"You never dreamed of ": the tragic fate of the actor who played the main role in the cult film of the youth of the 1980s

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

In March 1981, the premiere of the film by Ilya Fraz took place "You never dreamed …" based on the story of Galina Shcherbakova about the love of two teenagers. A simple and touching story did not leave indifferent adult viewers, and for young people this film became a cult film. The actors who played the main characters - Tatyana Aksyuta and Nikita Mikhailovsky - immediately became the idols of thousands of fans. Nikita Mikhailovsky at that time he was only 16 years old, he was promised a successful film career, but no one could have guessed that fate gave him only 27 years of life.

Nikita Mikhailovsky played his first role when he was 7 years old - thanks to his stepfather, director Viktor Sergeev. On the set, the boy turned out to be relaxed and artistic, moreover, from the age of 6 he worked as a photo model and a fashion model and did not get lost in front of the camera. Since then, his future has been determined. Before he played Romka in the film "You never dreamed of …", Nikita managed to star in six films.

When director Ilya Fraz was about to shoot a film based on Shcherbakova's story, Goskino was outraged: are the main characters Roma and Julia a hint of Romeo and Juliet? Shcherbakova imagines herself Shakespeare? In order not to cause such associations, the main character was given the name Katya. The tragic ending of the story was also criticized: the main character died after falling out of the window. The script was rewritten, and Romka survived.

The actress for the main role was immediately found - she was 23-year-old Tatyana Aksyuta, who, at that time already married, had to portray the first love of a teenager. The performer of the main male role could not be found until the beginning of the filming process. None of the actors passed the audition. And then they remembered the 16-year-old schoolboy Nikita Mikhailovsky, who already had filming experience. He was approved without trial, in this image he was so convincing that it seemed to everyone: this boy knows more about love than his older partner, who graduated from GITIS.

When the film "You never dreamed …" was released, a scandal erupted. The creators were accused of promoting love in adolescence, debauchery and immorality, that the director openly showed what should be hidden and prohibited. Now it is difficult to understand how a touching story about the first love of two 16-year-olds could make so much noise. The film became the leader of the box office in 1981, it was watched by 26, 1 million viewers. In the same year, he was recognized as the best film according to the results of a poll by the magazine "Soviet Screen".

After the premiere of this film, the young actor, as they say, "woke up famous." Incredible fame fell upon him. He received bags of letters - with gratitude, revelations, declarations of love. Nikita Mikhailovsky entered LGITMiK without problems, the teachers were pleased with him and promised him a successful film career.

Everything in his life happened early and with incredible speed. He married early and became a father at 22. Nikita's friend Boris Yukhananov recalls: “… I nicknamed Nikita“The Great St. Petersburg Orphan”- his mother died early, and they parted with his father as a child, so a large apartment opposite Lenfilm served as a shelter for almost the entire St. Petersburg underground. He had many friends, many women loved him, and he loved many - he knew how to love, and this is a rare gift. He was enough not only for the women dear to him, but also for numerous letters and calls from fans who did not leave him alone for another five years after the release of "You never dreamed of." In the 1980s, the actor continued to act in films, but there were no more such vivid and memorable roles as in the film "You never dreamed of …".

After three years of marriage, Nikita divorced and married the artist Katerina. Then he himself was fond of painting, they arranged a joint exhibition, and the proceeds were transferred to the fund of children with cancer. No one suspected that the same disease was already eating Nikita himself. The diagnosis of leukemia sounded like a verdict. Nikita needed a bone marrow transplant - an expensive operation in London, for which money was collected first from friends, and then through Russian emigrants they turned to Margaret Thatcher herself for help. But despite all the efforts, almost immediately after his 27th birthday, Nikita Mikhailovsky passed away.

Boris Yukhananov spoke about his friend: “His spiritual vibrations were of such an attractive quality that the range of people with whom he was friends is incredible. Nikita was in a very equal relationship, as it were, with the culture of the 1980s, expressed by a wide variety of people. And it was not just a dialogue … he did not support the dialogue, he developed it."

Nikita Mikhailovsky was the idol of the youth of the 1980s, and in the 1990s, Sergei Bodrov, an actor and director who also passed away at a young age, became the "hero of our time": the mysterious circumstances of the death of Sergei Bodrov and his film crew