Farewell to Oleg Vidov - Soviet actor who achieved success in Hollywood

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

On May 16, the popular Soviet actor Oleg Vidovfamous for movies "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "The Headless Horseman" and "Gentlemen of Fortune" … He became one of the first actors to emigrate abroad and achieve notable success there. But for this he had to make a lot of effort.

Oleg Vidov was fascinated with cinema since childhood, so after school he decided to enter VGIK. In his first year, his film career began - then he starred in a cameo role in the film "My friend, Kolka". As a student at VGIK, he played the main roles in films of three famous directors: Vladimir Basov in Blizzard, Erast Garin in Ordinary Miracle, and Alexander Ptushko in The Tale of Tsar Saltan. By the end of his studies, he was already a fairly well-known actor in the USSR.

In the second half of the 1960s. Vidov began acting in foreign films as well. In 1966 he was invited to star in the Danish-Swedish film "Red Robe", then he played in several Yugoslav films. It was said that his marriage to the daughter of a KGB general Natalya Fedotova, who was a friend of Galina Brezhneva, contributed to this to a large extent. There are really many types, like no other Soviet actor, played in foreign cinema.

All-Union popularity brought him the main role in the Soviet-Cuban film "The Headless Horseman". It is curious that Oleg Strizhenov, who was invited to this role, refused it, arguing that he was "used to playing actors with a head." Nevertheless, it was after this film that Vidov became the idol of the entire female audience of the USSR.

In 1973, Vidov entered the directing department of VGIK, while continuing to act in films ("Pious Martha", "Cry of Silence", "Demidovs", etc.). And suddenly, in the mid-1970s. the actor disappeared from the screens. Spectators were at a loss, putting forward various versions of his disappearance: from illness to emigration. Vidov himself later explained everything himself: “In 1976 I divorced Natalia Fedotova. I was not allowed to communicate with my son Vyacheslav. The regular attempts of my ex-wife to ruin my life and career then served as one of the reasons for my departure … ! ". Thank God I received my diploma. And then - for the same reason - how many roles have I lost!"

It was then that the actor decided to emigrate abroad. Under the pretext of filming in Yugoslavia, he left the country, but then real difficulties began. “When, under pressure from the Central Committee, I was found and ordered to return to the USSR at 72 o'clock, an actor friend helped me to secretly move to Austria. I hid in his car, without any documents. When we drove past the checkpoint, we saw that there was no one there. A friend - and with us in the car were his wife and child - decided to try to slip through. Fortunately, the border guards watched football, and they had no time for us …”, - the actor recalls.

Vidov moved to Italy, and then to the United States. He married journalist and producer Joan Borsten, and she helped him settle in a new place. At first, he did not even expect to continue his film career - after moving he got a job at a construction site, then moved to a factory. But his expat colleagues convinced him to try his hand at Hollywood. And he succumbed to their persuasion.

Oleg Vidov became one of the few Soviet actors who managed to realize themselves in the profession abroad. Vidov's first American film was the sensational Red Heat, where Arnold Schwarzenegger was his filming partner. Vidov got the role of a Soviet policeman, but he was not invited to such roles anymore: “I fell into the category of Russian actors who looked too decent to play Hollywood Russians,” he explains.

After that, he directed the short film Legend of the Emerald Princess, in which he played the main role. Zalman King drew attention to the actor and invited him to his film "Wild Orchid". This time, Mickey Rourke became his partner on the set. During the filming, he felt unwell - it turned out that the cause was a tumor on the pituitary gland. He underwent surgery, and the doctors' predictions were optimistic.

Vidov continued to act, and the roles he played were enough to enter the 10 percent of Hollywood actors annually confirming their professional status. Thanks to this, the acting guild provided him with insurance and a pension. In addition, Vidov became one of the founders of the Films by Jove company, which bought the rights to foreign distribution of Soviet cartoons from the Soyuz-Cartoon studio, and the actor received a percentage of the distribution.

He passed away three weeks before his 74th birthday. The cause of death was complications after cancer. Oleg Vidov went down in cinema history as one of the few Soviet actors in Hollywoodwho have achieved success both in the USSR and abroad.