Farewell to Inna Makarova: The star of the films "Young Guard", "Height" and "Girls" has passed away

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

On March 25, at the age of 94 after a long illness, the famous actress, People's Artist of the USSR Inna Makarova died. In recent years, she rarely appeared on screens, the peak of her popularity came in the 1950s-1960s, when the films "Young Guard", "Height", "My Dear Man", "Girls", "The Marriage of Balzaminov" and others were released. However, in the press she was more often mentioned as the wife of director Sergei Bondarchuk and the mother of actress and director Natalia Bondarchuk. What else did the audience remember the famous actress - further in the review.

Inna Makarova was born in 1926 in the village of Taiga, Kemerovo Region, and grew up in Novosibirsk, where her father worked as a local radio announcer, and her mother was the head of the literary section of the Red Torch Theater. From her parents, her love for literature and theater was passed on to her. From childhood, Inna began to study in a drama club, and her first spectators were neighbors in the courtyard, in front of whom she acted out scenes.

When Inna was 15 years old, the war began. Then the girl, along with other members of the theatrical circle, went to hospitals and performed in front of the wounded. It was then that she established herself in the decision to become an actress. Even during the war, in 1943, Makarova entered the course of Sergei Gerasimov at VGIK, who at that time was in evacuation in Alma-Ata. Subsequently, the famous director called Inna one of his most beloved and most gifted students. While still a student, Makarova began performing on the theater stage, and played the role of Carmen, who opened the way to big cinema.

Her appearance was non-standard for a romantic heroine, nevertheless, Inna Makarova often got the main roles in theater and cinema. The actress had a much more valuable quality than a spectacular appearance - a unique feminine charm and charm, thanks to which she could give odds to the brightest beauties. She was probably the most unusual Carmen of all the actresses who tried on this image, but she was very convincing in the role of the fatal beauty. The writer Alexander Fadeev drew attention to this and recommended that Sergei Gerasimov entrust her with the role in the adaptation of his novel "Young Guard".

This film became the leader of the box office in 1948, it was watched by more than 42 million viewers. For her very first leading role, Inna Makarova was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree, after which the directors bombarded her with new proposals. This work has become a landmark for her not only professionally, but also in her personal life. Her partner on the set in Molodaya Gvardiya was Sergei Bondarchuk, who, after returning from the front, entered the 3rd year of VGIK. On the set, he began to show her attention and soon made an offer. However, the couple officially registered their marriage only in 1950, after the birth of their daughter Natalia. They spent about 10 years together, and then broke up - Bondarchuk's popularity grew, he was surrounded by the first beauties of Soviet cinema, Makarova constantly disappeared on the set and did not fight for her husband, just stepped aside. And he soon married again - to the actress Irina Skobtseva.

And the film career of Inna Makarova, meanwhile, was gaining momentum. A new wave of popularity came to her after the main role in the film "Height", where her partner on the set was the famous Nikolai Rybnikov. On the set, the actors performed all the complex stunts themselves. At the metallurgical plant in Dneprodzerzhinsk, they climbed ladders and walkways and worked at great heights. Inna Makarova told: "".

The film "Girls" consolidated her professional success. Her Nadia was the most calm and invisible of all the heroines, but the actress had little in common with her. She knew how to stand firm and show character wherever it came to her principles. Inna Makarova did not come to the premiere of the girls in protest against the director's decision to cut from the film the scene where her heroine leaves the unloved groom Ksan Ksanych right on the threshold of the room allocated to the newlyweds - according to the actress, this scene was the most important for understanding Nadia's character.

Her name was known to everyone in the 1960s. she has become one of the most successful and sought-after actresses. But in her personal life, Inna Makarova put an end to it - after a divorce from Bondarchuk, she remained alone for 12 years. When the actress no longer counted on the fact that happy changes could occur in her fate, she met a surgeon and pulmonologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences Mikhail Perelman. At the age of 47, Inna Makarova married a second time and lived with her husband for almost 40 years, until he left in 2013.

In the 1990s. the actress practically stopped acting in films. The roles she dreamed of were no longer offered to her, and she did not want to agree to weak scripts. On this occasion, Makarova said: "".

In addition, age made itself felt, health problems began. From a young age, she suffered from asthma attacks, but continued to work until 2015. In 2016, the actress began to rapidly lose her memory. For the past few weeks, she has been in a Moscow hospital. On March 25, Inna Makarova passed away.

Actress and director Svetlana Druzhinina, who starred with Inna Makarova in the film "Girls", after her departure said: "". And the People's Artist of Russia Yevgeny Steblov says that she was "". Actor Nikolai Burlyaev calls her "" and adds: "".

The daughter of Inna Makarova and Sergei Bondarchuk Natalia followed in the footsteps of her parents. In the 1970s. she started acting in films, and then tried her hand as a screenwriter and director: Zigzags of fate by Natalia Bondarchuk.