The dramatic fate of Vladimir Ivashov: from his first film roles to working at a construction site

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

He was called the most famous soldier of Soviet cinema, as his career began with the title role in the film "The Ballad of the Soldier", which was incredibly popular with viewers. In the 1960-1970s. name actor Vladimir Ivashov was known to everyone. In the 1980s. he began to appear less and less on the screens, and soon he was completely forgotten. His fans could not believe their eyes when they met him on the subway in the uniform of a builder.

No one could have imagined that Vladimir Ivashov would become a famous artist. His father was a worker in an aircraft factory, and his mother was a seamstress in a factory. After school, he managed to enter VGIK on the first attempt, but none of the teachers distinguished him from other students. But already at the age of 19, Vladimir Ivashov played a role that brought him to the forefront of Soviet actors. The film "The Ballad of a Soldier" became fateful for him.

The audience might not have seen Ivashov in this film - the director G. Chukhrai initially invited the famous actor Oleg Strizhenov for the main role, but in the image of a young naive soldier Alyosha Skvortsov he looked incredible. Then the director took a risk: after the start of filming, he replaced Strizheny with an unknown VGIK student Vladimir Ivashov. He had undeniable advantages for this role: he was as young, simple-minded and spontaneous as his on-screen character.

Ivashov on the screen (as well as in life) was so sincere and charming and looked so organic that the audience immediately believed him. The film was watched by 30 million people. In 1960, The Ballad of a Soldier was sent to a festival in Cannes, and the audience there received the film with the same empathy - the audience cried during the screening. Chukhrai received two awards - "For the best film for young people" and "For high humanism and exceptional artistic qualities." One of the English magazines wrote about Ivashov: "Hollywood stars who trained young actors should have taken their pupils on the first plane to Moscow and put them in an institute, since they make such actors from nineteen-year-olds."

The young actor returned to Moscow in a new capacity - his talent was recognized not only in the USSR, but also abroad. However, he did not demand any concessions to himself - due to absences from classes, he had to go to a junior course. There, Svetlana Svetlichnaya studied with him, who, seeing Ivashov in "The Ballad of a Soldier", immediately fell in love with him. She could not even dream that a popular artist would reciprocate her, and in the meantime he wondered how to approach the first beauty.

Soon they got married, and a year later they had a son, who was named Alyosha - in honor of the protagonist of The Ballad of the Soldier. Life was very difficult - I had to huddle in a communal apartment with Ivashov's parents. But the film career of both spouses was successful: the actor played in the early 1960s. in several films, Svetlichnaya was entrusted with the main role in the film "Heaven Submits to them", and then the two of them starred in the film "Aunt with Violets".

After graduation, Ivashova and Svetlichnaya were admitted to the Film Actor's Studio Theater, and the young were given a two-room apartment. It would seem that all the conditions for a happy family life have finally appeared. But, as Svetlichnaya later admitted, the first 10 years they were Romeo and Juliet, and then the “difficult middle” began: “The fact that we never parted was not my merit, but Volodya. He understood that I am an emotional person, even, perhaps, fickle, and I may have some quirks, but he was monogamous, knew how to forgive. He really forgave his wife for infidelity and endured her whims.

In the 1980s. both actors were less and less invited to the cinema, and in the 1990s they were completely unemployed. According to Ivashov, only such films were offered, after which "I want to either drink or hang myself." I also had to leave the theater. To provide for his family, the actor got a job as a simple worker at a construction site. Doctors forbade him to lift weights - Ivashov had a stomach ulcer for a long time. On March 21, 1995, he became ill at work. It turned out that he strained himself, unloading the car with slate, and he had gastrointestinal bleeding. The actor did not endure the operation, and on March 23 he died suddenly.

Many blamed his wife for his early death, she herself did not forgive herself for not being able to save her husband: passion and strangeness of Svetlana Svetlichnaya.