10 Russian actors who died in oblivion and poverty
The acting profession is unreliable and risky. Today, an artist can be in demand and loved by everyone, but tomorrow the trend changes, new faces appear, and everyone forgets yesterday's idol.
If in modern times actors have the opportunity to receive large fees, invest money somewhere and thus secure their future, then in the USSR even after its collapse it was impossible.
The Soviet actor lived on a small salary, and after 1991, dozens of eminent stars were thrown to the sidelines of life without a livelihood. We invite you to read about the fate of Soviet artists who died in poverty and oblivion.
Alexey Smirnov
Actor Alexei Smirnov is one of those whose name no one remembers, but the film images are firmly remembered. Smirnov mostly starred in episodic, characteristic roles, but many of them are remembered by all Russian viewers. So, he played the rowdy Fedya in the film "Operation Y" and Shurik's Other Adventures, the mechanic Makarych in the film "Only Old Men Go to Battle", as well as many others.
Smirnov could never build relationships with women, after being wounded in the war he became barren and therefore never married. Smirnov broke down after the death of his friend Leonid Bykov - he began to drink a lot, despite health problems. Soon he ended up in the hospital with coronary heart disease, but he could not give up alcohol there either.
Alexey Smirnov: a clown with a broken heart
He was discharged on May 7, 1979, and died the same day. National fame did not make him happy and did not bring him friends. For a long time no one went to Smirnov's grave - it was overgrown with grass and for 25 years no one could find it. The burial place of Alexei Smirnov was discovered not so long ago quite by accident.
Alexander Belyavsky
One of the most elegant Soviet actors in his youth starred a lot, and mostly in the roles of "charming scoundrels" - what is the role of Fox in the mini-series "The meeting place cannot be changed" with Vladimir Vysotsky.
The last film with the participation of Alexander Belyavsky was released in 2008, where he played a small role of the governor. It was the picture "A Kiss Not for the Press" with Andrei Panin in the title role. In the last years of his life, he could not work actively - heart problems and the consequences of a stroke interfered. Alexander Borisovich walked with a cane, he did not feel very well. Due to the lack of work and a small pension, there was not enough money to live on.
Belyavsky died in 2012. The artist was found under the windows of the house where he lived - Alexander Belyavsky fell out of the window. At first it was believed that he stopped in the stairwell to take a breath of air, and did not keep his balance. However, later friends and colleagues began to say that it was a conscious act, and the reason was a beggarly existence and health problems. Alexander Belyavsky was 80 years old.
Tatyana Samoilova
The star of the 60s, actress Tatyana Samoilova was considered one of the most beautiful women not only in Soviet, but also in European cinema. And in 1957, the film with her participation - "The Cranes Are Flying" - received its Oscar. The actress was recognized in the West, she began to receive invitations to shoot in Hollywood and from European directors.
However, Goskino officials did not want to let Samoilova go to work, fearing that she would become a "non-returner". In Soviet times, she had enough work in the USSR - among her paintings at that time there are, for example, Anna Karenina. Since the mid-70s, Tatyana Samoilova has completely disappeared from the screen. They remembered her only in the early 90s - they were invited to the 43rd Cannes Film Festival as an honored guest.
Unfortunately, this did not become a reason for returning to the cinema. The first role after a 25-year break was offered to her only in 2000. After that, she played in only five films (for example, in the Moscow Saga with Olga Budina and Alexander Baluev). The actress herself said that if she lived in Hollywood, Anna Karenina alone would be enough for her to live comfortably all her life. Samoilova died alone in 2014.
Nonna Mordyukova
A truly people's artist Nonna Viktorovna Mordyukova starred a lot both in the Soviet and in the new, "capitalist" time. On her account there were roles in the films of Nikita Mikhalkov (“Kindred”), Vladimir Menshov (a bright episode in the farcical comedy “Shirley-Myrli” with Valery Garkalin), Georgy Danelia (“33”).
However, national fame and demand, even in later years, had little effect on the quality of life. In 1999, she played her last film role - in the film "Mom" with a whole constellation of young actors. Her set partners on this film were Vladimir Mashkov, Evgeny Mironov and Oleg Menshikov.
In an interview, Nonna Mordyukova restrainedly complained about the lack of money and the humiliating existence of a penny pension. At the end of her life, she shared with her sister a tiny cluttered apartment in Krylatskoye in Moscow. She was sick a lot, so she could not earn money on filming and concerts. She said that the pension was barely enough for the bare necessities, and sometimes she picks up a pineapple in the store - just to smell it. Nonna Mordyukova died in 2008 at the age of 82.
Borislav Brondukov
This actor is known for the small but well-remembered roles of Fedul from Afoni, Inspector Lestrade from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, fake Captain Kolbasiev from We Are From Jazz and many others.Borislav Brondukov as Fedul in the film "Afonya"
Borislav Brondukov suffered his first stroke in 1984, at the age of 46. Despite a serious diagnosis, he continued to act in films, tried to lead an active lifestyle. But the first stroke was followed by three more. The disease lasted for ten years, and in the last years of his life - after 1997 - the artist did not get out of bed, could not talk, he only cried sometimes from longing and humiliation. Life was hard.
Brondukov's wife Ekaterina said that young strong guys of gangster appearance periodically appeared in the house, who left her some money. The couple lived in the village of Bykovnya near Kyiv, where doctors even refused to go. At times there was absolutely nothing to eat, and then a familiar butcher gave the family of Borislav Brondukov bones - Catherine cooked thin soup from them. The actor died in 2004, he was 66 years old.
Vladimir Ivashov
The career of the Moscow actor Vladimir Ivashov began brilliantly - he starred in Grigory Chukhrai's film "The Ballad of a Soldier" when he was still a twenty-year-old student at VGIK. The actor was nominated for the prestigious British BAFTA award, and the monument to the Liberator Soldier in Bulgaria began to be called Alyosha in honor of his character.
After the first starring role, there were others - Colonel Kudasov's adjutant in The Crown of the Russian Empire (the song "Russian Field" then became the artist's crown number), Pechorin in "A Hero of Our Time" (however, Vyacheslav Tikhonov voiced the role, since Ivashov from temporarily lost his voice due to illness) and others. True, it seemed that in the cinema they simply exploited his appearance, and no one was interested in Ivashov's acting range.
The song "Russian Field" performed by Vladimir Ivashov
In the early 90s, Vladimir Ivashov was not in demand in the cinema, he was fired from his job - from the Film Actor Theater. To earn a living, he got a job as a laborer: he dragged bricks at a construction site, kneaded concrete. In 1995, he died from internal bleeding - Vladimir Ivashov had a stomach ulcer. The actor was only 55 years old.
Tamara Nosova
People's Artist of the USSR Tamara Nosova performed mainly in a comic role. She graduated from VGIK in 1950 and has since starred a lot - though mostly in episodes. Among her famous roles are Aunt Aksal in the fairy tale "Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors", Donna Rosa in "Hello, I'm your aunt" with Alexander Kalyagin, Komarikha in "Wedding in Malinovka" with Mikhail Pugovkin.
Tamara Nosova worked for a long time at the Film Actor Theater, was married three times. But all three marriages ended in divorce, and after the death of her mother in 1982, she withdrew into herself and began to lead an almost hermitic lifestyle. In 1991, she was “left” from the theater. In addition, the actress was sick: the diagnosis was “chronic ischemia of the heart”, which is usually accompanied by severe depression, weakening of memory and attention.
In recent years, Tamara Nosova ate at a social canteen for the homeless, her pension was not even enough for rent. The toilet in the artist's apartment did not work for several years, rats scurried around the house. Nosova developed a craving for pathological hoarding - she pulled rubbish and garbage from the surrounding landfills into the apartment. The actress died in 2007, after lying on the floor in an apartment for several days after a stroke.
Tatyana Peltzer
The audience does not remember the young actress Tatyana Peltzer - it seems that she appeared on the movie screens immediately as a "national grandmother". This image was exploited both in cinema and theater directors.Tatyana Ivanovna Peltzer has dozens of roles, voiced cartoons, a huge number of theatrical works. Among them are the television version of The Marriage of Figaro with Andrei Mironov in the title role, You Never Dreamed of with Lydia Fedoseyeva-Shukshina, The Memorial Prayer with Yevgeny Leonov and others.
Tatyana Peltzer lived a long life, including professionally: until recently she worked at the Lenkom Theater in the troupe of Mark Zakharov. Even when she began to develop senile dementia and the actress forgot the words, she had roles in the theater. In 1992, she ended up in a psychoneurological dispensary and broke her femoral neck there.
After the injury, the 88-year-old actress no longer got up. She died of pneumonia in July of that year. The press wrote that Tatyana Peltzer was buried in a closed coffin, as she was allegedly severely beaten in the hospital. There was no confirmation of these rumors.
Sergey Filippov
The artist Sergei Filippov was truly popular - many of the phrases that his characters uttered from the screen went to the people. Due to his specific appearance, Filippov's long, ungainly figure was mostly cast in comical small roles, especially in his mature years. .What does Masik want? Masik wants vodka
Filippov spent the last years of his life in solitude. Actor friends said that after the death of the actor, the daughter of his second wife took advantage of the turmoil and took everything of value from the apartment - antique furniture, jewelry and porcelain. At the same time, Sergey Filippov's friend and colleague Alexander Demyanenko collected money for the funeral. Sergei Filippov was buried in April 1990.
Mikhail Kononov
Kononov began acting in films in the early sixties, but he gained the greatest popularity in the 70s after starring in the mini-series Big Break. There, Mikhail Kononov starred as the school teacher Nestor Severov, and with him they played
Kononov did not give up: he wrote a book of memoirs and tried to sell it, but the publishers showed no interest. Due to poverty, he had to sell his Moscow apartment and settle in the Moscow suburbs. Two weeks before his death, he went to the hospital with pneumonia, but there was not enough money for the necessary medicines. Kononov died in the summer of 2007 from a thromboembolism.
Acting fame is capricious, and the nature of the artists is subtle and sensitive. Many were crippled by the collapse of the Soviet Union and, as a result, the commercialization of cinema. Often, artists drowned out poverty and humiliation with alcohol. The editors of the site invite you to read about Russian stars who were ruined by alcohol.
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