Volka ibn Alyosha's short film career: How the fate of the star of the film "Old Man Hottabych"

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

One of the best Soviet children's films, on which more than one generation of viewers grew up, was "Old Man Hottabych". Its premiere took place 62 years ago. One of the main roles - the pioneer Volka - was played by 12-year-old schoolboy Alexei Litvinov. After such a bright film debut, new works were expected from him, but he never appeared on the screens, and for a long time nothing was known about his fate. What did Alexei Litvinov do after that, and why he did not connect his life with cinema - further in the review.

Alexey Litvinov was born in 1944 in evacuation. His mother was taken out of besieged Leningrad along the Road of Life, and his father was missing at the front. After the end of the war, he and his mother returned to Leningrad, and the boy went to school near Lenfilm. This decided his future fate.

The teenager for the role of Volka was chosen from 3 thousand schoolchildren. At first, another boy was approved for the role, but a month later the director, for some reason, decided to replace the main character. Alexey Litvinov then studied in the 5th grade. Once the director's assistants came to their school and invited him to audition. For the first time, he did not make any impression on the director, but after a while he received a call from the studio and asked to re-audition. This time he was approved for the main role.

Alexey Litvinov was a brunette, and the boy who played his friend in the film was also dark-haired, and in the frame they looked like siblings. Therefore, they decided to dye Litvinov's hair white. Every week he had to endure an unpleasant procedure when his hair was lightened with peroxide, and then dried with a hairdryer for an hour.

Before filming the film, Litvinov studied well at school, but now he had problems, although a teacher went with them, who made sure the boys did their homework. Later, Alexei said: ""

The film was shot in Moscow, Leningrad, Sochi and Odessa. In the intervals between filming, the boys managed to be remembered by local residents, at least by Odessa policemen. Once they got to the police because they rode the funicular without tickets. But when law enforcement officers learned that juvenile delinquents were actually actors, they allowed them to ride for free again. And another time they threw chestnuts in the park, and one of the passers-by turned to the police. But there the "artists" were already known and they were released quickly.

The young actor gave his first fee, quite impressive at that time, to his mother, she bought a TV with this money. Then they lived in a communal apartment, and in the evenings all 7 neighboring families gathered at their place - no one else had a TV set.

This film was very popular among both children and adult viewers - in the first six months alone, it was watched by 5 million people! Alexei Litvinov gained all-Union popularity. They began to offer him new roles, he began to star in the lead role in the film "May Day, 7", but the picture was closed, and it did not appear on the screens. And when the boy was offered to play the role of a shepherd boy in Don Quixote, he refused himself. Later Litvinov explained: "".

After that, Litvinov no longer acted in films. After graduating from college, he worked as an escalator electrician in the subway, lived in Murmansk for 15 years, went to sea on a ship, then worked on the railway, then as an electrician at a construction site until he retired. In 2012, Alexey gave an interview, where he spoke about his life: "".

The fact that he did not continue his acting career, Alexei Litvinov never regretted. He says that he never felt the calling to be an actor, moreover, he managed to avoid star fever and understand a very important thing: "".

The film "Old Man Hottabych" was in many ways innovative at that time: How they filmed a fairy tale with amazing special effects.