Video: The fading star of Luciena Ovchinnikova: Why Katya from "Girls" spent the last years of her life in oblivion and loneliness
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
On September 10, the famous Soviet theater and film actress Luciena Ovchinnikova could have turned 87 years old, but she has been dead for 19 years. In the movie, she played about 60 roles, but the audience will probably remember her first of all in the role of Katya from "Girls". In the 1960-1970s. she was a very popular and sought-after actress, and in the 1980s-1990s. she disappeared from the screens and stopped appearing on the stage of the theater. Even the most devoted fans forgot about her, and the last years of the life of the most cheerful of the "Girls" were completely bleak …
Luciena Ovchinnikova was born in 1931 into a military family. At the age of 6, she lost her mother, her father soon married again. The family constantly moved from city to city, and Lucienne each time had to get used to new schools and new classmates. At the age of 17, she ran away from home - her father was against her desire to enter GITIS. But the girl was determined, so she packed her things and left, leaving a note: "".
First, she went to her aunt in Minsk and tried to enter the theater institute there. This she did not succeed, and Luciena got a job as an apprentice of the seller in a department store. And a year later she went to conquer the capital, and she was admitted to GITIS. Immediately after graduation, she entered the troupe of the Mayakovsky Theater, and from 1957 she began acting in films. Luciena Ovchinnikova was so open and cheerful that her colleagues in the theater called her a sunbeam.
Her film debut was the film "The Father's House" by Lev Kulidzhanov. The actress hoped that she would get the main role, but she was given to Lyudmila Marchenko, and she got the image of a village girl Nyurki. Nevertheless, after the very first work in the cinema, she received a resounding success. This picture entered the list of the highest-grossing films in the USSR and was awarded many awards and prizes at international film festivals.
Soon after the first success of Lucien Ovchinnikova, she again made herself talk about, having played a role in the film "Girls", which became her hallmark. A colleague of the actress on the set Svetlana Druzhinina, who played Anfisa, said: "". After this film, All-Union popularity came to Ovchinnikova.
In the mid-1960s. Luciena Ovchinnikova was already a real movie star, although at that time there was no such thing as a “star”. But the more successes in her career the actress achieved, the more problems and tragedies happened in her personal life. Her first civil marriage broke up due to the fact that she was too focused on her career and did not want children, the second common-law husband of Ovchinnikova, actor Alexander Kholodkov, died in her arms.
Trying to survive this loss, the actress increasingly found solace in noisy feasts, which was not uncommon in the acting environment. And when she married actor Valentin Kozlov, the situation worsened - her husband not only did not keep her from addiction, but also shared it with her. They lived together until the end of their days, but no children appeared in this marriage, and the couple gradually began to move away from each other. The actress's friend Tamara Tour confessed: "".
And soon the career of the actress began to decline - the directors offered her mostly episodic roles in their films. The new head of the Mayakovsky theater did not find a common language with her husband due to the fact that he often appeared at work drunk, and decided to remove him from the theater. Ovchinnikova delivered an ultimatum: if he is not left, she will also leave. But no one began to restrain her, and they both left the theater. Due to his lack of fulfillment in the profession, the husband drank heavily and raised his hand to his wife. Friends more and more often noticed that the actress appeared covered in bruises, but despite this, she did not want to leave her husband, she said that, besides him, she had no one else.
In the 1990s. the hardest times have come for the actress. There was no more work in the cinema - the new era demanded new heroes, moreover, she never knew how to ask and knock on officials' doorsteps. Ovchinnikova lamented: "". Galina Anisimova told: "". In the last years of her life, Ovchinnikova worked in the "Comrade Cinema" program, voiced cartoons and went to perform at group concerts, where the artists were paid with food.
Together with Kozlov, they lived for 32 years. In 1998, the actress's husband passed away. And the financial situation was so dire that Ovchinnikova did not even have money for her husband's funeral, and Stanislav Sadalsky helped her. To the few acquaintances with whom she continued to communicate, the actress admitted that she suffers from severe depression and loneliness. On January 7, 1999, she was gone - a blood clot came off. At that time, Luciena Ovchinnikova was 67 years old. Only a few people accompanied her on her last journey.
It is interesting that the fate of the main characters of "Girls" in real life has developed exactly the opposite. The heroine of Luciena Ovchinnikova in the film was the most prosperous, and the actress herself had a lot of trials. But for other actresses, everything was different: How did the fate of "Girls".
Recommended:
50 years of fame and 20 years of loneliness: Why Marlene Dietrich became a recluse in her declining years
December 27 marks the 117th anniversary of the birth of the legend of world cinema, the famous German and American actress, style icon Marlene Dietrich. The age of the century, she became the embodiment of all the contradictions and rebellious spirit of the twentieth century. She was admired, branded, imitated, hated, worshiped. All her life she attracted attention to herself, even when she disappeared from the screens. The payment for world fame and success was 20 years of loneliness and illness that overcame her on the slope of the forest
Four marriages and a hundred misfortunes of Natalya Kustinskaya: Why the first beauty of Soviet cinema spent her last years in oblivion and loneliness
5 years ago, an actress who was called the Russian Brigitte Bardot, Natalya Kustinskaya, passed away. Her beauty was so bright and even some kind of "non-Soviet" that she easily won the hearts of the most prominent men of her time. But despite the fact that the actress had several husbands and a huge number of fans, in her declining years she was left absolutely alone, having outlived everyone who was once dear to her. She herself often called it retribution for the sins of her youth
Fading Star Betty Page: Why Pin Up Queen Spent 10 Years in a Mental Hospital
11 years ago, on December 11, 2008, Betty Page passed away. In the 1950s. her name was known to everyone - she became famous as the most published model in the history of the United States, actress and queen of pin-up style. She was called the standard of beauty and one of the most desirable women of the twentieth century. Later, many Hollywood stars imitated her, and for many years nothing was heard about Betty Page herself, whose career lasted only 7 years. What happened to the "dark angel", where did she disappear at the peak of her popularity and why she ended up
The unbelievable fate of the star of Soviet cinema fairy tales: The years of oblivion and loneliness of the Water Vodokrut and King Yagupop
November 1 marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of the Soviet theater and film actor, one of the most famous heroes of cinematic fairy tales, Anatoly Kubatsky. More than one generation of viewers grew up watching these films and probably remembers him in the images of Water Vodokrut 13 from “Marya the Master”, godfather Panas from “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” and King Yagupop from “Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors”. But the fate of the actor himself was a little like a fairy tale: he spent the last years in the House of Veterans of Cinema, in oblivion and loneliness
Life after Picasso: Why the Russian wife of a famous artist spent the last 20 years alone and oblivious
64 years ago, on February 11, 1955, Olga Khokhlova passed away. The general public probably only knows about the ballerina from Nizhyn that she emigrated from the Russian Empire and became the wife of Pablo Picasso. Officially, she remained in this status until the end of her days, although in fact she had to spend many years in complete solitude, away from her husband and son, resigned to their contempt, which almost deprived her of her mind