The amazing fate of Georgy Svetlani - a Soviet actor who, as a child, was a friend of Tsarevich Alexei

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

Remember the old man who settles down to drink beer for the trinity Experienced-Goonies-Coward in the "Caucasian Captive" or the assistant to the heroine Nonna Mordyukova in the "Diamond Hand"? Georgy Svetlani was one of those actors whom the audience knew for sure by sight, but at the same time they did not remember their last name and could hardly name the films in which they starred. And all because Grigory Danilovich is an unsurpassed master of the episode. The life of Grigory Danilovich was no less interesting than cinema.

The real surname of the actor is Pinkovsky, and he was born in the Ukrainian Lubny in a poor peasant family. Mother - a modest and timid woman - dutifully endured the antics of the brawler and bully of her father and gave birth to children almost every year. My father was a hero of the Russian-Turkish war and for his exploits was appointed to the company of "golden" palace grenadiers, which was a special military unit for carrying the guard of honor under the Russian emperors. So, in 1903, the family moved to the capital, where my father carried out an honorary service. And he took advantage of the available benefits and sent his youngest son to study at the Jung School with a valiant naval guards crew, giving the teachers goodbye advice: "Hit more often, let's eat less - then he'll be good …"

Grinka showed diligence in his studies, achieved success in the study of maritime wisdom, and in 1907 he was assigned to a summer service on the yacht of Emperor Nicholas II "Shtandart", where he was assigned to the heir to the throne Alexei for games. Therefore, he spent a lot of time in the company of the royal children.

Later, the actor never hid that he was close to the royal family, even in those difficult times when it was dangerous to talk about it. A simple rural boy became the best playmate for the heir to the Russian throne. He always tried to cheer up a friend suffering from hemophilia, and therefore devoid of simple boyish joys. For Alexei, he walked the wheel on the deck, climbed the ropes and sang songs. With difficulty pronouncing the name of a new friend, the three-year-old heir to the throne called Grisha "Pikovski". The sisters-princesses were also friends with the boy, often photographing him and filming with an amateur camera. Grisha had a lot of pictures given by the girls, but most of them had to be destroyed later for obvious reasons. There are only a few left.

At the "Standart" Grinya Pinkovsky served all 1908. But some of the courtiers did not like that the rootless cabin boy was so close to the Tsarevich. In 1909, a young sailor was accused of some kind of misdemeanor and, under this pretext, was written off to the shore.

In 1911, Grigory Pinkovsky graduated from the School of the Young Guards Crew, remained in it to work as an instructor and at the same time entered the Imperial Conducting Course, which he successfully graduated from in 1914. He did not come to the acting profession right away. He worked playing the violin in the Great Russian Symphony Orchestra, was a choirmaster and dance master, after the revolution he played in various theaters in various Russian cities. In the early 1920s, he became a student at GITIS named after Anatoly Lunacharsky.

It was in those years that, due to confusion in the documents, he became George from Gregory, and in 1925 he got the pseudonym "Svetlani". While on tour, he received a telegram that his daughter Svetlana was born in Moscow. In full delight, he wrote the first verse lines in his life:

In the 1930s, Georgy Svetlani's performances on the stage have always been a huge success. He danced, sang, played various musical instruments, portrayed Charlie Chaplin. Each of his numbers was accompanied by a flurry of applause.

In 1941, Georgy Svetlani made his film debut. The beginning of filming in this picture coincided with the first day of the war. The actors finished work on this film already in evacuation. In total, he starred in more than fifty films, many of which have become classics of Soviet cinema. Director Leonid Gaidai always tried to find a frame for the actor in his comedies. The actor got the main role only once. It was the role of a sports massage therapist who tells incredible stories in the movie "Sports, Sports, Sports". His appearance on the screen for just a few seconds created an atmosphere of special soulfulness.

Thanks to the preserved documents and memories of eyewitnesses, today you can find out what the last heir to the Russian throne shared with his personal diary.