From popular love to oblivion: the tragic fate of the genius comedian Sergei Filippov

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

The question of whether there is life on Mars has long passed into the category of rhetorical, and the heroes whose images he embodied on the screen Sergey Filippov, became popular favorites. Even the episodic appearance of this brilliant actor in the film became a real event. At the peak of his popularity, Filippov bathed in the rays of national glory, lived on a grand scale, but fortune turned out to be merciless to him: the actor spent his last years in oblivion and isolation from the outside world, suffering from serious illnesses, poverty and abandonment.

Artistic talent manifested itself in Sergei Filippov in his youth: he enthusiastically attended a dance club, showed great hopes and even dreamed of entering the Moscow ballet school. Before the start of the school year, circumstances developed so that he did not have time to submit documents to the school at the Bolshoi Theater, and, having arrived in Leningrad, he had time for exams only at the circus school. Sergei was an excellent dancer, worked part-time in the corps de ballet of the Operetta Theater, after graduation he was enrolled in the troupe of the Opera and Ballet Theater, but did not perform for long: during one of the performances, the artist lost consciousness, the doctors named the reason - a heart attack provoked by constant malnutrition, overload and emotional experiences. The path to ballet for Sergei Filippov was closed, so he began to look for himself in a different incarnation.

Filippov was soon noticed by the director Nikolai Akimov, who highly appreciated the actor's comedic talent and offered him a stake in the Comedy Theater. This event became fateful in the fate of Sergei Filippov: he became one of the brightest actors of the troupe, the audience waited for his appearance on the stage and laughed until they fell. Filippov was in his place, and soon filmmakers began to contact him with proposals for filming. Before the war, Filippov starred in such films as "For the Soviet Motherland", "Vyborg Side", "Yakov Sverdlov" and others. The actor played even episodic roles in such a way that they were remembered by the viewer. Work in the cinema did not stop either during the war years or in the post-war period. The audience sincerely loved Filippov, they recognized him on the streets, literally did not give a pass. The films "Tiger Tamer", "Carnival Night", "Girl without an Address" became a real finest hour for the actor.

The actor's personal life was not easy: the first marriage with the ballerina Alevtina Gorinovich lasted 10 years, the second - with the children's writer Antonina Golubeva - almost until his death. From his first marriage, Sergei Filippov had a son, Yuri, the only child of an actor, who later chose the career of an artist for himself, which upset his father. Relations with Antonina Golubeva were difficult: she was much older than him, completely ugly and, in Yuri's opinion (which he repeatedly spoke about in an interview), kept this marriage by blackmail, threatened Sergei, which can tell a lot about his frivolous political views, which is easy would ruin his career. Filippov called his second wife a Barabul, comparing it to a fish with bulging eyes. There was no happiness in this marriage, but it lasted 40 years.

Another landmark event in the creative life of Filippov was shooting in "The Twelve Chairs". Playing the role of Kisa Vorobyaninov, Filippov suffered from severe headaches, but tried to abandon the understudy and play independently, to learn the role, although it was given with great difficulty. Before the dubbing of the film, Filippov went to the hospital, losing consciousness right on the street. It turned out that the actor had a benign tumor, the operation was difficult, the doctors had to remove part of the cranial bone. However, Filippov did not give up, having completed a rehabilitation course, completed work on the picture.

The last years of Filippov's life passed in oblivion. A long-term addiction to alcohol shattered health, the inability to save money for a rainy day led to the fact that the actor was left with nothing. Golubeva gradually sold off all the valuable things that were in the house, no trace of the former luxury remained. He was clearly ashamed of his position, stopped communicating with friends, even tried not to call an ambulance home. In the last month of his life, the headaches again became unbearable, Filippov was hospitalized, but the doctors were already powerless, the actor was diagnosed with oncology. The actor was buried with the money collected from the Leningrad actors, Filippov did not have his own savings. The son, who lived in America at that time, visited his father's grave only a few years later.

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