Evgeny Leonov and Wanda Stoilova: favorite Vanya of the Soviet Winnie the Pooh

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

They met once to live a lifetime together. Friends loved to be in their house, as if absorbing the atmosphere of kindness, hospitality, cordiality. Evgeny Leonov and Vanda Stoilova were happy in their love and generously shared it with others.

First meeting

They always remembered their first meeting on Lenin Street in Sverdlovsk. Two young students of a music and pedagogical school were walking slowly when they noticed a company of pretty young people. They were noisy, funny, and clearly not local. They became interested in students, began to get acquainted, to joke, and in the evening they invited new acquaintances to the theater for the Days of the Turbins. The boys turned out to be actors of the Moscow theater. One of them, the good-natured chubby Zhenya, became interested in a pleasant blonde with the extraordinary name Wanda.

Wanda and her friend were at the theater in the evening. Taking the pass, the girls settled down in the stalls. They did not know that their acquaintances were already watching them from behind the curtains. Evgeny Leonov admired Wanda. She was very beautiful in her evening dress, but she could not cope with the excitement and constantly did something with her hands: she would straighten her hair, or the strap of her purse. Wanda felt that this was not just an acquaintance. A modest, shy guy with very kind eyes and an open smile was sympathetic to her.

And after the performance, Eugene went to see Wanda off. They walked through the evening city, and he enthusiastically recited the poems of his favorite poets to her. The first meeting was followed by a second, then a third. And the tour ended, the whole troupe flew to Moscow. But in their lives, everything was just beginning.

The distance of love is not a hindrance

Eugene began to call her every day. He enthusiastically told her about his day, listened with great interest to what his beloved was doing. And every day he persuaded her to pack up and go to Moscow. He convinced that dreams must come true. She dreamed so much about GITIS, which means she will definitely go there.

He tried to persuade her to come, but his own heart sank. Before that, he had absolutely no luck with women, but here - Wanda. Sweetheart, beautiful, so dear. He believed that their meeting was not accidental, very soon they would be together again. And the girl made up her mind. But it wasn't about going to college at all. There, in distant and unfamiliar Moscow, the best person in the world, her Evgesha, was waiting for her.

A dream come true

He met her at the station and took her to his friend's mother. And then he took me to meet my parents. Mom and Dad Evgeny Leonov greeted Wanda very warmly, they were glad that their son met and fell in love with a wonderful girl. Zhenya was happy. And one day he suddenly said that they needed to get married. They immediately went to the registry office, because soon the actor went on tour and wanted stability, certainty and, most importantly, his beloved Wanda in his life.

The girl's parents were not at all happy about this turn of events, not counting the artist as a promising party for her daughter. And she did not finish school, deciding to move to Moscow to her beloved. Later, of course, they accepted and fell in love with their daughter's chosen one, but at that moment they were categorically against their marriage.

In GITIS, she still entered a year later, at the department of theater studies. And in 1959, Andryusha was born in the family. A chance meeting on Lenin Street in Sverdlovsk led to the dreams of two wonderful people come true.

A home where it's always light

At first they lived in a communal apartment with Yevgeny Leonov's parents and older brother. It was crowded, noisy, but so good. The house was always full of guests, joy and warmth. Everyone who came to the light was greeted as the most dear guest. Relatives from the village were replaced by relatives from a provincial town, then some acquaintances came and so on in a circle. The actor's mother managed to caress and warm everyone. She was very welcoming and generous.

It was this trait that Eugene took over from her. When he and his wife and son got their own home, their house was also filled with light and cordiality. After the performances, their apartment was filled with friends. Wanda quickly put them on the table, because the first thing the guests had to do was feed. And then there were long conversations, the silence of the night crumbled with bursts of laughter. Here for everyone there was a place and a piece of warmth from the owners of the hospitable home.

Big heart of a great artist

He was surprisingly kind and surprisingly vulnerable. Everyone loved him, they just could not help but love him. And all the time it seemed to him that they did not like him, that he lacked the warmth and love of his family and friends. Probably, this was due to the fact that he himself generously distributed his love and care to the right and left. He strove to help everyone who turned to him for help. He arranged for complete strangers in hospitals, he went to the authorities, persuading them to put someone a phone or give an apartment. He cared about everything. He even handed out puppies thrown under the door with his own hand, not forgetting to ask if a kind person takes a pet into his house.

More than anything, he loved his family. Despite the many female fans who fell in love with the great artist, he was never interested in other women. For him, only She existed, his only, his beloved Vanya, as he called her at home. He was only afraid of losing her.

Only love can be above laws

Fate gave the great artist the happiness to love and be loved. When his heart stopped in Hamburg, his son and his wife were with him. He lay in a coma, and his beloved Vanya constantly talked to him, remembering day after day their warm happiness. There was a son nearby, and when Wanda fell silent, he called for his father to return to this world. Andrey read poetry and sang. They did not give him up to death, they breathed life into him anew.

After experiencing clinical death, Evgeny Leonov needed to reduce the load, try to lead a more measured lifestyle. But he went on stage again and again and gave the audience the joy of meeting great art. He was gone in an instant. But she stayed. To love and remember.

Yevgeny Leonov's wife remembers him every day. Just like the wife of another great artist Zinovy Gerdt.