"Tragic clown": Why Lev Durov was proud of his nickname

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

December 23 to the famous theater and film actor, People's Artist of the USSR Lev Durov would have turned 86 years old, but for 2 years he has not been among the living. He was called one of the best actors of the twentieth century, and he modestly called himself a simple "man in the street" and rode the subway, although there were more than enough reasons for pride: the actor came from a famous dynasty of circus artists, played about 200 roles in films, for a long time was the chief director of the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya. However, despite all his merits and titles, he was most proud of the fact that he was called a "tragic clown".

The fate of Lev Durov could have been much more dramatic - he spent his entire childhood in Lefortovo with street punks, constantly participating in fights. He did not study well at school, he was expelled more than once, and it is not known how it would all end if one day, during another fight, a friend offered him to try his hand at the theater studio of the Palace of Pioneers. There he stayed for 3 years, after which he entered the Moscow Art Theater School.

In 1954, Durov was accepted into the troupe of the Central Children's Theater, in the same year he began acting in films. From 1967 until his last days he worked at the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya. His most famous works are roles in the films Bumbarash, Old Robbers, Big Change, Seventeen Moments of Spring, For Family Reasons, D'Artanyan and Three Musketeers, Don't be afraid, I'm with you! "," The Man from the Boulevard des Capuchins "," The Countess de Monsoreau ", etc.

The actor had an excellent sense of humor, he often played pranks on his colleagues and himself often became the object of practical jokes. But one day he himself suffered because of his seemingly harmless joke. When the film crew of the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" was going abroad, Durov was summoned to the visiting committee and asked a very simple question: what does the Soviet flag look like? The answer was so obvious that it seemed banal to the actor, and he quipped: a white skull with bones on a black background. As a result, he became restricted to travel abroad for 3 years.

Durov often risked his life saving strangers. Once, when he stood up on the street for an unfamiliar girl, he was stabbed in the back. However, the actor considers this not bravery, but recklessness. All the tricks on the set, he also performed independently: "". Because he often got into trouble, he was called "the people's bandit of the republic."

In all the characters played by Durov, the tragic and the comic merged into a single whole, so the actor was often called a "tragic clown". He considered this nickname the highest and most honorable - after all, it testified to his acting skills and the ambiguity of the images embodied on the stage and on the screen.

In recent years, Lev Durov rarely acted in films - they were not offered worthy roles. Nevertheless, he did not think, like many Soviet artists, that real cinematography was lost, and did not idealize the past, although he recalled it with nostalgia: "".

The actor was not afraid of death and often joked when they started a conversation with him on this topic: "". On August 20, 2015, People's Artist of the USSR Lev Durov died after another stroke and heart surgery.

The actor lived with his wife for more than 50 years until she passed away in 2011. Lev Durov and Irina Kirichenko: love at first sight and for the next 60 years.