In memory of Valentin Gaft: How an actor escaped certain death and whom he called a guardian angel who prolonged his life

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

Even if in the filmography of the famous theater and film actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR Valentin Gaft there were only a fourth of the roles he played, this would be enough to forever enter the history of Russian cinema. However, fate did not spoil him - both professional success and personal happiness came to him in adulthood, when he almost stopped hoping that it was possible …

In the cinema, he often got the role of the military. According to the actor, when working on these images, he always focused on his father. Joseph Gaft volunteered for the front in June 1941, went through the entire war, and Valentin was very proud of him. The best gift for him was a trophy flashlight, which his father gave him then. He and his mother miraculously survived at the very beginning of the war. On June 21, 1941, they were going to visit their grandfather, it was difficult to get tickets in the summer, they bought them from their hands, but on a different date, June 22. The war broke out, and the family never went anywhere. And later they found out that the very train they missed had been bombed.

After the war, Valentin's father worked as a lawyer, but did not like his profession. He got real pleasure when guests came to their house, and he portrayed the people he met at work in front of them. At these moments he was transformed, and Valentine was greatly impressed. This was the beginning of his passion for theater. At school, he began to study in a drama circle, however, then he got mainly female roles - there were no girls in their school. But this experience helped him to enter the Moscow Art Theater School from the first time. The choice of his son disappointed his father, and he then told him: ""

Oleg Tabakov and Maya Menglet (in the future - the star of the film "It Was in Penkovo") studied at the Studio School together with Valentin Gaft. And they both were in love with this bright beauty and once almost got into a fight over her. Later, youthful love passed, and Tabakov and Gaft remained friends for life.

Already during his studies, Valentin Gaft began acting in films, however, he considered his first roles very unsuccessful. He will forever remember his failure when, while filming with the famous director Mikhail Romm, he saw the equally famous actor Rostislav Plyatt on the set and, out of embarrassment, could not put two words together. And the second director said: “” This phrase is so engraved in the memory of the actor that for another 20 years he could not get rid of his embarrassment and self-doubt on the set. Gaft's debut on the stage of the Theater of Satire also turned out to be unsuccessful: his parents were in the hall, and the actor was so worried that he confused which of the partners he had to address, and besides, he almost dumped the scenery into the orchestra pit.

Valentin Gaft has played more than 110 movie roles, but nevertheless claims that he did not do everything there that he would like. Although he began filming at the age of 21, loud all-Union popularity came to him only at the age of 44, when the film "Garage" was released. The role of the chairman of the garage cooperative was supposed to be played by Alexander Shirvindt, but due to the great employment in the theater, he was forced to give up filming. Eldar Ryazanov offered this role to Gaft, and it became his calling card.

He played all his most vivid and memorable roles after 40 years, and he managed to find personal happiness at an even more mature age. Before meeting Olga Ostroumova, Valentin Gaft was married twice, he had several novels, but he called his third wife his fate, with whom he still remains. He always speaks about Olga Ostroumova with great tenderness and trepidation: "".

The first time he saw her was in the film "We'll Live Until Monday," in 1979, Valentin Gaft and Olga Ostroumova met on the set of the film "Garage", but at that time both were not free. And only 20 years after filming together, the actor began to look after her, and she reciprocated. But even then he did not dare to take any action. Gaft said: "". But when Gaft began to have serious health problems and ended up in the hospital, Ostroumova made every effort to find the best doctors. They signed right in the hospital ward and have not parted since then. The actor calls his third wife his guardian angel.

Olga helped him through the most terrible periods in his life. In the second marriage, Gaft had a daughter, Olya. The actor broke up with her mother in the early 1980s. And although he continued to communicate with his daughter, he missed the moment when she was on the edge of the abyss. Olya dreamed of becoming an actress, but her father did not help her in entering a theater university and discouraged her from this choice. And then she had an unhappy love, her mother could not provide her with the necessary support, her father was not there. And in 2002 Olga killed herself. Valentin Gaft for a long time could not forgive himself for this. After she left, he was seriously ill for three years. Later, the actor said: "". If not for his wife, he would never have been able to cope with this grief.

In recent years, Valentin Gaft has not acted in films and has not appeared on the theater stage for a long time, which worried his fans very much. For the past several years he has suffered from Parkinson's disease, and last year he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized more than once due to a sharp deterioration in his health. All this time Olga Ostroumova devoted herself entirely to caring for her husband.

Legends circulated among his colleagues about the difficult character of the actor and the situations he got into because of this: Curiosities in the creative biography of Valentin Gaft.