Who Ruined Lyudmila Marchenko's Film Career: The Broken Fate of "Soviet Audrey Hepburn"

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

On June 20, she could have turned 79 years old, but in 1997 she passed away. She was given only 56 years, of which she only acted in films for 20 years. VGIK called her “Soviet Audrey Hepburn” and predicted a bright future. At first, the predictions of teachers and colleagues came true - her star was lit by Ivan Pyryev himself. However, after 1980 no one took it off again, and they had to leave the theater. Who interfered with her film career, and whose fault one of the most beautiful actresses of the USSR was on the sidelines of life - further in the review.

That Lyudmila Marchenko would become an artist, no one doubted - she said this in childhood. In the school theater, she participated in all productions, and in high school she even staged performances herself. After leaving school, she submitted documents to all theatrical universities in Moscow, and they were ready to accept her at the Shchukinsky and Schepkinsky schools and at VGIK. Lyudmila opted for the latter. Her classmates were Andrei Konchalovsky and Vladimir Ivashov. By the time she graduated, she had already starred in films and was a fairly well-known actress.

After VGIK, she was accepted into the troupe of the Experimental Theater-Studio of Pantomime, and 2 years later she moved to the Theater-Studio of Film Actor, where she worked for almost 20 years. But the actress herself admitted that cinema was always closer to her than theater. She began acting in her sophomore year, when Grigory Kozintsev entrusted her with a small role in his film "Volunteers". A year later, she starred in Lev Kulidzhanov's film "The Father's House". But her real star was made by Ivan Pyriev - a famous director, creator and first head of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR, in 1954-1957. - Director of the Mosfilm film studio.

It was said about him that he could even make a laundress a movie star. He was a member of the offices of the first persons of the state, and in the world of cinema he was considered one of the most powerful and influential persons. For Ivan Pyryev, the reputation of a despotic and vindictive person was entrenched - young actresses who did not reciprocate his courtship, ended up behind the side of the profession and immediately disappeared from the screens.

When they first met, Lyudmila Marchenko was only 19 years old, and Pyriev was already 58, moreover, he was married to actress Marina Ladynina. But the director lost his head from the young beauty and immediately approved her for the main role in his film "White Nights" without any tests. At first, the actress favorably accepted his advances, without risking a categorical refusal, but she did not reciprocate with him either - she fell in love with her filming partner, Oleg Strizhenov. He was married, moreover, 11 years older than her, but their romance went beyond the set.

Meanwhile, Pyryev did not back down and even helped his chosen one get an apartment, not knowing that she was meeting with Strizhenov there. Pyryev was not used to refusals and pursued the actress with manic persistence. But to her powerful patron, she still did not say "yes" or "no", refusing to close relationships. When Pyryev found out about her affair with Strizhenov, he had a heart attack.

And Strizhenov did not dare to leave the family, even after the actress became pregnant. She had an abortion at home, which left her infertile. After that, their romance with Strizhenov ended. Sister of the actress Galina told: "".

After that, the actress married a MGIMO student Vladimir Verbenko. Upon learning of this, Pyriev staged a pogrom in her apartment. But this marriage did not last long - because of the jealousy of the spouse. Soon after the divorce, the actress met geologist Valentin Berezin, and they began an affair. When Ivan Pyriev found out about this, he was beside himself with anger. This time his dissatisfaction had serious consequences - he forbade all directors to shoot Lyudmila Marchenko. Leonid Gaidai planned to shoot her in the title role in his film "Prisoner of the Caucasus", but as a result approved Natalia Varley. And they even stopped letting Marchenko into the House of Cinema and Mosfilm, having canceled her pass. Pyryev left her alone only shortly before his death, when he married the young actress Lionella Skirda.

In the 1970s. Lyudmila Marchenko played only one role - in the short film "Something with the Phone", and in 1980 she starred in her last film - a small episode of the film "Say a Word about the Poor Hussar", where her name was not even in the credits. After they stopped filming her, the theater made it clear to her that it was time for her to leave. Marchenko had to write a letter of resignation of his own free will. After that, she got a job at Mosfilm as an assistant director, but soon there was no work there either.

The family life of the actress did not develop for a long time - the common-law spouse Valentin Berezin was jealous of her and raised his hand to her. Once, believing the rumors about her affair with Pyryev, he beat her so badly that the doctors of the Sklifosovsky Institute barely saved the disfigured woman. Her face is scarred for life. But Lyudmila did not admit that she was beaten by her husband - she told everyone that she was in a car accident. And 2 years after this incident, Marchenko found out that her husband had an illegitimate child, and left him.

After that, she tried to establish her personal life and married again - to the administrator of the Mosconcert Vitaly Voitenko. He found a plastic surgeon for her and convinced her to do several operations so that Lyudmila could return to the acting profession. But everything went wrong, and the result horrified the actress. The husband helped Marchenko organize creative meetings with the audience. For some time she, together with Vladimir Vysotsky, toured the cities of the USSR. But viewers everywhere asked her the same question - about where she is now filming, and when she will return to the screens. To that she had no answer. The actress broke down completely, became addicted to alcohol and was left alone again.

Fate was supportive of the actress - after all the trials she had experienced, she was lucky enough to once again meet a person who wanted to connect his fate with her. Graphic artist Sergei Sokolov became her last husband. He made every effort to help her get rid of alcohol addiction, every spring and summer he took her to the village, where he painted pictures, and his wife posed for him. They lived together for 21 years, until Sergei's death. And a few months after his departure, Lyudmila Marchenko herself was gone.

Having contracted the flu, she refused to see a doctor, did not take any medications, and on January 21, 1997, she died at the age of 57. The sister of the actress said that shortly before her death, Lyudmila confessed: the cinema did not give her anything, she was left without children, with a disfigured face and a broken life. In her youth, it seemed to her that she pulled out a lucky ticket, but he turned her life into a real nightmare.

Lyudmila Marchenko was not the only actress whose film career he broke Ivan Pyriev: because of what the director of "Mosfilm" earned the nickname Ivan the Terrible.