How popular Soviet film, theater, and stage artists rose to the heights of recognition

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

Turning the pages of old photo albums, you always look with interest at the faces, trying to catch the familiar features of relatives, loved ones, friends. And this is doubly interesting when it comes to photographs of our idols, famous and popular. Today's collection of children's retro photographs is dedicated to the artists of the Soviet era, who are remembered, loved and honored to this day, as well as a selection of short reviews about their life paths as they climbed to the top of fame.

Before becoming great and famous, they were also children, and many of them had a choice, and some knew almost from birth who they would become when they grew up, and some came rethinking their purpose.

Ranevskaya, Faina Georgievna (1896 - 1984)

- the legendary Soviet theater and film actress, the star of the background. In 1949-1951, Ranevskaya was awarded three Stalin Prizes.

Faina Georgievna Feldman (Ranevskaya is a pseudonym) was born in Taganrog. By the time the baby was born, her parents Girsh Haimovich and Milka Rafailovna Feldman had already raised three children - two sons and a daughter. From childhood, Fanny liked the study of literature, foreign languages, playing the piano and singing, the exact sciences did not seduce the girl at all. And once having seen the silent film "Romeo and Juliet", and later the play "The Cherry Orchard", Faina once and for all determined the purpose of her life. At the age of 17, a girl who dreamed of a stage announced to her loved ones that she had decided to become a theater actress. Neither father's threats, nor the prospect of being left without a livelihood, did not stop Faina. Throwing a challenge to fate, she left for Moscow.

However, she was not accepted into the studio at the Moscow Art Theater. And then the persistent Fanny decided to take lessons at a private theater school. But the money quickly ran out, and she was not able to finish her studies. And only thanks to the fateful acquaintance with the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater, E. V. Geltser, Ranevskaya entered the troupe of the Malakhovsky Summer Theater near Moscow, and later into the troupe of Madame Lavrovskaya, with whom she toured extensively in the south of Russia. Later, for 16 years (1915-1931), she traveled all over Russia on tour, gaining precious experience. And she will return to Moscow as a bright actress who could cope with any role with invariable success.

I] Read also:

Raikin, Arkady Isaakovich (1911 - 1987)

- Soviet theater, stage and film actor, theater director, entertainer, humorist. People's Artist of the USSR (1968).

Arkady Isaakovich Raikin was born in Riga. The boy's parents had absolutely nothing to do with the theater - his father, Itzik-Yankel Raikin, worked as a broker in the port, and his mother, Leia Raikina (Gurevich), was a housewife. Arkasha was the eldest child in the family, after which two sisters and a brother were born. The family lived in Rybinsk for some time before settling in Petrograd. In addition to studying at school, Raikin combined his studies at school with classes in the drama club.

After school, Arkady got a job at the Okhta chemical plant as a laboratory assistant, and against the will of his parents he entered the Leningrad College of Performing Arts. Combining study with work, he took private lessons from the artist M. Savoyarov, who highly appreciated the talent of the young man. After graduating from technical school in 1935, he was assigned to the Theater of Working Youth (TRAM), which soon became the Theater of the Lenin Komsomol.

Nikulin, Yuri Vladimirovich (1921 - 1997)

- Soviet Russian circus artist (clown), circus director, film actor, TV presenter. People's Artist of the USSR (1973).

Yuri Nikulin was born in the small town of Demidov, Smolensk region. His father, Vladimir Andreevich, is a lawyer by training, after the revolution he went into the army, served near Smolensk, where he met the actress of the local drama theater Lidia Ivanovna. Soon they played a wedding, and Vladimir got a job in the same theater as an actor. Later he founded the Terevyum mobile theater (theater of revolutionary humor).

At the age of 8, Yuri went to first grade. School subjects did not bother him much, but he played with great enthusiasm in the school drama club, which was led by his father. And when, at the age of 15, he saw the film "New Times" with Charlie Chaplin, he fell ill with cinema. In the spring of 1939, the future artist graduated from school, and in the fall, according to the decree on universal military service, he went to the army.

The future actor had a chance to go through both the Finnish War and the Patriotic War to a victorious end. Demobilized in 1946, Nikulin submitted documents to VGIK, but was refused. who was motivated by the fact that he was not handsome enough for cinema and was advised to enter the theater school. But they did not take him either to GITIS, or to Sliver, or to several other schools of a lower rank. It was just right for the former front-line soldier to fold his hands, but he literally caught fire with a new idea - the circus beckoned him with its bright lights. Nikulin entered the circus studio at the Moscow Circus, in which the famous clown Pencil was a mentor at that time, without any problems.

Tikhonov, Vyacheslav Vasilievich (1928 - 2009)

- Soviet and Russian actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1974)

Vyacheslav Tikhonov appeared near Moscow in the town of Pavlovsky Posad. Father Vasily Romanovich, although he was a mechanic, worked as a worker at a weaving factory. Mother Valentina Vyacheslavovna worked in a kindergarten as a teacher. Slava loved to go to school, study was easy, especially the exact sciences.

In 1941, as a 13-year-old boy, he went to a vocational school for the specialization "turner", after graduating from which he began to work at a lathe at a military factory and worked from early morning until late at night. In addition, in the evenings, Slava and his friends, after heavy shifts, still managed to go to the Vulkan cinema to watch heroic films about Chapaev and Alexander Nevsky. It was thanks to them that Vyacheslav began to dream for the first time about the profession of a film actor.

After winning the 18-year-old handsome Tikhonov went to Moscow to enroll in VGIK. But in the entrance exams, he failed miserably. A lucky chance helped the young guy get the coveted diploma. The thing is that the teacher of VGIK Boris Bibikov simply took pity on Vyacheslav and unscheduled him to his faculty. This is how one of the brightest movie stars lit up in the Soviet sky.

Bystritskaya, Elina Avraamovna (1928 - 2019)

- Soviet and Russian theater and film actress, theater teacher. People's Artist of the USSR (1978).

Elina Bystritskaya was born in Kiev, in the family of a military infectious disease doctor Abraham Petrovich Bystritsky and a hospital chef Esfir Isaakovna. More precisely, the girl was named Ellina, but the absent-minded passport officer lost the second letter "l". From early childhood, the future actress admired those around her not only with her beauty, but with her excessive activity and curiosity, as well as her ability to parody. She played billiards so well that she could give odds to every opponent.

The girl was thirteen when the war began. The Bystritsky family, who at that time lived in Nizhyn, not far from Kiev, refused to evacuate. And Elina, a week after the outbreak of hostilities, came to the headquarters where her father worked, and demanded that the commissioner give her a job in the hospital. Her request was granted, believing that the young girl would run away on the very first day, unable to bear the sight of blood. But Elina courageously fulfilled her duties. Elina, along with other nurses, carried a stretcher with the wounded. Torn apart by too heavy a burden, she lost the opportunity to have children.

All her life dreaming of acting, Elina nevertheless entered the Nezhinsky Pedagogical Institute, since her father did not even admit the thought that his daughter could be an actress. But Elina secretly began to thoroughly prepare to achieve her goal. She studied hard to recite poetry and prose, tried to sing. In an effort to master the art of moving beautifully on stage, the girl enrolled in a ballet class. On her initiative, a drama club was opened at the pedagogical institute.

And once, after one of the speeches, an unknown lady came up to Elina and asked: - Elina answered, to which she received the answer: This short conversation with a stranger became fateful in the life of Elina Avraamovna. With kopecks in her pocket and two loaves of bread, which were given by parents who resigned to her desire, Bystritskaya got into the train carriage, which took her to Kiev. She managed to enter the film department of the Kiev Theatrical Institute. Karpenko-Kary, on the course of Ambrose Buchma.

Vysotsky, Vladimir Semyonovich (1938 - 1980)

- Soviet poet, theater and film actor, songwriter (bard); author of prose and scripts.

Vladimir Vysotsky was born in Moscow. The popularly beloved artist received his name in honor of his paternal grandfather, Vladimir (Wolf) Vysotsky, a native of Belarus, the son of a glassblower, who managed to graduate from three faculties of the Kiev Institute of National Economy: legal, economic and chemical.

The first three years of his life, little Volodya lived in a communal apartment with his parents. Fiery 1941 scattered their family in different directions: the father - to the front, the mother and son - to evacuate to the Urals. After the war, the family never reunited. At the front, his father met a new love for Yevgeny Likhalatov, and his mother brought his stepfather to the house, who loved to drink well and little Volodya was only a burden to him. Semyon Vladimirovich could not allow his son to grow up in an unfavorable environment and through the court sued his son from his wife. Volodya moved in with his father and his wife, Evgenia Stepanovna, whom he called “mother Zhenya”.

A year later, in 1947, they all went together to their father's destination, Germany. There Volodya studied at a school for the children of Soviet military personnel. It was there that he began to take piano lessons, and his father gave him an accordion. In 1949, Semyon Vladimirovich received a new assignment, to Kiev, but he went there himself, and his stepmother and Volodya went to Moscow so that Volodya could properly prepare for admission. to the university.

In 1955, Vladimir Vysotsky graduated from the 186th men's high school, receiving a certificate in which five subjects were marked "excellent", and nine - "good". In the same year, following the advice of his father, Vladimir entered the Moscow Civil Engineering Institute. It took Vladimir only six months to understand that he could not waste time mastering a profession with which he was not going to connect his life. Having taken the documents from MISS, Vladimir began to prepare for admission to the theater institute, resuming his studies in the theater circle. In 1956, Vladimir became a student of the renowned theatrical university - the Moscow Art Theater School.

Magomayev, Muslim Magometovich (1942 - 2008)

- Soviet, Azerbaijani and Russian pop and opera singer (baritone), actor, composer

Muslim was born in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. He never saw his father - the theater artist Magomet Magomayev died near Berlin just two weeks before the Victory. Mother, Aishet, was a theater actress. Having recovered a little from her grief, Aishet decided to continue her theatrical career and left first for Murmansk. She left her little son in the care of the brother of her deceased husband, Jamal and his family. Muslim's grandfather, was one of the founders of academic Azerbaijani music, played various musical instruments, wrote music for operas. He died before the war, but musical instruments remained in the house. The boy liked to play on them, living in his uncle's house. The child's craving for music prompted relatives to hire a private teacher, and when he turned seven, Muslim was sent to a specialized ten-year school at the conservatory, where he immediately became one of the best students.

Mom several times tried to take her son to her, but still thought that only in Baku he could get a decent education and get on his feet. In addition, the woman married a second time, gave birth to two more children. The first public performance of Muslim Magomayev took place in 1957 on the stage of the local recreation center of sailors, and four years later Magomayev was enrolled in the song and dance ensemble of the Baku military district.

Karachentsov, Nikolay Petrovich (1944 - 2018)

- Soviet and Russian theater and film actor. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1989).

Nikolai Karachentsov was born in Moscow. His father Pyotr Yakovlevich (1907 - 1998) was a famous Russian illustrator who worked for the Ogonyok magazine for a long time. Mom, choreographer Yanina Evgenievna Brunak, also belonged to the creative elite - her performances were staged in the largest theaters of the USSR, including the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. When Kolya was 7 years old, his mother sent him to a boarding school under the Ministry of Foreign Trade, due to the fact that she was constantly traveling to different countries. The boy studied well and was an activist.

Perhaps it was the creative professions of the parents that first prompted Nikolai Karachentsov to think about a similar path. As a child, he caught fire with ballet, but his mother, who insisted on more "courageous" classes, pushed him to a passion for sports, so Nikolai could always boast of excellent physical shape. theater, and the young man regularly attended the school amateur studio. During rehearsals, Karachentsov always felt like a fish in water. Having received a certificate of graduation from high school, Nikolai on the first attempt entered the Studio School at the Moscow Art Theater, on the course of Viktor Karlovich Monyukov.

Glagoleva, Vera Vitalievna (1956 - 2017)

- Soviet and Russian theater and film actress, film director, screenwriter and producer. People's Artist of the Russian Federation (2011).

Vera was born in Moscow into a family of teachers. Father, Vitaly Glagolev, taught physics and biology at school, mother, Galina Glagoleva, was a teacher in elementary grades. As a child, Vera was seriously engaged in archery; subsequently received the title of master of sports and entered the junior team of Moscow. She never dreamed of an acting career; her film debut took place quite by accident.

In 1974, barely finishing school, she and her friend came to the Mosfilm studio, where she, a girl with huge eyes and delicate features, was noticed in the buffet by the assistant director of the film To the End of the World. The film was directed by Rodion Nakhapetov, Vera's future husband. She was offered to try to play a scene with the leading actor Vadim Mikheenko. Lacking an acting education and even classes in a school drama club, she played the young Sima as organically as possible, traveling along the sleepers with Volodya. And that was the beginning of her film career …