The evil fate of "Eternal Call": How did the fate of the stars of the legendary film

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

During the creation of the Eternal Call serial film, life in the villages near Ufa, where the shooting took place, froze, local residents became extras actors, and professional actors refused roles in the theater and left thousands of kilometers from home to take part in the project. Then they did not know that during the filming, some of them would be on the verge of death, and decades later they would talk about the evil rock of this film - after all, many stars of “The Eternal Call” repeated the dramatic destinies of their heroes.

This film is called a cinematic epic - the history of most of the twentieth century was reflected in the fates of the main characters, the Savelyev brothers and their fellow villagers. Filming lasted more than 10 years, which is why the actors jokingly called the "Eternal Call" "the eternal cart". The work was very serious, some episodes that lasted only a few minutes on the screens were filmed for several days. The actors managed to become so close to their heroes that their tragic fates seemed to have left an imprint on the lives of the stars of "Eternal Call".

During the filming of the film, there were many dangerous situations that almost cost the lives of some of the actors. So, Valery Khlevinsky, who played Anton Savelyev, the older brother, almost died. Later he said: "".

Nikolai Ivanov, who played the youngest of the Savelyev brothers, calls his participation in the project mystical. As soon as he finished reading the novel "Eternal Call" by his namesake Anatoly Ivanov, the phone rang, and he was offered to play one of the main roles in the film adaptation - exactly the character he liked. After filming, Nikolai Ivanov completely devoted himself to the theater, he calls cinema an accident for the theatrical artist, which he considers himself to be.

During the long filming, the actors did not play, but lived the lives of their characters, sometimes this led to tragedies not on the screen, but in life. Two years after the start of filming, the heart of Efim Kopelyan, who played Mikhail Lukich Kaftanov, nicknamed "the main fist of the country", could not stand the heart - he had a heart attack.

The director said that many actors experienced the death of their heroes as a personal tragedy. So, with Vadim Spiridonov, who played the middle brother, Fyodor Savelyev, there was a hysteria on the set when his character was killed according to the plot. After the filmed episode, the actor could not get up for a long time, lay and sobbed: "" The author of the novel, Anatoly Ivanov, shocked by the actor's play, even told him: "" However, Spiridonov's film career ended with this role - there were no more such significant works in his filmography. The actor became addicted to alcohol, and 6 years after the end of filming, he passed away. In recent years, his heart troubled him, but he avoided doctors. 45-year-old Vadim Spiridonov died in his sleep from heart failure.

At first, Ada Rogovtseva wanted to give up filming in the film, since at that time she had a one-year-old daughter. The directors promised to provide her with a nanny and persuaded to come. An assistant for the young mother was never found, and all the members of the film crew took turns to nurse the girl. And once during the filming, Ada Rogovtseva almost died. According to the plot, she had to fall to the ground. Director Vladimir Krasnopolsky examined the site before starting work and considered it absolutely safe, but during the fall, the actress hit her head on a sharp granite stone. She was saved only by thick plaited braids. The actress largely repeated the fate of her heroine Anna, who survived the death of her son: first she lost her husband, and then her 50-year-old son died of cancer.

The role of Kiryan Inyutin was played by actor Andrei Martynov. He married the daughter of a German diplomat, Francisca Thun. The wife could not get used to life in the USSR, and she and her son left for Germany. For some time Martynov visited them, but then he learned that his wife met another person, and their marriage broke up. And the actor himself remained lonely.

The role of the traitor Peter Polipov jeopardized Yuri Smirnov's acting career. When the painting was already completed, a black streak began in his life. The censors demanded to cut out his entire role from the film - the commission did not like the official who destroyed the collective farm very much. But it was simply unthinkable to remove one of the main characters from the finished film, and then 6 episodes were put on the shelf. Only in 1984 was the film released in full. But the role played by Smirnov still played a cruel joke on him - after that he was not offered the main roles, especially the positive characters. In addition, he became the only one of the stars of "The Eternal Call" who did not receive the State Prize.

The fate of Petr Velyaminov, who played the role of Polycarp Kruzhilin, was also dramatic. A descendant of the most ancient noble family was first arrested at the age of 16, he spent almost 9 years in Stalin's camps, but it was in prison that Peter became interested in amateur theatrical activities and, after his release in 1952, began performing on the theatrical stage and acting in films. Only after the end of filming "Eternal Call" in 1983, he received a certificate of rehabilitation. This role was significant for him, the actor said: "".

Many stars of the film "Eternal Call" are no longer alive, and many passed away prematurely. In 1989, Vadim Spiridonov died, in 1993, Ivan Lapikov died right during the performance, in 2005 63-year-old Vladlen Biryukov died, in 2009 Pyotr Velyaminov died of pneumonia, in 2012 - Natalya Kustinskaya. In 2018, Tamara Degtyareva passed away, whose last years were terrible: in 2012, the actress underwent surgery to amputate her leg after gangrene that developed from a small cut.

Viewers still call Tamara Semina Anfisa, although she played dozens of roles in films. According to her, she took the tragedy of her heroine so close to her heart that her tears in the film were real, and this story seemed to have left an imprint on her life. Tamara Semina repeated the tragic fate of her heroine.