From boarding school to philologists, from teachers to bandits: Paradoxes of the 1990s movie star Anatoly Zhuravlev

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

Probably, the actor Anatoly Zhuravlev, who celebrated his 57th birthday on March 20, can in many respects be called an exception to the rule, because he always combined the incongruous. He became the last champion of the USSR in taekwondo, but at the same time he was fond of art and graduated from the Faculty of Philology. After serving in the army, he worked as a teacher of the Russian language and literature, and then suddenly reincarnated as one of the main screen bandits. Unlike many stars of the 1990s, he managed to go beyond one role and find his place in the new cinema. He was an exemplary family man, but became the father of illegitimate children …

How a taekwondo champion became a school teacher

The homeland of Anatoly Zhuravlev is the Ural town of Verkhnyaya Salda. His father was a pilot, and his mother worked at the Ural Carriage Works. When he was little, his parents divorced, and Anatoly and his sister stayed with their mother. She had to work in three shifts, which affected her health. She often ended up in hospitals and was forced to send her seven-year-old son to a boarding school. Anatoly told about this later: "".

Taking the grandson from the boarding school to her village near Nizhny Tagil, the grandmother began to feed him, and the boy put on a lot of weight. Sport helped him to get in shape. He began to practice taekwondo and achieved considerable success - he received a black belt and even became in 1991 the last USSR champion in taekwondo in the weight category over 80 kg. Later he confessed: "".

His youthful hobbies were not limited to one sport. In the 9th grade, Anatoly began to attend an amateur group and participate in all school plays and performances. But to a boy from the provinces, the acting profession seemed something unattainable, and then he did not think about choosing this path. After school, Zhuravlev graduated from the philological faculty of the Pedagogical Institute, while continuing to appear on stage in the performances of the Nizhny Tagil Drama Theater. And after completing his studies, he worked as a teacher in the village of Medvedevo for a year. There were not enough teachers there, and Zhuravlev conducted literature, history, singing, geography, works, and physical education.

How a school teacher became a movie star in the 1990s

After a year of work at the school, Zhuravlev realized that he had chosen the wrong path. After serving in the army, he went to Leningrad and entered LGITMiK. While still a student, he began performing on the stage of the Leningrad Comedy Theater and acting in films. Although the beginning of his film path fell on the period of the crisis of the 1990s, the actor did not remain without work. True, in all his first films, he seemed to play the same role, because the directors exploited only his textured appearance and good athletic training, thanks to which he could perform all the tricks on his own.

The range of Anatoly Zhuravlev's first works can be judged by the list of film roles: bandit, thief, defendant, racketeer, security guard. His lucky ticket and pass to a big movie was the main role - the former paratrooper Kolya Orlov - in Dmitry Astrakhan's melodrama "Everything will be fine!" The film has become a cult for the generation of the 1990s, and the actor has become a real film idol for young people.

After that, the film career of Anatoly Zhuravlev took off. Although he still got the role of bandits, the actor starred in the most famous films of the 1990s: Poor Sasha, Brother, Classic. Well, a new round of popularity came to him in 1999, when he starred in the TV series "Birthday of the Bourgeois". Zhuravlev got the role of a friend of the protagonist and his bodyguard thanks to the fact that he demonstrated taekwondo techniques during the tests. The director of the project, Anatoly Mateshko, called him a Ural nugget - in the frame the actor was so organic that he did not play at all, but simply lived on the set. He himself told about these shootings like this: "".

How the main movie bandit of the 1990s became the hero of the cinema of the new era

He was called the main screen bandit of the 1990s. Having played so many roles of the same type, even in the most interesting projects, it is extremely difficult to go beyond one role. Many actors, who began their film career in the 1990s, later could not find their place in the new cinema, as their types lost their relevance. Anatoly Zhuravlev here again became an exception to the rule - in the early 2000s. he starred a lot. Now he was offered the roles of the military, law enforcement officers, investigators, detectives and businessmen.

In 1996, the actor moved from Leningrad to Moscow, where he performed on the stage of the Oleg Tabakov Studio Theater and the Film Actor Theater and continued to act in films. For 30 years of his film career, he has already played more than 70 roles. His most recent work to date has been roles in three seasons of The Forces, two seasons of Bugs, and The Side Effect. When asked about his favorite roles, he answers: "".

How an exemplary family man became the father of two illegitimate children

For a long time, Anatoly Zhuravlev was spoken of as an exemplary family man, because he lived with his first wife, Natalya Dubonos, for 20 years. The only thing that darkened their family happiness was the absence of children. The news that the actor became the father of two illegitimate children broke out like a bolt from the blue. In 2014, a woman appeared on one of the talk shows, who announced that she single-handedly raised her son from a famous actor. And it turned out to be true. Even before his marriage, Anatoly met a girl named Nadezhda, spent only one night with her, and then she announced that she was expecting a child from him. Then he simply did not believe her. And when, 19 years later, the actor saw Anton for the first time, he realized that this was really his son, because the guy looked like him like two drops of water. Zhuravlev was very sorry that he did not communicate with him all these years, but he managed to build a warm relationship with him.

And when the actor's wife found out that he had another illegitimate child, this news put an end to their relationship. As it turned out, in 2008, while working on the play, Zhuravlev had an affair with actress Tatyana Shitova, and she gave birth to his daughter Vasilisa. The actor recognized his paternity only when his daughter was 5 years old. His wife could not forgive him for this betrayal, and they parted.

Fate gave him a chance to correct mistakes in his second marriage. In 2011, Zhuravlev met at the theater with the actress Polina Prikhodko. She was 24, he was 49. Despite the big age difference, they began an affair, and after 2 years they got married. In 2015, the couple had a son. Before his birth, the actor, together with his wife, went to courses for future parents, and then helped his wife in all the worries about the child. Probably, today he can be called not only an exemplary family man, but also an ideal father - realizing all his mistakes and missed opportunities, he finally became for his family something to be proud of.

Anatoly Zhuravlev built a very successful film career, but this cannot be said about his colleagues: Why are the film idols of the 1990s from the movie "Everything will be fine!" disappeared from screens.