The happiness and pain of the Soviet Sherlock Holmes: Why 84-year-old Vasily Livanov is haunted

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

He played many roles in theater and cinema and will forever remain in history as one of the world's best performers who embodied the image of Sherlock Holmes. Vasily Livanov became a worthy successor of the acting dynasty, tried to raise children in respect and love for their roots. He managed to find personal happiness not on the first try, but all the more carefully he treats his family. However, there is a page in the life of a talented actor that echoes in his soul with constant pain.

The first love

Young Vasily Livanov first fell in love during his school years. Alla Engelhardt was two years older than her unlucky admirer, but she allowed him to accompany him home from classes at the university, where a high school student came every day. She did not take him seriously, and therefore soon got married, gave birth to two children and was quite happy with her husband.

But when Vasily Livanov, who starred in Mikhail Kalatozov's film "Unsent Letter", invited his first love to the premiere of the picture, she came with pleasure. And six months after that, she went to Vasily Livanov, considering him a quite promising and suitable candidate for the role of her second husband.

The family idyll did not last long. At first, the actor's parents did not like his wife's parents for his independence and unwillingness to obey the rather strict rules that reigned in the house. After, when Vasily and Alla already lived separately and raised their daughter Nastya, the difference in interests and life goals of husband and wife was clearly manifested.

Nastya was 7 years old when Vasily Livanov divorced his wife. The first time they communicated with their daughter, after Alla Engelhardt did everything to stop this communication. This happened after the son Boris appeared in the new family of the actor. The daughter came to her father at the age of 19. Then it became clear: Vasily Livanov and Anastasia are close to each other not only in blood, but also in spirit. From that moment on, their connection was never interrupted.

Fulfilled prediction

He first saw Elena heading to the Soyuzmultfilm studio when he was working on the cartoon "Blue Bird", where he acted as a director. Then Livanov told the production designer Max Zherebchevsky, who was nearby, that this girl would become his wife and give birth to two sons. Surprisingly, everything happened exactly as Vasily Borisovich said, examining the girl from the studio balcony.

She was 14 years younger than the actor, and as a child she saw Vasily Livanov in the cinema. After several chance meetings at the film studio, Livanov fell in love. Soon, at the request of his father, he introduced the girl to his parents, and she immediately became part of a large and friendly family.

Vasily and Elena Livanovs became husband and wife on June 22, 1972. Two years later, their first-born Boris was born. Then another ten years passed before the birth of the youngest son of the Livanovs, Nikolai.

They were incredibly happy all together. It seemed that nothing could shake this simple and understandable happiness of a friendly family. But once trouble knocked on their house.

Blessed is he who believes …

On the morning of January 1, 2009, a phone call rang at the Livanovs' apartment. Boris's ex-wife reported that Vasily Borisovich's son had killed a man.

Neither the actor nor his wife for a second believed in the guilt of their adult child. They knew Boris completely different: thin, sensitive, vulnerable. He attended college at Oxford, wrote scripts and books, acted in films and was generally a very promising young man.

According to Vasily Borisovich, terrible changes began to occur in the life of his son, when Ekaterina Khrustaleva was next to him. The son began to drink with the girl, it was often impossible even to understand what drugs he was taking. Later, one of the son's friends told his father that Catherine was feeding Boris with tranquilizers in order to subdue his will.

Boris Livanov left Katya several times, but then came back again. They had a daughter, Eva, who was deaf from birth and had many different ailments. Vasily and Elena Livanovs made a lot of efforts so that the granddaughter could hear and learn to speak. Then Boris Livanov himself asked his parents for help.

When Boris broke up with Catherine, everything changed in the life of the young man. He began to write again, quit drinking, after which Natalya appeared, who worked as a deaf teacher in a kindergarten where little Eva went.

And again everything collapsed: Katya began to call Boris, threaten Natalya, and soon she managed, under some pretext, to lure Boris to her place and give him a drink. Natalia left Boris, and two weeks later that terrible call rang on the first day of 2009.

Vasily Livanov still does not believe in his son's guilt and believes that the investigation has taken the wrong path. Boris Vasilievich was sentenced to 9 years in prison, but in 2014 he was released on parole. While the son was serving his sentence, Vasily and Elena Livanovs formalized guardianship over their granddaughter, having managed to prove that the girl's mother suffers from alcoholism.

It seemed that the passions in the family had long since subsided. Eve will soon turn 16, and she has already starred in the film of her famous grandfather "The Bronze Horseman of Russia". Vasily Livanov believes that all nightmares in their family are over. Only his heart always hurts about the closest people: his children and grandchildren.

Our generation associates the surname Livanov, of course, with the best Sherlock Holmes, superbly played by Vasily Livanov. However, people of a slightly older age may remember the roles of his father, Boris Nikolaevich Livanov. A brilliant actor and director of theater and cinema, laureate of five Stalin and State prizes, this man was also distinguished by an outstanding and very bold sense of humor.