How the charismatic actor Pyotr Aleinikov became a hostage of the image and a victim of the "green snake"

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

On June 9, 1965, the famous actor, the idol of Soviet television viewers, Pyotr Martynovich Aleinikov, passed away. Charismatic and charming, funny and joker Aleinikov won the hearts of thousands of fans. But this was not enough for the actor, for real creativity, it seemed to him, something else was needed.

Left at a young age without parents, the boy was brought up in an orphanage, which tempered his character. The traits of an organizer (although some called it dictatorship) in the character of the young Aleinikov appeared after at the age of fifteen he created a drama circle and became its leader. It would seem that the guy had all the makings to become a strong, successful and self-confident person. However, under the influence of certain circumstances, Aleinikov's volitional qualities turned into selfish eccentricity. Why did it happen? It's simple - the actor turned out to be a sick person.

Childhood and youth

Pyotr Aleinikov was born on July 12, 1914 in a small village of the Mogilev region. The boy was left without parents early and, in order to survive, he had to beg with his older sister. Later, his sister returned home, and Peter became a homeless child. The dream of becoming an actor came to Peter while he was in the orphanage. And he realized it by enrolling in the Leningrad College of Performing Arts on the course of director Sergei Gerasimov, who would later offer the young Aleinikov a role in his film.

Escape from reality

In all the stories about the life and work of Peter Aleinikov, the line of drunkenness is systematically traced. But here's the paradox - after the death of the actor, doctors did not find any traces of the destructive effect of alcohol in his body. They were surprised to find out that Aleinikov's liver was absolutely healthy. How is this possible? It's very simple: being an alcoholic, the actor drank very little. To "get drunk as a lord", one glass of vodka was enough for him. Given this feature of the body, doctors categorically did not recommend that Peter Aleinikov drink alcohol. Only the actor did not particularly listen to the recommendations of doctors. As he himself said, alcohol helped him escape from a difficult reality. By the way, he ran away from her from the first days of work in the field of cinema.

Creative ups and downs

The first work of Peter Aleinikov was a cameo role in the film "Counter". And in the early forties, Peter Aleinikov's teacher, director Sergei Gerasimov, invited him to star in his film "Do I Love You?" At that time, the young actor was selflessly and, as it turned out later, unrequitedly in love with the beautiful Tamara Makarova, with whom, ironically, he had to work together on the set. And everything would be fine if after a while Makarova did not marry Sergei Gerasimov. It was then that Aleinikov's first breakdown happened. He did not think of anything better than to get drunk and leave the set without permission. The administration of the film did not forgive the actor for this trick, and he lost the role.

Time passed, the unpleasant story remained in the past. The anger of the director Gerasimov, who in general is an easy-going person, also cooled down somewhat. Gerasimov decided to give Pyotr Aleinikov another chance and invited him to star in his film "Seven Brave". It was this film that brought glory to the novice actor. After that, there were two more successful works: "Tractor drivers" and "Big Life". By the way, during the filming of the first picture Aleinikov almost lost his role again, and again the reason for this was alcohol. The director of this film, Ivan Pyriev, several times decided to expel Aleinikov for drunkenness and absenteeism, but he never did it. Peter Martynovich was a talented actor and, despite his bad habits, had an amazing ability to get used to the role well. Nevertheless, despite the fact that "Tractorists" were a great success, Pyriev never worked with Aleinikov again.

Hostage of the image

"Shirt guy" - this was the role of Pyotr Aleinikov. This is the image inherent in many actors at the beginning of their career. Only for some it develops into something more perfect, and for some it becomes the cause of a creative decline. This was the case with many Soviet actors - Sergei Shevkunenko, Yuri Belov, Sergei Gurzo, Leonid Kharitonov. Petr Aleinikov joined the ranks of "broken" actors who became hostages of the image.

In 1946, when alcohol completely filled the actor's mind, Aleinikov's filmography already consisted of several dozen paintings. True, he played the main roles in only three of them: "The Little Humpbacked Horse" directed by Alexander Rowe, "The Sky of Moscow" by Yuli Raizman and "Shumi, Town" by Nikolai Sadkovich.

Critics had different attitudes towards Aleinikov's work. Some argued that he perfectly fits into the character, and some said that the actor plays himself. Maybe this helped Aleinikov to cope with the role, but it hardly contributed to his creative growth. And he really needed it, because the "guy shirt" who was already over thirty looked somehow ridiculous in the frame.

Complicating the situation was the fact that Aleinikov had practically no theatrical career. The actor was listed in the lists of the troupe of the Theater of the Movie Actor, but whether the roles he played there were not known to history.

Downstairs

1946 was a turning point for the actor, however, this turning point was not for the better. The first alarm bell was that the second part of "Big Life" was not released, where Aleinikov continued to work on the image of Vanya Kurskiy, which once brought him fame. And then the audience did not like Pyotr Aleinikov in the film "Glinka", where he tried to convey the image of the great poet Pushkin. Negative reviews from critics further shattered Aleinikov's already not particularly stable position and certainly did not motivate the directors to further cooperate with him. After "Glinka" the actor starred in only three films, in which he played the roles of the second and third plan.

Against the background of a general lack of pictures, creative failures unsettled Aleinikov so much that he again began to drown his grief in a bottle. The results were not long in coming - the actor was expelled in disgrace from the film "Admiral Nakhimov". Since then, meetings with spectators have become the only source of income for Aleinikov. Moreover, he treated this work with his characteristic slovenliness - joking, rude and lazy.

Colleagues who had the good fortune (or misfortune) of working with Aleinikov said that at all his speeches he recited the same monologue: "Lenin and the stove-maker" by Tvardovsky. And each time he assured the organizers of the concert that this was exactly what was needed in this case: they performed before the steelworkers - "Lenin and the Stove Worker", before the machine operators - also "Lenin and the Stove Worker", before the students - again the same monologue. The fact is that Aleinikov was simply too lazy to learn something else.

Despite the fact that the actor took alcohol in relatively small doses, the addiction, combined with a riotous lifestyle, still harmed his health. Aleinikov underwent surgery on his leg, and after a while, one lung was removed.

In a conversation with friends, Pyotr Aleinikov confessed:

“I can’t help but drink, do you understand? If I don't miss a glass or two in time, I will suffocate. And so you drink, you look, and it became easier to breathe, and life is getting better. It is as if I have some kind of mountain in my soul, I can neither step over it, nor jump over it. Only vodka saves. Sometimes I think: am I really the only one in this world so unlucky that I can't breathe without vodka? And then I will look into the hall or into the street and think: no, it’s hard for them to breathe too, only they, fools, don’t drink, they endure. And I will drink. And I will not stand it. There were Cossacks in my family. And the Cossacks hate it."

After a while, the cinema returned to Aleinikov's life, but the impression of the actor's play that remained with the audience after the unsuccessful role of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin made itself felt. The actor has always remained for many a "guy from our yard", and they stubbornly did not want to take him in a different role.

Aleinikov played several dramatic roles in the films Father's House, Earth and People, and Quenching Thirst. These pictures fell in love with the audience, but they became cult not because the idol of the past was filmed in them.