Video: Soviet actors in Hollywood: was success possible on the other side of the Iron Curtain?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
During the Soviet era, ambition was not only not among the virtues, but was considered a vice, and the desire to build a career abroad was completely regarded as a betrayal of the homeland. Nevertheless, some actors risked all-Union recognition - someone for the sake of world fame, someone for the money, and all - in the hope of gaining creative and personal freedom. Savely Kramarov, Oleg Vidov, Natalia Andreichenko, Viktor Ilyichev, Elena Solovey emigrated to the United States. Was the game worth the candle?
The most famous Soviet emigre actor was Savely Kramarov ("The Elusive Avengers", "Gentlemen of Fortune", "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession", "Afonya", etc.). He left for the United States in 1981, for which he had to write a letter to Ronald Reagan, as the authorities banned him from leaving the USSR. He dreamed of changing the comedic role that had developed in his cinema. But in America, only cameo roles were waiting for him, and popular love remained in the Soviet past.
Star of Soviet cinema of the 1960s-1970s. Oleg Vidov ("Snowstorm", "An Ordinary Miracle", "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "The Headless Horseman") was forced to flee the USSR, because his ex-wife, the daughter of a KGB general, influenced him to no longer be invited to appear. In 1983, in the trunk of a car, a friend takes him out of Yugoslavia to Austria, then he goes to Italy, and then to America. He rarely acted in films, but this was enough for him to be included in the 10 percent of Hollywood actors annually confirming their professional status.
Natalia Andreichenko (Sibiriada, Field-of-War, Goodbye Mary Poppins, etc.) emigrated to the United States in 1991 to her husband, Maximilian Schell. She starred in several Hollywood films, but these roles can hardly be considered a worthy realization for an actress who is accustomed to working with the best directors. In her memoirs, she wrote: “They tried to convince me that I should change - speak without an accent, play American roles. But then, without my Russian roots, I will be completely different - a converted, “broken” Russian, and at the same time I will not become an American”. In 2005 she returned to Russia.
Viktor Ilyichev was glorified by his roles in Soviet cinema of the 1970-1980s. ("Sincerely yours", "Green Van", "The Most Charming and Attractive"). The greatest popularity was brought to him by the role of Fabio in "The Dog in the Manger". In the early 1990s, there was no job, and his wife was invited to teach at an American ballet school. And although the actor did not find work for himself and was very worried about the lack of demand, he never returned.
Elena Solovey was called the most feminine actress of Soviet cinema ("Slave of Love", "You Never Dreamed of", "Look for a Woman"). In 1991, she and her family left for the United States, where she taught acting, worked on radio and in Canadian theater. She almost did not act in films.
Wherever these actors live, they will forever remain beloved and popular for us - who has not heard 15 phrases from the films of the genius Soviet comedian Savely Kramarov
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