Saving divorce of Georgy and Tatyana Epifantsev: How the separation saved the family life of the star of the film "Gloom River"

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

The acting career of Georgy Epifantsev was not easy. He successfully made his film debut, playing Foma Gordeev in the film of the same name, later to his filmography was added significant work in the cult series "Gloom River". And in the theater he rarely got the main roles. The actor's personal life was far from immediately formed. His first marriage broke up, the second also ended in divorce. But parting saved the family of Georgy Epifantsev.

Unofficial romance

They met on the set of a movie. Tatyana had nothing to do with cinema, she studied at the Faculty of Economics, and from time to time she acted in extras only for the sake of the fee that was paid there.

Georgy Epifantsev, together with Zarik Khukhim, noticed a group of students and immediately approached them to talk. Tatiana Georgy liked literally from the first minutes. At parting, he left Tanya his phone number, and she called him that same evening.

They walked around the city for a long time and parted already completely charmed by each other. Georgy Epifantsev at that time was still officially married to the ballerina Lilia Ushakova, but the divorce had only to be formalized. In an apartment in Karetny Ryad, the life of the lovers began together.

Someone else's wedding

A month later, they went to Kerch to visit Georgy's mother. True, instead of the expected month of vacation, Zhorik, as the actor's mother called the actor, stayed in his parents' house for a little more than a week: he was urgently summoned to Sverdlovsk to shoot "Gloom River" instead of Vladimir Gusev, who broke his leg.

At first, the film crew, with the exception of director Yaropolk Lapshin, received the new actor coolly. Everyone sympathized with the injured Gusev and believed that they should wait for his recovery. However, very soon Georgy Epifantsev was able to earn the trust of his colleagues, and then his fiancee also made friends with the make-up artists, met the operators.

Georgy and Tatyana Epifantsevs also signed in Sverdlovsk, and immediately after that Oleg Soldatkin invited them to the wedding of his relatives in Nizhny Tagil. Tatiana and Georgy happily agreed, and when all the guests shouted "Bitter!" the groom and the bride, secretly also kissed.

Then I had to admit that on that day they also registered their marriage, and then the hospitable relatives of Oleg Soldatkin began to congratulate their guests and one wedding seemed to merge with the second.

Simple happiness

Tatiana continued to study, Georgy starred a lot, during the holidays of his wife they were invariably together. She always came to the shooting and felt completely happy next to her husband. Tatiana had not yet received her diploma when she found out about her pregnancy. Her Zhora said without a doubt that she should give birth. So in 1968 their first-born Mikhail was born.

The Moscow Art Theater gave the spouses a room in a house on Stanislavsky Street. Despite the fact that she was in a semi-basement room, the Epifantsevs were happy. After the birth of Vladimir, they were given a larger room in a neighboring house. When their daughter Natalya was born, the family received a separate apartment near the Shchukinskaya metro station.

Georgy Epifantsev starred a lot, and in the theater he was always busy, sometimes playing thirty performances a month. True, unlike cinema, the actor did not have main roles in the theater.

The artist always had many fans, but Tatyana did not suffer from jealousy. She did not exclude the possibility that her husband could have affairs on the side, but the woman knew nothing about this. And she had no time to think about such things: raising children and the house were completely on her.

But Tatyana Epifantseva never complained: next to her husband, she also grew and developed creatively. At first, she worked as an economist by profession, then became interested in ceramics, began to paint plates, later mastered floristry, drew amazing ornaments on burnt tin sheets. She became a member of the Union of Artists and the Union of Designers.

Saving divorce

Only the husband's addiction to alcohol darkened the life of the spouses. Tatiana admonished George, persuaded him to give up his habit, but everything was in vain. Over and over again, the actor appeared in the house, barely standing on his feet. And this despite the fact that the money in the family was sorely lacking. Children grew up, they needed clothes, shoes, and they needed to feed them.

Georgy Epifantsev each time promised to quit drinking, held out for a while, but then reappeared at the door of the apartment with a glass gaze. In the end, Tatiana could not stand it, filed for divorce, promising to recover child support from him.

The actor was very offended by his wife and did not even appear in court, signing a paper stating that he agreed with everything and had no complaints. After the divorce, they continued to live in the same apartment, only they completely stopped communicating with each other. Both of them were oppressed by this situation, but Georgy Semyonovich was the first to break down, repentantly promising to quit drinking. Tatyana set a condition: first she quits drinking, and then they will talk about something.

The actor went to the clinic, underwent a course of treatment, but very soon fell through. The second attempt to quit drinking was successful, he really stopped drinking. Six months after the divorce, Tatyana and Georgy Epifantsevs again registered their marriage.

Life after happiness

In the Moscow Art Theater, Georgy Epifantsev served from 1959 to 1990, although in 1966 he left for the Taganka Theater for a year. In addition to the fact that Georgy Semyonovich was an actor, he also wrote poetry, dramatizations and plays. Two performances based on his works were staged at the Moscow Art Theater. For the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus, the actor prepared the play "Vladimir", but even after being approved by the artistic council, Oleg Efremov was not eager to stage it.

Then Georgy Epifantsev left the theater, and with a solo performance began to travel around the cities of Russia. But the peak of the tour usually fell on the summer, and in the fall and winter the actor was not in demand. He was very worried about this, even at one time he began to drink again. To support his family, he painted and sold his paintings at the opening day in Izmailovo. Later I studied the demand in the market and found out that the most profitable thing is to trade in alcohol. He sold alcohol, then watches with Soviet symbols.

He was terrified of objects moving at high speed, but on July 27, 1992, he died under the wheels of an electric train. He was returning home from the market, but he never made it. At the time of his death, the actor was completely sober.

For a long time Tatyana could not come to terms with the loss, after which she found solace in her children and grandchildren. Unfortunately, the eldest son of the Epifantsevs, Mikhail, who played the role of the watchman's grandson in the film "The meeting place cannot be changed," drank a lot, then became addicted to drugs and died before the age of 30 from cardiac arrest. Vladimir has become a famous actor, he acts in films and TV series a lot, is engaged in directing work. Natalia runs a dog kennel.

Tatiana Epifantseva herself gives all her strength to her Petya, the son of Mikhail. For 20 years she has been caring for her grandson, who was born with cerebral palsy. She did not even try to arrange her personal life, realizing that the only beloved man for her would always be Georgy Epifantsev.

In the film "Gloom River" Georgy Epifantsev starred with Lyudmila Chursina, who hid her complexes and a very vulnerable soul behind her own inaccessibility. It seemed that everything should turn out the way it was described in the novels: marriage is one and for life, common interests, joint creativity, conversations until dawn. However, fate prepared for her as many as three marriages and many unexpected turns.