From roles in movie tales to imprisonment: The tragic fate of Eduard Izotov

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

The Soviet actor Eduard Izotov was remembered by the audience for his roles in the film tales of Alexander Row "Frost" and "Fire, Water and Copper Pipes". In the 1960-1970s. he was an all-Union star, and in the 1980s. suddenly disappeared from the screens. As it turned out, the actor went to prison, and after his release he could not return to his former life …

Eduard Izotov was born in 1936 in Belarus into a military family. Since childhood, he dreamed of becoming an artist, and after school he went to Moscow to enroll in VGIK. He succeeded on the first try. After graduation, he was accepted into the troupe of the Theater of the Film Actor. In 1958 he made his film debut, and a year later he got his first leading role in the film "In the silence of the steppe."

In 1964, all-Union popularity came to Izotov - after the role of Ivanushka in Alexander Row's movie fairy tale "Morozko". Then thousands of Soviet women fell in love with him. Among them was the performer of the leading role Natalya Sedykh. At that time, she was only 15 years old, and the director was worried about how such a young girl could play love. And she recalled: "".

Later, Alexander Rowe entrusted Izotov with another role in his movie fairy tale, albeit this time episodic - the actor played an accordion player in the film "Fire, Water and Copper Pipes". For the next 20 years, Izotov continued to actively act in films, but mostly he got episodic roles. He played Hitler's adjutant in Seventeen Moments of Spring and a pilot in Mimino. The last film in which the audience saw him was "The Time of Desires" in 1984, and then a tragedy happened in his life, which cut short his film career.

The actor broke up with his first wife 24 years after his marriage - as a result of constant quarrels, the relationship has exhausted itself. He met his second wife on the set of the film magazine "Fitil" - Irina Ladyzhenskaya worked there as an editor for editing and negotiated with him. A business acquaintance soon developed into a romance. It seemed that his personal life improved, and the long-awaited bright streak began. In 1983, the couple decided to finish building a country house, but there was not enough money for this, and they tried to sell the family's old coins and exchange dollars for rubles. At that time it was considered a crime, they were detained red-handed and accused of illegal currency fraud.

Colleagues defended Izotov and Ladyzhenskaya. The best lawyers, famous actors, including Alla Larionova, Nikolai Rybnikov, Oleg Strizhenov, Marina Ladynina, Larisa Luzhina and others, were involved, sent a petition to the court, and at the meeting spoke in his defense. But despite all these troubles, the spouses were sentenced to 2, 5 years in prison with confiscation of property. The newspapers did not write about this - then they were silent about such stories - and for a long time the audience did not suspect where their favorite had disappeared.

Friends did not leave them during their imprisonment. They regularly visited them, arranged sponsored concerts in the prison. But Eduard Izotov left Matrosskaya Tishina as a different person. His first wife Inga Budkevich told: "".

The actor suffered from hypertension, and 2 years after his release, he suffered 6 strokes. Their consequences were grave: Izotov could no longer go on the stage of the Film Actor Theater and act in films, his memory refused, his speech became slurred. After prison, his life turned into a slow extinction. In the late 1990s. Izotov underwent several operations and was confined to a wheelchair. The actor spent the last months in a neurological clinic, not recognizing family and friends. On March 8, 2003, he passed away at the age of 66.

Many blamed the actor's second wife, Irina Ladyzhenskaya, for what happened - they say, Izotov committed an offense because of her. Be that as it may, they were responsible for it together - both spent 2, 5 years in prison. Only 10 years after the death of her husband and 26 years after her release, she first gave an interview in which she spoke about this tragedy: "".

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