Personal secret of Pyotr Shcherbakov: What was hidden by Bublikov from "Office Romance"

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

28 years ago, on March 16, 1992, the famous Soviet actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR Pyotr Shcherbakov passed away. He played dozens of roles, but there were almost no major ones among them. True, he knew how to turn any episode or supporting role into a masterpiece - the audience probably remembered his images in "Garage", "Winter Evening in Gagra", "We are from Jazz" and, of course, "Office Romance", where Shcherbakov played Bublikov - the same silent hero who watched women's legs all day at work. Behind the scenes, the actor turned out to have a lot in common with his hero, not indifferent to the weaker sex, and only recently it became known what secret he had kept all his life …

Viewers might never see him on screens - he was born in 1929 into a simple family of workers, his father worked at a factory, and soon his son got a job there too - during the day he worked in a stamping and mechanical workshop, and in the evenings he attended classes in auto-mechanical technical school. His older sisters also worked at the factory and were engaged in the factory theater group. Since there was a shortage of guys, they invited their brother to go there with them for the company. He liked to participate in amateur performances, but Peter still did not think seriously about his acting career. He graduated from college with honors and was about to enter a technical university to join the ranks of engineers, but then fate intervened.

Once Shcherbakov, while walking, approached the threshold of GITIS and suddenly thought: why not try? He found teachers and said: "". To his surprise, he passed the entrance tests and was accepted. His creative biography began in Germany, at the Theater of Soviet Troops, where he ended up after graduation. A year later, Peter returned to Moscow, and after another 2 years he was accepted into the troupe of the Sovremennik Theater, to which he devoted 27 years of his life. And after that, Oleg Efremov persuaded him to go to the Moscow Art Theater, where he remained for 7 years, until his very last days.

Both in the theater and in the cinema, Shcherbakov often got the roles of secretaries of district and regional committees and other bureaucrats - they came out in his performance very convincing, because in his lifetime the actor had seen a lot of them. At Sovremennik, he headed the theatrical party organization and often communicated with officials of all stripes. Among his movie characters there were many military men - in uniform, he also looked very organic. Captain Alexander Studzinsky in the film "Days of the Turbins" turned out to be very colorful in his performance.

The creative fate of Pyotr Shcherbakov could not be called unsuccessful - he was a sought-after actor, however, he often appeared on the theater stage than on the set. But neither in the cinema nor in the theater did he get the main roles. But in the episodes and supporting roles, he so honed his acting skills that even his two-minute appearance on the screens was enough for his character to be engraved in the memory of the audience. He could literally create such a vivid image with just a few strokes that he was in no way inferior to the main characters. This is exactly what happened to his head of the catering department Bublikov in "Office Romance". Shcherbakov managed, without words, with just facial expressions, eloquent looks and sighs, to create the image of an ardent female admirer who cannot concentrate on work, since such beautiful legs walk past him all day up and down the stairs! And in real life, the actor, too, often could not resist the temptations …

The actor was officially married twice. His first wife, named Nina, died 3 years after the birth of his son Andrei. A few years later, he married a second time, and lived with this woman until the end of his days. However, in addition to official marriages, the actor also had a civil one, which he never talked about. After his first wife passed away, he began courting Galina Lishtvanova, a 23-year-old girl who got a job as a usher at Sovremennik after she was not admitted to a theater university (she later became the theater's chief administrator). And although Pyotr Shcherbakov was a famous actor and a favorite of women, at first he did not make any impression on Galina - he was 14 years older than her, and this age difference seemed to her then an insurmountable obstacle.

However, Peter Shcherbakov used all his charm and perseverance, and Galina could not resist. Six months after he became a widower, the actor proposed to his new darling. Later she said: "". Galina moved to Peter Shcherbakov and became a mother for his 4-year-old son. She immediately developed a good relationship with him, she took care of him like her own child.

A union that seemed idyllic to many colleagues in the theater, in fact, was not so. Galina spoke very restrainedly about the difficulties of relations with the famous actor: "". However, after 2 years, Shcherbakov brought her so much suffering that she had to forget about personal happiness for a long time.

When Galina found out that she was expecting a child, the actor again invited her to sign, but she decided to postpone the marriage until the birth of her daughter. Unfortunately, these plans never came to fruition. Later, she recalled that then her beloved person seemed to be replaced - he noticeably cooled towards her, and after the birth of her daughter Olga appeared in the hospital only a week later. As it turned out, he had another woman, who later became his second official wife. Galina could not forgive the betrayal and immediately left the actor. She later regretted this decision, primarily because her daughter grew up without a father.

Peter Sherbakov officially adopted Olga, but Galina wrote down her daughter in her last name. The girl never saw her father. When she came to his performances, he looked at her from behind the curtains, but did not dare to approach. During the life of the actor, no one even knew that he had a daughter. She had a chance to kiss her father only once - when he was seen off on his last journey in 1992. Galina Lishtvanova still regrets that both of them made so many mistakes: "".

Behind the scenes of the film that made Pyotr Shcherbakov famous, a lot of interesting things remained: What had to be cut from the "Office Romance".