American wife of a rowdy Bashirov: Why a shocking Russian actor could not live in the USA

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

Alexander Bashirov, at the age of 65, is widely known not only as a successful actor and director, but also as the main rowdy of modern cinema - not only because of his habit of shocking the audience with extravagant antics, but also due to the fact that he became the founder of Deboshir Film Studio and "Deboshir Film Festival". Few of his fans know that at one time he could emigrate to the United States, because he married an American. However, after several years spent abroad, he returned to Russia and renounced attempts to seek his fortune abroad …

Deboshir from the taiga hinterland

None of his relatives could have imagined that Alexander Bashirov would become an artist. He grew up in the small village of Sogom near Khanty-Mansiysk in an incomplete family far from the art world. He did not know his father, his mother worked all her life in the post office. Until the age of 4, he bore his father's surname - Kosygin, and then his mother rewrote him to her surname, and he became Bashirov. As a child, Alexander was often left to himself, and later joked that in his youth he had two main passions - smoking and drawing. He had a bad habit back in the 3rd grade "for the company". And when asked from whom he inherited artistry and charisma, he answered: "".

After school, he moved to Leningrad and entered a vocational school, where he received the specialty of a tiler-facing, and then worked at a cement plant in Vyborg until he was drafted into the army. After serving in a tank division in Transbaikalia, Bashirov decided that it was time to drastically change his life, which he later explained as follows: "".

He managed to enter the directing department of VGIK. True, after 2 years he was almost expelled: in one of the sketches he played Mephistopheles and decided to appear on stage in a dressing gown on his naked body, at the climax having thrown off the dressing gown. In the hall were Sergei Bondarchuk, Irina Skobtseva, Inna Makarova, and they did not appreciate the "author's interpretation" of the image. A scandal erupted, after which Bashirov was transferred to a course to another mentor.

American everyday life of Bashirov

During his student years, Bashirov met the American Sarah Wendy Newton, who also studied at the directing department at VGIK. They got married, and after completing their studies, they left for the United States. The newlyweds settled in the house of the wife's parents in New York, and soon the couple had a son, Christopher. The wife's family was respectable and well-to-do, Bashirov's mother-in-law turned out to be the famous American documentary filmmaker Joan Harvey, the author of the high-profile film America from Hitler to MX missiles. Alexander went to Columbia University and trained at a Broadway theater studio. After that, he received an invitation from one of the New York theaters.

His life in the USA was quite happy and successful, but after 2 years Bashirov decided to divorce and return to Russia. He later explained this in different ways. Then he laughed it off and said that there he had no one and nowhere to drink beer: "".

Another time, the actor indulged in philosophical reflections and lamented the fact that in American society everyone seemed to wear masks and constantly play some roles, he called America one big theater in which there is no sincerity. Years later, Bashirov said: "".

Return to Russia

Although Bashirov returned to his homeland in the most difficult times - in the early 1990s, it was here that he managed to build a successful acting and directing career, and find personal happiness. He began acting in films after 30 years, even before moving to America, having played the vivid role of the fake Air Force Major Babakin in Sergei Solovyov's film "Assa". After returning to Russia, he continued to act in films, and although he played most of the roles after 40 years, since then more than 150 works have appeared in his filmography. Director Karen Shakhnazarov said about him that he was "organic and natural, like an animal," and Vladimir Bortko said that Bashirov's participation in the filming was the key to the success of the film.

His name is most often mentioned in the media in connection with his shocking drunken antics: either he fell on the red carpet of the Kinotavr and crawled along it on all fours, then broke 2 ribs in a street fight, then started a fight on board the plane, or performed obscene ditties during time for colleagues to speak on stage. However, Bashirov is known not only for his scandalous behavior: the actor became the founder of the St. Petersburg charitable foundation "Pure Dreams", which supports young filmmakers. Under the auspices of this fund, film festivals of the same name are held annually - an alternative cinema platform (another name is "Deboshir Film Festival"). In addition, in 1996, Bashirov became the founder and artistic director of Deboshir Film Studio and a teacher of the acting and directing workshop.

For almost 30 years, the actor has been married to Inna Volkova, a former soloist and songwriter popular in the 1990s. group "Hummingbird". In her repertoire there was a song with the telling title "He doesn't need an American wife." Their daughter Alexandra-Maria followed in her father's footsteps and graduated from the directing department of VGIK.

This film has become a landmark not only for Alexander Bashirov, but not all the actors have such a successful fate: Why the stars of "Assy" disappeared from the screens.