The ruined life of Inna Gulaya: What caused the premature departure of the widow of Gennady Shpalikov

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

In the 1960s. she was one of the most beautiful, promising and promising young actresses. Her husband was the famous poet and film director, screenwriter of the film "I Walk Through Moscow" Gennady Shpalikov, her talent and beauty were admired by many colleagues, one of her ardent admirers was Yuri Nikulin. Then no one could have imagined that the star of Inna Gulaya would fade away so quickly that her filmography would have only a little more than 10 works, and her film career would end on takeoff. Why the actress was accused of her husband committing suicide, and what caused her own premature departure - further in the review.

Inna Gulaya was born in 1940 in Kharkov. She received her last name from her mother. For a long time she did not know anything about her own father - he put her mother on hearing about her pregnancy. Inna was raised by her stepfather, who treated her like his own daughter, but he died early. Her childhood was very difficult - it fell on the war and post-war years. But, despite the troubles and difficulties she experienced, Inna grew up very cheerful, cheerful and cheerful. After school, she went to Moscow to go to college, did not pass the entrance exams and got a job as a machine operator at a factory. In parallel, she began to study in a theater studio. There she was noticed by director Vasily Ordynsky, who offered her the main role in the film "Clouds over Borsk".

Even before Inna Gulaya entered the Shchukin Theater School, she made her film debut. In 1960, she got a small role in the comedy "A Noisy Day" and the main role in the anti-religious drama "Clouds over Borsk", and a year later Lev Kulidzhanov entrusted her with the lead role in the film "When the Trees Were Big", where she played in tandem with Yuri Nikulin. Later he recalled: "".

She possessed natural magnetism, and many men lost their heads from her. The poet Gennady Shpalikov could not resist her either. The charming and witty intellectual was able to win the heart of his chosen one, and they soon got married. Inna Gulaya and Gennady Shpalikov were called one of the brightest couples in the cinema of the 1960s. She was a promising actress, he was considered one of the youngest and most talented screenwriters and poets, the whole country sang songs based on his poems. Both were snapped up in movies. In 1962, Inna Gulaya represented the Soviet Union at the Cannes Film Festival. Many envied their success and love - it seemed that then the whole world lay at their feet, and a bright future awaited them ahead. But the period of their triumph was very short-lived and ended in disaster for the two of them.

The main joint creation of this family and creative union was the film "Long Happy Life", where Shpalikov was a screenwriter and director, and his wife played the main role. This picture in the domestic box office failed, but was awarded a prize at the auteur cinema festival in Italy. She became the first and last directorial work of Gennady Shpalikov and one of the last leading roles of Inna Gulai.

The date March 19, 1963, both Gennady and Inna remembered forever: on that day their daughter Dasha was born, and at the same time Shpalikov made an accusatory speech at a meeting of the country's leaders and figures of Soviet cinema in the Kremlin. The film by Marlen Khutsiev based on the script by Gennady Shpalikov "Zastava Ilyich" ("I am twenty years old") was accused of anti-Sovietism after Khrushchev himself called it "ideological sabotage" and sent "to the shelf." The poet went to the podium and instead of repentance, in response to the devastating reviews, said that one day the time will come when the filmmakers will receive the same fame and respect as the heroes-astronauts, and that he asks not to judge the film too harshly, as he has the right to make a mistake.

Shpalikov was not forgiven for this trick - the scriptwriter decided to lecture the country's leadership! After that, he was "cut off oxygen" as a screenwriter and director, his poems were no longer published. Due to creative unfulfillment, he began to drink heavily. The poet could disappear from home for a week, and then call and say that he met acquaintances and went with them to Sochi. Because of this addiction, his first marriage fell apart, and now the second is under threat. Inna endured for a long time and did not lose hope that in the future everything would change for the better, but these hopes were not justified.

Following her husband, she herself fell out of favor. They stopped offering Inna the main roles, the directors of the first row no longer wanted to cooperate with Shpalikov, and he could not afford to work with others. The actress not only could not save him from alcohol addiction, but she herself began to drink with her husband. After several of his escapes from the hospital, where she sent him for treatment, Inna nevertheless decided to file for divorce, fearing for the fate of her daughter.

In the early 1970s. the poet began to drink heavily again, and on November 1, 1974, he killed himself. Many accused Inna of leaving him - they say, she left him at a difficult moment, did not support him, did not save him. And she confessed to her friends that her first impulse was to take her own life after her husband, but thoughts of her daughter kept her from this step.

She was left completely alone, withdrew into herself, stopped appearing in public, drank heavily. In recent years, she has not acted in films, even in episodes. Inna Gulaya outlived her husband by 16 years, but those years were terrible and bleak. On May 27, 1990, she passed away under mysterious circumstances. According to one version, the reason for her departure was an accidental overdose of sleeping pills, according to another, she did it on purpose. However, the second version did not find confirmation - her mother said that Inna suffered from insomnia, was saved only by sleeping pills and could simply not calculate the volume. At that time, the actress was only 50 years old.

He was called the brightest legend of the 1960s. and a symbol of the generation of the thaw era, but he passed away at the age of 37: Crazy star Gennady Shpalikov.