulties for a long time, and with the increased attention of fans to him, and her husband began to abuse alcohol. Then the divorce of the two actors was overgrown with many rumors, they talked about the betrayal of both Leonid Kharitonov and his wife, but still the version about the actor's alcohol dependence seemed the most plausible.

Evgeniya Gibova

Already in the 1960s, Leonid Kharitonov began to feel an acute lack of demand. He was invited to the cinema less and less, in the theater he was also practically not given roles. And he gladly agreed to become a teacher at his own Moscow Art Theater School. It was there that he met his third wife.

The young teacher was carried away by the first-year student Evgenia Gibova and soon proposed to her. The girl, unlike an actor soft in character, was strong, even sometimes tough, but she sincerely fell in love with Leonid Kharitonov. He lived with her for over 20 years, until the last day of his life.

According to the actor's colleagues, Evgenia Gibova was an excellent hostess, she surrounded her husband with cleanliness, attention and care, but at the same time she did not welcome her husband's communication either with friends or with his own son. Even with his mother, who came from Leningrad, Leonid Kharitonov almost always met on neutral territory. But at the same time, the wife devoted herself entirely to her husband.

Unrequited love

The younger brother of Leonid Kharitonov, who also became an actor, will tell in his memoirs that the theater has always been the main thing in his brother's life. He was like a secret wife constantly present in his life, evil and terrible. The absence of roles oppressed the talented actor, but at one time he found salvation in visiting concerts, and then he was accused of unearned income and almost brought to justice.

After Oleg Efremov came to the Moscow Art Theater, Leonid Kharitonov, like many of his colleagues, had certain hopes. But he again did not find his surname in the appointment for the role. At one time he rehearsed in "Ward No. 6", but the play was removed from the repertoire. Then the actor had his first stroke.

Later, the question arose about the split of the Moscow Art Theater, Leonid Vladimirovich tried to fight. He constantly wrote letters, went to a reception at the Ministry of Culture, argued the inexpediency of dividing into two theaters. But he achieved only the anger of his superiors and the spread of rumors about his mental illness. And he got a second stroke.

The actor had not yet had time to recover from his illness when he was invited to tour with solo concerts in the Tver region. And he went without feeling sorry for himself. And on June 20, 1987, on the very day when the final decision was made to split the Moscow Art Theater, he died, unable to survive a third stroke. He loved theater all his life, but this love of the actor, in fact, remained unrequited.

The creative path of Leonid Kharitonov's second wife Gemma Osmolovskaya was very short and bright. The audience remembered her for the films "The Tale of First Love" and "The Street is Full of Surprises." But a series of trials and misfortunes led the actress to creative collapse and complete oblivion.