Photos from home archives of celebrities of Soviet cinema, theater and stage

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

Who would have thought that these lovely and funny kids would grow up bright stars that ascended to the firmament of Russian cinema, theater, and stage. Curiously, sometimes people outgrow and become completely different from themselves in childhood. Today's collection is dedicated to actors who, as adults, have retained the pristine features of their cute children's faces. It seems that many people easily recognize their idols in retro photographs …

Plyatt, Rostislav Yanovich (1908 - 1989)

- Soviet theater and film actor, master of artistic words - a reader.

Rostislav Plyatt was born in Rostov-on-Don in the family of a Pole and a Ukrainian. Rostislav's mother was very sick, and the boy at the age of 7 was left an orphan. After her death, the father took his son to Moscow. There Ivan Plyat, as Rostislav's father was named according to his passport, becomes a famous lawyer. It is years later, having become an actor, his son will add another letter "T" to the surname, and change the patronymic "Ivanovich" to "Yanovich", thus, he will create a stage name for himself.

Rostislav Yanovich began to get involved in theater from school, regularly attending the performances of the Moscow Art Theater and himself, playing in the school drama club. And sometimes the boy had to make his way to performances in theaters without a ticket, going to various tricks. At the first opportunity, he went to theater drama courses, which were directed by Yuri Zavadsky.

Evstigneev, Evgeny Alexandrovich (1926 - 1992)

- Soviet and Russian theater and film actor, teacher.

Evgeny was born in the city of Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) in a family of factory workers. At the age of six he lost his father and was raised by his stepfather. When the guy turned 17, he went to work as an electrician, later as a locksmith at a factory. By nature, Evstigneev was very musical, had an excellent ear. Therefore, it was not difficult for him to learn how to play several musical instruments.

In the evenings, Eugene was engaged in amateur performances, speaking at various events: he often played in jazz, and in the orchestra he was a drummer. The future artist was so selflessly doing really unimaginable things with sticks that the audience looked mostly only at him.

Once his virtuoso performance was seen by the director of a local theater school, and immediately invited an unusual guy for a conversation. Only two days passed, and Eugene turned out to be one of the students of the school. And this despite the fact that the school year was in full swing and the groups of students were completed. He was accepted without any examinations, which was an unprecedented case. After graduating from college, Eugene entered the Moscow theater university, immediately in the second year. The talent of the actor struck on the spot the members of the examination committee.

Freundlich, Alisa Brunovna (born in 1934)

- Soviet and Russian theater and film actress, singer.

Alisa Freundlich was born in 1934 in Leningrad in the family of an actor of German origin Bruno Arturovich and an accountant Ksenia Fyodorovna Freundlich. In her youth, Alisa Freundlich's mother also took part in amateur performances. Having come to the drama courses of the Leningrad Theater of Working Youth, she met her future husband. Little Alice's artistic abilities began to manifest itself very early. At the age of 3, the baby first came to the play, and what she saw impressed her so much that it became one of the plots of her games. Alice, singing melodies from the opera, played “theater” with herself.

It so happened that before the Patriotic War, Alice's parents parted. My father left with the theater troupe for Tashkent. And the girl with her mother and grandmother, who remained in Leningrad, lived through the terrible days of siege. Alice received her first acting lessons in a school theater group. In addition, she always felt the support of her father in choosing a profession. In 1953, Freundlich entered the Leningrad Theater Institute, and two years later, while still a student, Alisa Freundlich played her first film role.

Vitorgan, Emmanuil Gedeonovich (born in 1939)

- Soviet and Russian theater and film actor.

Emmanuel was born in Baku, where his father worked at that time. His parents were from Odessa. Father - Gedeon Abramovich Vitorgan, an engineer by profession, a prominent Soviet business executive working in the flour-grinding industry. Mother - Khaya Zalmanovna - a housewife. Already in high school, Emmanuel clearly knew where he would go to study after graduation. Therefore, having received a certificate in his hands, the future actor, without hesitation, went to Leningrad, where he became a student at the Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography.

Kalyagin, Alexander Alexandrovich (born in 1942)

- Soviet and Russian actor and director of theater and cinema.

Little Sasha was the late child of forty-year-old French teacher Julia Zaydeman and dean of the Faculty of History Alexander Georgievich Kalyagin. The boy was a year old when his father passed away. And the future actor spent his childhood in Moscow, brought up and pampered by numerous aunts. From the age of five, the boy dreamed of becoming an artist, and his mother ordered a small stage for him with the backstage - a real small theater. In the first performances, people cut out of paper took part, and the plots of the performances were invented on the go. The spectators were neighbors in a communal apartment.

The mother of the future actor always respected her son's hobby for theater, but after graduating from school, at the family council it was decided that the son should get a “normal” profession. After that, Alexander Kalyagin enters a medical school, after graduating from which he worked for two years as a paramedic in an ambulance. But his childhood dream - to become an artist - haunted him all this time. And one day, having weighed all the pros and cons, on the first try, the young man enters the Shchukin Theater School.

Khazanov, Gennady Viktorovich (born 1945)

- Soviet and Russian pop artist, theater and film actor, TV presenter

Gennady was born in Moscow. The father, about whom the future artist for a long time knew practically nothing, Lukacher Viktor Grigorievich is an engineer, a recording specialist. Mother - Khazanova Iraida Moiseevna, also a communications engineer. It was she who passed on her dream of a big stage to her son. When she was faced with the choice of a future profession, her mother insisted on a technical college. But Iraida was able to partially realize her childhood dream. She played in the folk theater at the Palace of Culture of one of the Moscow factories. The little son, regularly attending performances and rehearsals, was her constant spectator and admirer of his mother's talent.

At school, Gena himself was engaged in an amateur circle, acting as a reader of humorous works and a parodist, copied famous artists and other famous personalities. Arkady Raikin was an example to follow. As a child, he learned by heart the texts of his performances, copied movement, intonation and facial expressions. At the age of 14, the future artist personally met the master of humor and satire, when he was on tour in Moscow.

After graduating from evening school in 1962, Gennady Khazanov, to no avail, made many attempts to enter the theatrical universities of the capital. All tests ended in nothing, and Khazanov went to MISS. However, soon realizing that this was not his strong point and, having heeded the advice of Alexander Shirvindt, Gennady on the second attempt in 1965 entered the variety and circus, on the course of Nadezhda Slonova, in the past - an actress of the Moscow Satire Theater.

Gundareva, Natalia Georgievna (1948 - 2005)

- Soviet and Russian theater and film actress.

Natasha was born in Moscow to a family of civil engineers. In addition to the main activity, the girl's mother participated in the theatrical amateur performances of the institute, where she read, sang, and played in productions. Often she brought her little daughter with her to performances and rehearsals, which left its mark on the formation of the future actress. When Natasha grew up, she began to study in various circles of the House of Pioneers. In the 8th grade, Gundareva entered the Theater of Young Muscovites and first appeared on stage.

However, despite her passion for theater, Natasha was not going to become an actress. Like her mother, she dreamed of becoming a civil engineer. Since 1964, Natalya went to work as a draftswoman in a design bureau. After a couple of years, she became an assistant to the chief engineer of the project. In 1967, Gundareva applied to the Moscow Civil Engineering Institute. Having successfully passed the first entrance exams, unexpectedly for everyone, the girl decided to give up everything she had begun and try her luck in the theater. She applied to ShchukU and passed the exams brilliantly.

Behind the scenes of the film "Sweet Woman": Why Natalia Gundareva thought she was not suitable for the main roles.

Belokhvostikova, Natalia Nikolaevna (born 1951)

- Soviet and Russian actress. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1984)

Natasha was born into the family of a Soviet diplomat and translator who worked in Canada, Sweden and Great Britain. The girl traveled abroad with her parents until she was almost seven years old. And when it came time to go to school, she was specially sent to Moscow to her grandmother. All her school years, living the dream of cinema, Belokhvostikova entered VGIK, where she studied acting with Tamara Makarova and Sergei Gerasimov. Already in her second year, Belokhvostikova got the role of Lena Barmina, which was written for her in Gerasimov's film "By the Lake".

Zakharova, Alexandra Markovna (born in 1962)

- Soviet and Russian actress.

Alexandra was born in Moscow into the family of director, screenwriter, actor Mark Zakharov and actress Nina Lapshinova. The fate of the girl who grew up behind the scenes was predetermined almost from her very birth. As you might expect, after leaving school, she entered the Shchukin School. In 1983, the graduate, who received a diploma, was offered a job at once in 5 metropolitan theaters. But the girl "was sick" for a long time with her father's "Lenkom", behind the scenes of which she grew up and perceived him as her own home. However, according to the actress, during the first ten years of work she spent in the crowd and did not receive a single leading role from her father, the artistic director of the theater. Later, having acquired acting skills, she will play many main roles there.

Okhlobystin, Ivan Ivanovich (born in 1966)

- Soviet and Russian film and television actor, film director, screenwriter, producer, playwright, journalist and writer. He has the rank of priest, is the author of a science fiction novel and several books on religious topics.

Ivan Ivanovich Okhlobystin was born in the Tula region. His 60-year-old father was a military surgeon and at the time of his birth held the position of chief physician, and his mother, who was barely 18, was a student at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Ivan Okhlobystin Sr. saw in his offspring a brilliant surgeon. But Ivan Jr. in the eighth grade, having watched Mark Zakharov's film "An Ordinary Miracle", firmly decided to become a wizard. It was this aspiration that brought the graduate of the Okhlobystin school to VGIK.

Film director Igor Talankin was among the members of the selection committee. He then asked the applicant to surprise him. To this, Vanya Okhlobystin sharply replied that he had come to say a new word in cinema, and not to entertain the commission. The guy was immediately kicked out of the exam, but quickly returned - this trick really surprised the director.

Kutsenko, Gosha (born 1967)

- Russian theater and film actor, film director, singer, screenwriter, producer.

Yuri Georgievich Kutsenko (acting pseudonym - Gosha Kutsenko) was born in Zaporozhye, in the family of a radiologist Svetlana Vasilievna and radio engineer Georgy Pavlovich. The boy grew up a tomboy and did not even think about an actor's career. He even studied two courses at the radio engineering department. But then he realized that he was drawn to the theater and decided to enter the Moscow Art Theater studio. The father, who was then already the deputy minister of radio industry and secretly proud that his son was following in his footsteps, even demanded that the selection committee not accept his son. And the leadership of the technical university promised to give the future actor the documents only on condition that he passes the session without triples. Yuri Kutsenko passed all the exams perfectly, got the documents in his hands and entered the theater university on the course of Oleg Tabakov.

Makarov, Alexey Valerievich (born 1972)

- Russian theater and film actor.

Alexey was born in the winter of 1972 in the family of novice artists of the Omsk Philharmonic, Lyubov Polishchuk and Valery Makarov. Young parents gave the baby to their grandparents to be raised, and they themselves began to build their own artistic career. Lyuba left to conquer Moscow, and Valery remained to serve in the provincial theater.

Soon Polishchuk became an artist of the Moscow Music Hall and, having divorced her husband, took her son to her. The constant tours of his mother did not give the boy the opportunity to prepare for school, but he knew all the productions with her participation by heart and sometimes played the role of a prompter, prompting the actors with words. Alexei had to study until the sixth grade on a five-day school-boarding school. When Alexei turned 12, his mother married for the second time to the artist Sergei Tsigal, who insisted on taking the boy from the boarding school.

Alexey knew from early childhood that he would become an artist. Therefore, after graduating from school, I decided to enter GITIS. And no persuasion of the mother - not to go into this profession, had no effect on the stubborn young man. However, on the first attempt, Alexei did not manage to become a student of the coveted university, since the teacher who was recruiting the course had a principle: not to work with the acting offspring. And a year before the next admission, the young man worked as a night firefighter and distributor of tickets for performances. Fortunately, the teacher who recruited the course the next year did not have principles, and Makarov nevertheless became a student of the coveted university.

See also previous collections of children's photographs from the archives of celebrities of Soviet cinema, theater and stage Part 1 and Part 2