Behind the scenes of the movie fairy tale "Snow Maiden": Unfabulous destinies of the actors

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

50 years ago the film "The Snow Maiden" was released, which became one of the best Soviet children's films, the philosophical sound of which made it interesting for an adult audience as well. Some of the most beautiful and popular actors of that time were involved in the movie fairy tale. Unfortunately, most of them are no longer alive. Their fates were no less dramatic than those of their heroes from a fairy tale, in which there was not at all a fabulous, surprisingly sad ending …

Pavel Kadochnikov

The film was directed by the famous actor Pavel Kadochnikov, for whom it was the second director's work. He also played one of the roles in the film - Tsar Berendey. It is interesting that the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden" played a key role both in his acting destiny and in his personal life: after the graduate of the theater university was accepted into the troupe of the Leningrad Youth Theater, his first performance was The Snow Maiden. Then he appeared on stage in the form of Lel, declaring himself as one of the most promising young actors. And the role of Kupava in the play was played by Rosalia Kotovich, who soon became his wife. And years later, Kadochnikov again returned to this play by Alexander Ostrovsky, taking on its adaptation. Although the film was shot in 1968, it was released 2 years later - to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the playwright who wrote The Snow Maiden.

At that time he was 53 years old, and for several years he almost did not act in films, having fallen out of favor with the highest ranks in the cinema. The peak of his popularity came in the 1940s - 1950s, when Kadochnikov starred in the films The Exploit of the Scout, The Story of a Real Man, and The Tiger Tamer. After a protracted pause in his film career, Nikita Mikhalkov removed the "taboo" from the actor, inviting him to his film "An Unfinished Piece for a Mechanical Piano". After that, Kadochnikov again began to appear a lot. However, the most terrible misfortunes awaited him ahead: in 1981, his 36-year-old youngest son Peter died, falling from a tree, and 3 years later, his eldest son Konstantin died of a heart attack. These losses severely crippled the actor, and his heart could not stand it. In May 1988, Pavel Kadochnikov passed away at the age of 72.

Evgenia Filonova

The main role in the film was played by a graduate of the drama school Yevgenia Filonova, who had been on the set only once before. The role of the Snow Maiden brought her all-Union popularity and fame as one of the most beautiful Soviet actresses. This role became the only major and brightest in her filmography and largely predetermined her fate. She was the same in life - airy, detached, vulnerable, immersed in herself. Filonova did not know how to fight for a place in the sun, which is why her acting path was very short. After The Snow Maiden, she played only 4 movie roles and disappeared from the screens forever.

Evgenia Filonova melted as suddenly and quickly as her heroine. At the age of 40, the actress found out that she had breast cancer. The operation was done too late, and a year later she was gone. The daughter of Evgenia Filonova Marina said about her: "".

Boris Khimichev

The role of Mizgir went to the 35-year-old actor of the Moscow Academic Theater. V. Mayakovsky Boris Khimichev, for whom this work was the second in the cinema. In this image, he looked very impressive. The actor said: "".

Boris Khimichev did not have an acting vanity, he agreed to all the directors' proposals, and as a result, his filmography turned out to be a lot of passing work. He really starred a lot, but he had almost no bright main roles, unlike his second wife Tatyana Doronina. In the summer of 2014, doctors diagnosed the actor with inoperable brain cancer. Two months later, at the age of 82, Boris Khimichev died.

Irina Gubanova

The role of Kupava went to the 28-year-old theater and film actress Irina Gubanova. At that time, she was already a real star. Although in her youth she dreamed of ballet, while studying at the choreographic school, Gubanova played her first film role, after which she seriously thought about acting. She became famous for her roles in the films The Queen of Spades, The First Trolleybus, War and Peace, The Snow Queen.

However, her success did not last long: the most striking role after Kupava was the abbess of the boarding school for noble maidens in "Heavenly Swallows" in 1976. proposals from directors were received less and less often, and in the 1990s they completely disappeared. Irina Gubanova was engaged in dubbing foreign films and TV series until she was diagnosed with cancer. On April 15, 2000, the actress passed away at the age of 60.

Evgeny Zharikov

The role of Lel on the screens was played by Evgeny Zharikov, who 5 years before filming in The Snow Maiden gained all-Union popularity, playing one of the main roles in the film Three Plus Two. He was called one of the most beautiful, successful and sought-after Soviet actors. He played more than 100 film roles, continuing to act until the last years of his life. Probably, his fate was one of the happiest among all his colleagues in the movie "Snow Maiden", but the cause of his death was also oncology - he died in 2012 on the eve of his 71st birthday.

Before leaving, Evgeny Zharikov repeated more than once that he perceives his illnesses as punishment for sins: Soviet celebrities who lived in two families at the same time.