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How "Amphibian Man" saved Vladimir Korenev from poverty and made friends with Gagarin
How "Amphibian Man" saved Vladimir Korenev from poverty and made friends with Gagarin

Video: How "Amphibian Man" saved Vladimir Korenev from poverty and made friends with Gagarin

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On June 20, the famous theater and film actor, People's Artist of Russia Vladimir Korenev could have turned 81 years old, but at the beginning of this year he passed away. In his filmography - more than 50 works, but most of the audience remembered him for the first leading role, Ichthyander in the film "Amphibian Man". No one knew who actually owned the heart of the most popular romantic hero in the USSR at that time, and why shooting in this film almost cost him his life …

Actor in his youth
Actor in his youth

Vladimir Korenev was born in 1940 in Sevastopol, in the family of a naval sailor, Rear Admiral Boris Korenev. His childhood years were spent in Izmail, and later the family moved to Tallinn. There, Larisa Luzhina studied in the same class with him (later - a famous actress, People's Artist of the RSFSR), who brought him to the drama club. These performances were shown not only at school, but also on a professional stage, and then Korenev decided to enter a theater university. On the first attempt, he became a student at GITIS, and after completing his studies he was invited to the Moscow Drama Theater. K. Stanislavsky. Within a few years Korenev became the leading actor of this theater.

Vladimir Korenev and Alevtina Konstantinova
Vladimir Korenev and Alevtina Konstantinova

A classmate of Korenev was Alevtina Konstantinova - the same provincial like himself. She conquered him with her naivety, purity and spontaneity, Alevtina herself proposed to him, and a few months after they met they got married. His father had an apartment in Moscow, but when he got married and began performing in the theater, he left home and settled with his wife in a decoration shed in the theater. Actors Yevgeny Urbansky and Albert Filozov also lived there illegally. The first one played the guitar, the second one played the piano; famous poets, playwrights, and sportsmen gathered at their place. Life was poor but very happy.

Love on screens and behind the scenes

Actor in his youth
Actor in his youth

His financial situation did not change for the better, even after, in the year he graduated from GITIS, he played his first major role in a movie that made him famous throughout the Union - Ichthyandra in the legendary film "Amphibian Man". It turned out that his fee was 35 rubles more than it should have been. The actor admitted: "". He received tens of thousands of letters from women in love, which the actor put in a large box from under the refrigerator, and enthusiastic spectators greeted him with applause in all cities. Then he gave several concerts a day, and this made it possible to provide for the family.

Vladimir Korenev as Ichthyander
Vladimir Korenev as Ichthyander

"", - said Vladimir Korenev. With his chosen one, he lived all his life, and no recognition of the fans changed his attitude towards his wife. On the shooting of "Amphibian Man" he left an unknown young actor, and a year later he became a star of the all-Union scale. True, this did not affect their relationship in any way. "", - Korenev said with a smile.

Still from the movie Amphibian Man, 1961
Still from the movie Amphibian Man, 1961

While the whole country was discussing the alleged romance of Vladimir Korenev and Anastasia Vertinskaya, in fact, the actor spent all his free time from filming with his young wife, Alevtina Konstantinova. Her main concern then was one task - to warm him up after many hours of filming in cold water and feed him properly, because due to physical exertion, the already thin actor was catastrophically losing weight.

Shooting at the risk of life

Vladimir Korenev as Ichthyander
Vladimir Korenev as Ichthyander

The costume in which Ichthyander was swimming was made of a material similar to the one from which women's tights were made, and on top of it were sewn scales made from blown out film and tinted with silver paint. The suit quickly got wet, the actor was very cold at a depth of 10 meters, and his wife was only worried that this would not cause irreparable harm to his health, because once he almost drowned. In one of the scenes where Ichthyander is thrown into the water, chained to a metal chain, the sailor hesitated and released it from his hands. A 60-meter chain weighing 50 kg would surely have dragged him to the bottom, if not for the lightning-fast reaction of the operator Eduard Rozovsky - he immediately threw the camera and grabbed the end of the chain.

Still from the movie Amphibian Man, 1961
Still from the movie Amphibian Man, 1961

Korenev performed most of the tricks on his own, because before filming he was taught scuba diving in the pool of the Institute of Physical Education in Leningrad, but still in the sea at great depths he was insured by the champion in underwater sports Anatoly Ivanov. Once, due to a prolonged stay in the water, the actor fell ill, and the understudy replaced him during filming on land. Outwardly, they were so similar that the audience probably did not notice the substitution in several urban episodes. Despite all the risks, Korenev later said that he got great pleasure from filming and did not feel any fears and difficulties, because at 20 no one thinks about dangers.

Vladimir Korenev as Ichthyander
Vladimir Korenev as Ichthyander

He could not physically answer all the letters that Korenev received after filming, but one of them still attracted his attention, and the actor could not help but react. One of the fans sent him a letter with a fragment of a photograph and said that there will be 10 such letters, and from these fragments you can assemble a whole photograph in which she posed without clothes. The actor appreciated the ingenuity of the fan and in return sent her his autographed photo, asking for forgiveness for the fact that he was dressed in the picture.

The other side of the glory of Ichthyander

Still from the movie Amphibian Man, 1961
Still from the movie Amphibian Man, 1961

Among the admirers of the "Amphibian Man" were the most famous people in the USSR. So, Vladimir Korenev had friendly relations with Yuri Gagarin himself. The actor said: "".

People's Artist of Russia Vladimir Korenev
People's Artist of Russia Vladimir Korenev

The role of Ichthyander forever secured the role of a romantic hero for Korenev, and subsequently he deliberately refused such roles, agreeing only to the images of comedic characters or negative heroes. But none of these films have brought him the same deafening popularity as "The Amphibian Man."

Vladimir Korenev and Alevtina Konstantinova
Vladimir Korenev and Alevtina Konstantinova

Having fallen in love with each other in their youth, they never parted: Half a century together and the fear of losing Vladimir Korenev and Alevtina Konstantinova.

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