Today Evgeny Pavlovich Leonov would have turned 90 years
2 September 2016, the famous Soviet and Russian theater and film actor Yevgeny Pavlovich Leonov would have turned 90 years. Yevgeny Leonov was one of the most favorite actors of Soviet cinema. Almost everyone loved him, moreover, as a close person, practically a relative. He did not have the elegant charm and unique timbre of Yakovlev’s voice, the sophisticated intelligence of Lanoviy, the brutality of the Urban or the charisma of Ulyanov, but he was loved the way he was, simply because he was Leonov.
Working in the cinema, he practically did not make up, giving the heroes, so beloved by the audience, his appearance - a full baggy figure, a small height, a round face with thick lips and a big nose, a head with a significant bald spot, a deaf hoarse voice that people instantly recognized. Many generations of viewers remembered this voice forever, which he presented to Winnie the Pooh in the Soviet 1969-1972 cartoon series (an interesting fact: to make the actor's voice more funny, he was sped up by 30%).
The talent of Yevgeny Leonov was in something akin to the great Chaplin, he managed to play many roles in a movie, piercingly and clearly portraying the painful drama of a small, funny person. Leonov incomparably had the appearance of a comic. But at the same time he was always more than just a comedian, he was a big actor who didn’t have small roles. Director Andrei Alexandrovich Goncharov said about him: “Yevgeny Leonov was a great Russian comedian. And you know what a Russian comedian is. This is surely, of course, also a tragedian, there should be a romantic tear in it, the intonation of tragedy should be heard ”. From the grotesque barman in the film “Striped Flight” Yevgeny Leonov was able to rise to the high tragedy of Tevye the Milkman in the play “Memorial Prayer” based on the play of the same name by Grigory Gorin, the last play with his participation.
Yevgeny Leonov was born 2 September 1926 year in Moscow. He grew up in the most ordinary middle-income Moscow family. He spent his childhood in a communal apartment located on Vasilyevskaya Street. Here, the Leonov family occupied two small rooms. Eugene was the second child in the family, his brother Nikolai was two years older than him. The apartment on Vasilyevskaya was forever full of guests, every now and then the flip-flops stood at random — relatives, both close and distant, came to Moscow. The mom of the future actor Anna Ilyinichna was a kind and hospitable housewife, so everyone in this apartment felt free and easy, they lived here in a fun and friendly way. She devoted herself entirely to raising two sons, and read them many books.
Like many children of those years, Evgeny Leonov in his childhood dreamed of becoming a pilot. This is not unusual, because it was a time when the whole country was proud of the fearless Soviet falcons: Chkalov, Baydukov, Belyakov. There were family reasons for that - Evgeny's father, Pavel Vasilievich, worked as an engineer at an aircraft factory and told his sons a lot about his work, about famous Soviet designers, about airplanes, so that when they grow up, the boys dreamed of becoming aviators. By the way, Nikolai Leonov in the future really connected his life with aviation. But Eugene before the war, at a primary school age, discovered a new hobby. In the fifth grade, he began to attend a drama club in which the children independently wrote the script for the play and prepared its production. Despite the fact that the performance did not take place, classes in the drama circle forever sunk into the soul of the future actor, instilling in him a love of the stage.
In 1941, when the Great Patriotic War began, Yevgeny Leonov graduated from the 7 class only. On the advice of his parents, the boy got a job at an aviation factory as an apprentice turner. During the war, the whole Leonov family worked at this aviation plant: the father was an engineer, the mother — a timekeeper, and brother Nikolai — a copyer. In the fall of 1941, Yevgeny passed the exams and entered the Ordzhonikidze Aviation Technical School. While studying at a technical school, Leonov took an active part in amateur performances, spoke at numerous student parties. The actor himself later said: “I remember that it was then that Zoshchenko learned and told“ Monter ”, prepared Chekhov's“ In the Bathhouse ”, loved Yesenin and Blok very much, recited their poems by heart in the evenings, and they called me like they used to , "Our artist."
In the third year of the technical school, Evgeny Leonov decides to enter the drama department of the Moscow Theater Studio, which at that time was led by the famous choreographer of the Bolshoi Theater Rostislav Zakharov. Having plunged into a new life for himself, Leonov every day with great pleasure disappeared in the theater studio from 8 in the morning until one in the morning. At that moment, Andrei Aleksandrovich Goncharov, who had returned from the front and became their course, had a great influence on him. After completing his studies in 1947, Yevgeny Leonov was accepted into the Moscow Theater of the Dzerzhinsky District, where he played the role of Kolka in the play “Peers”. Just a year later, the theater was disbanded, creating the Moscow Stanislavsky Drama Theater instead. The main director of the new theater was Vladimir Fedorovich Dudin. Young actors, including Yevgeny Leonov, were accepted into the new theater, but for a long time they were not trusted to play the main roles. So Leonov played mostly in the crowd scene - a collective farmer in “The Silence of the Forests”, a batman in the Three Sisters and other cameo roles.
At this first time of work in the Stanislavsky Theater, Yevgeny Leonov masterfully depicted various sound effects: the roar of a carriage, the sound of wind, the clatter of hooves, and the splash of water. For this work he was assigned a fixed price - 5 rubles. Once, very tired during the performance, the young actor fell asleep right in the dressing room, at this time a cart lumbered along the street. “Five rubles passed,” muttered Yevgeny Leonov, without waking up.
The money that Leonov earned in the theater was clearly not enough for life, so he did not refuse to earn extra money, acting mostly in the crowd. The first episodic roles in the movie actor played in 1948-1949 years in the paintings of Vladimir Nemolyaev "Happy flight" and "Pencil on ice." After these films in 1951, there was an episode in the sports comedy of Vladimir Petrov “Sports Honor”, in which Leonov appeared on the screen as a waiter, and in 1954, in the heroic adventure picture of Vladimir Nemolyaev “Sea Hunter”, playing the role of coca.
In the middle of 1950-s, significant changes occurred in Yevgeny Leonov’s life, which concerned not only work in the cinema and theater, but also personal life. In 1955, Leonov starred in Yosif Kheifits’s criminal drama “The Case of Rumyantsev”, playing the role of Snegiryov, as well as in Alexander Stolper’s adventure film “The Road” (the role of Pashka Eskov). In these two films, the directors entrusted him with very interesting and complex roles.
It should be noted that in spite of the fact that Leonov was an actor, played in the theater and cinema, in his personal life he was a rather shy person, which complicated his relationship and acquaintance with the girls, he got married quite late in the year 31. The actor met his future wife, Vanda, on the Stanislavsky Theater tour in Sverdlovsk in 1957. Upon returning home to Moscow, the actor began to call the girl, persuading her to come, he succeeded. Wanda arrived in the capital and liked the parents of the actor, after which Yevgeny Leonov immediately offered the girl his hand and heart. However, Wanda's parents were not thrilled with the alleged marriage, as they considered the actor's profession to be unpromising and unserious. But in this matter the character of Wanda manifested itself, which told the parents that it would still marry Leonov. As a result, they had to accept the decision of their daughter, and on November 16 of the year 1957 between Yevgeny Leonov and Vanda Stoilova was officially registered. Already after 2, Andrei, the only son of Yevgeny Pavlovich, was born in their family.
The finest hour in the career of actor Leonov came in 1961, when Vladimir Fetin’s comedy “Striped Flight” came out on Soviet movie screens, in this film Eugene played the barman Shuleykin, who pretended to be the tiger's tamer. The original situation of the film concealed a huge number of opportunities for an eccentric comedy, and the authors of the film were able to successfully take advantage of this. The comedy was very fun, full of tricks and dynamic. Yevgeny Leonov played in the film without fear of a frank farce, but at the same time turned out to be very touching in his naive simplicity. The role of the barman Shuleykin brought Leonov truly nationwide fame, in an instant he became one of the best comedians of the USSR. The film was a huge success with the audience, taking first place at the 1961 rental of the year. The comedy "Striped Flight" that year saw 32 million people.
Director Vladimir Fetin, who discovered the comedy talent of Yevgeny Leonov for the Soviet audience, later 3 offered the actor a dramatic role in the melodrama “Don Tale” based on the stories “Shibalkovo Seed” and “Rodinka” by Mikhail Sholokhov. The film told about the difficult fate of the Don Cossack Yakov Shibalka, who accepted the revolution in the country, and about his tragic love for a woman who did not share these views. This film work by Leonov was highly appreciated - the actor won an award in India at the 3 International Film Festival in New Delhi, as well as at the All-Union Film Festival in Kiev.
Despite the success of the film “The Don Story”, the directors continued to invite Yevgeny Leonov to comedic roles. But after this picture, the usual comedic characters of his characters more and more often began to be filled with tragicomic colors. That, for example, was his Ivan Travkin from the thirty-three comedy film. Behind the seemingly uncomplicated plot of this picture was a caustic satire on many phenomena of the Soviet reality of those years. It is no coincidence that the film was declared “ideologically harmful”, it was simply “put on the shelf”, the film was banned for 25 years and all the time it did appear sometimes on the screen. Then followed the new acting in the cinema. Leonov starred in Viktor Merezhko’s debut comedy “Zarechenskie grooms” (matchmaker Koroteika), the lyric drama “The Magician” (Rassomahin) by Peter Todorovsky, the tale “The Snow Queen” (King) of Gennady Kazan, the film director “Virineya” (Mikhailo) Vladimir Fetin and others. Leonov played a very good role of a soldier who allegedly left the pages of Russian fairy tales in the tragicomedy of George Danelia “Do not worry!” In 1969.
Leonov's dramatic talent was also shown on the theater stage. In 1966, the actor struck the audience exactly in style and masterful performance of the role of king-tyrant Creon in the play "Antigone", which was staged by Boris Lvov-Anokhin. When the director invited Yevgeny Leonov to this role, many people took this choice negatively: “Leonov and Creon? Yes, you are crazy! But the performance took place and was a great success with the audience and critics.
In 1970-s, the actor played his most significant and noticeable film roles, most of the films of these years with his participation were in the golden fund of the national cinema. It is very important that these pictures were completely different in content and genre. So in 1970, Leonov starred in the film story "Belarusian Station" by Andrei Smirnov. According to the plot of the film, his former front-line friends — representatives of various professions: an accountant, a journalist, a simple mechanic, and a plant manager — gathered at the funeral of a prominent commander. The finest and most tragic moment of the film was its finale, when friends gather together in the house of the former nurse and perform the wonderful song of Bulat Okudzhava “We need one victory” (“The tenth landing battalion”). Surprisingly, the censors did not like this picture either, having lain on the shelf for two years. And only when the film Belarusian Station received an honorary prize at the festival in Karlovy Vary, it was released on a wide screen in the Soviet Union.
The actor played a completely different role in the eccentric comedy “Gentlemen of Fortune” by Alexander Sery. In this film, Yevgeny Leonov had two main roles at once - the director of the kindergarten, Yevgeny Ivanovich Troshkin and the cruel thief named Assistant. On the instructions of the police Troshkin was supposed to be reincarnated for a time in the Associate Professor. In order to play this role more convincingly, Leonov visited the special prison of Butyrka, where he looked through the peephole of the camera, studying the life and behavior of prisoners. The observations of the actor, his skill and talent helped to recreate the unforgettable characters on the screen. In the eyes of the viewer, the actor instantly reincarnated from a touching kindergarten director to a cruel recidivist. The film "Gentlemen of Fortune" was released on Soviet screens in 1972, instantly caught the fancy of the audience. Phrases, sayings and aphorisms from this picture instantly become winged and famous: “fall apart,” “radish is a bad person.” In the same year, another significant event in the life of Yevgeny Pavlovich Leonov took place - he became a people's artist of the RSFSR.
It should be noted that Leonov starred a lot from George Danelia: the paintings “Thirty-three”, “Do not grieve!”, “Afonya”, “Mimino”, “Autumn marathon”, as well as the same “Gentlemen of Fortune”, where Danelia was the author script. For this great Soviet director, Yevgeny Leonov was a real talisman, and their creative union left us with a rich cultural heritage.
In 1978, director Mark Zakharov invited Leonov to play the role of the king in his painting Ordinary Miracle. It was an adaptation of the play of the same name by Eugene Schwartz. The role for Leonov, who was accustomed to playing kindhearted characters, was somewhat unusual, but the actor managed, creating on the screen an unforgettable character - the Tyrant King, filling it with extraordinary irony and touchingness. In the same year, 1978, Evgeny Pavlovich was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR. When the question of conferring this high rank to Leonov was discussed, someone said: “Isn’t Leonov popular? Yes you! Check, it has long been national. " And indeed, people's love and glory for many years ahead of the official recognition of the merits and talents of the actor from the state.
The beginning of 1980's was marked for Yevgeny Leonov with two new works in the cinema. In the comedy “For matches” by Leonid Gaidai, he played a Finnish peasant Ihalainen, and in the tragicomedy “Say a word about poor hussars” Eldar Ryazanov, actor of the provincial theater Bubentsov. The audience met both of these films with their favorite actor very warmly. The film “Behind the Matches”, although it was somewhat weaker than the previous works of Leonid Gaidai, always enjoyed the love of the audience. If we talk about the film “About the poor hussar put in a good word”, then this tape has become a classic of domestic cinema.
Another significant filmmaker 1980's was the comedy of George Danelia "Kin-dza-dza". For the role of chatlanin Wefa in this work, the director invited Leonov in the middle of the 1980s. The film was filmed with great difficulty, since it took place in the Karakum Desert, in mildly unfavorable weather and climatic conditions. With air temperature + 50-60 degrees Celsius, it was possible to shoot only in the morning and evening hours. In 1986, the comedy appeared on Soviet screens. Initially, most of the audience (especially the older generation) did not accept it, but over time this film acquired the status of a cult, adding to the list of outstanding works by George Danelia and Yevgeny Leonov.
All this time, the actor did not stop playing in the theater. Work on the theatrical scene Yevgeny Leonov gave himself. For all this time they have not been disrupted a single performance. Yevgeny Pavlovich went on the scene even when he was ill with pneumonia, and his temperature was under forty. In the summer of 1988, when the theater Lenk was on tour in Germany in Hamburg, a terrible misfortune happened to Yevgeny Leonov. While touring as a result of a massive heart attack, the actor experienced clinical death. In Germany, he underwent a coronary artery bypass surgery, was in a coma for 16 days. All these days and nights near him were his wife and son. And after just 4 a month after what happened, he was already rehearsing the main role of Tevye the Milkman in the new play “Memorial Prayer”. The performance premiered in 1989. After the premiere, crowds of admiring spectators walked to the stage, carrying armfuls of flowers to Leonov.
In 1990, the actor starred in movies very rarely. First of all, the transferred surgery and clinical death had an effect, all this could not pass without a trace, Leonov had health problems. But the main reason was still the general collapse of the domestic film industry. At the beginning of 1990, the actor appeared only in the small role of the embassy watchman in the comedy George Danelia “Passport”, and also played Yakov Alekseevich in the film “Nastya”. Finally, in 1993, he played a major role in Ivan Schegolev's comedy film “American Grandfather,” this was his last work in film.
Yevgeny Pavlovich Leonov died 29 in January 1994, he was 67 years old. He died instantly, as the doctors later said, due to the separation of a blood clot. The actor died gathering in the play "Memorial Prayer." When spectators gathered in the theater were told that the play would not take place due to the death of Yevgeny Leonov, not one of them gave up his ticket. Candles were brought from the nearest church, the people stood all evening with them outside the theater building. Thousands of fans of his talent came to the funeral of the actor, which took place in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Four years after the death of the actor, in 1998, satirist and playwright Grigory Gorin noted: “Many still don’t believe in the death of Yevgeny Leonov. The death of actors in general has become a surreal concept. If a voice sounds, if a person is shown on TV almost every week, if photos are viewed from the covers of books ... What does death have to do with it? Best of all this nonsense was noted by the boy in our yard. He was 6 years old, he played in the sandbox. His friend, two years older, told him what he heard: "Winnie the Pooh is dead!" - "You're lying!" - quietly said the boy. - Winnie the Pooh is not dead. He is coming to visit tonight! ”
It is significant that the monuments that are associated with Yevgeny Leonov, for the most part devoted to the characters played by the actor. For example, in Moscow, Troshkin (Associate Professor) from the comedy “Gentlemen of Fortune” cast in bronze was installed in bronze in the head of the kindergarten. In the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art, viewers can see a monument to the heroes of the comedy Mimino, including the character of Yevgeny Leonov. A sculpture depicting Kohl's plasterer from the film “Afonya” was installed in Yaroslavl. This best confirms Leonov's acting talent and skill, people's love for his characters. Thanks to the rich acting heritage, more than one generation of viewers in our country will be able to meet and love the work of this remarkable actor and person.
Based on materials from open sources
Working in the cinema, he practically did not make up, giving the heroes, so beloved by the audience, his appearance - a full baggy figure, a small height, a round face with thick lips and a big nose, a head with a significant bald spot, a deaf hoarse voice that people instantly recognized. Many generations of viewers remembered this voice forever, which he presented to Winnie the Pooh in the Soviet 1969-1972 cartoon series (an interesting fact: to make the actor's voice more funny, he was sped up by 30%).
The talent of Yevgeny Leonov was in something akin to the great Chaplin, he managed to play many roles in a movie, piercingly and clearly portraying the painful drama of a small, funny person. Leonov incomparably had the appearance of a comic. But at the same time he was always more than just a comedian, he was a big actor who didn’t have small roles. Director Andrei Alexandrovich Goncharov said about him: “Yevgeny Leonov was a great Russian comedian. And you know what a Russian comedian is. This is surely, of course, also a tragedian, there should be a romantic tear in it, the intonation of tragedy should be heard ”. From the grotesque barman in the film “Striped Flight” Yevgeny Leonov was able to rise to the high tragedy of Tevye the Milkman in the play “Memorial Prayer” based on the play of the same name by Grigory Gorin, the last play with his participation.
Yevgeny Leonov was born 2 September 1926 year in Moscow. He grew up in the most ordinary middle-income Moscow family. He spent his childhood in a communal apartment located on Vasilyevskaya Street. Here, the Leonov family occupied two small rooms. Eugene was the second child in the family, his brother Nikolai was two years older than him. The apartment on Vasilyevskaya was forever full of guests, every now and then the flip-flops stood at random — relatives, both close and distant, came to Moscow. The mom of the future actor Anna Ilyinichna was a kind and hospitable housewife, so everyone in this apartment felt free and easy, they lived here in a fun and friendly way. She devoted herself entirely to raising two sons, and read them many books.
Like many children of those years, Evgeny Leonov in his childhood dreamed of becoming a pilot. This is not unusual, because it was a time when the whole country was proud of the fearless Soviet falcons: Chkalov, Baydukov, Belyakov. There were family reasons for that - Evgeny's father, Pavel Vasilievich, worked as an engineer at an aircraft factory and told his sons a lot about his work, about famous Soviet designers, about airplanes, so that when they grow up, the boys dreamed of becoming aviators. By the way, Nikolai Leonov in the future really connected his life with aviation. But Eugene before the war, at a primary school age, discovered a new hobby. In the fifth grade, he began to attend a drama club in which the children independently wrote the script for the play and prepared its production. Despite the fact that the performance did not take place, classes in the drama circle forever sunk into the soul of the future actor, instilling in him a love of the stage.
In 1941, when the Great Patriotic War began, Yevgeny Leonov graduated from the 7 class only. On the advice of his parents, the boy got a job at an aviation factory as an apprentice turner. During the war, the whole Leonov family worked at this aviation plant: the father was an engineer, the mother — a timekeeper, and brother Nikolai — a copyer. In the fall of 1941, Yevgeny passed the exams and entered the Ordzhonikidze Aviation Technical School. While studying at a technical school, Leonov took an active part in amateur performances, spoke at numerous student parties. The actor himself later said: “I remember that it was then that Zoshchenko learned and told“ Monter ”, prepared Chekhov's“ In the Bathhouse ”, loved Yesenin and Blok very much, recited their poems by heart in the evenings, and they called me like they used to , "Our artist."
In the third year of the technical school, Evgeny Leonov decides to enter the drama department of the Moscow Theater Studio, which at that time was led by the famous choreographer of the Bolshoi Theater Rostislav Zakharov. Having plunged into a new life for himself, Leonov every day with great pleasure disappeared in the theater studio from 8 in the morning until one in the morning. At that moment, Andrei Aleksandrovich Goncharov, who had returned from the front and became their course, had a great influence on him. After completing his studies in 1947, Yevgeny Leonov was accepted into the Moscow Theater of the Dzerzhinsky District, where he played the role of Kolka in the play “Peers”. Just a year later, the theater was disbanded, creating the Moscow Stanislavsky Drama Theater instead. The main director of the new theater was Vladimir Fedorovich Dudin. Young actors, including Yevgeny Leonov, were accepted into the new theater, but for a long time they were not trusted to play the main roles. So Leonov played mostly in the crowd scene - a collective farmer in “The Silence of the Forests”, a batman in the Three Sisters and other cameo roles.
At this first time of work in the Stanislavsky Theater, Yevgeny Leonov masterfully depicted various sound effects: the roar of a carriage, the sound of wind, the clatter of hooves, and the splash of water. For this work he was assigned a fixed price - 5 rubles. Once, very tired during the performance, the young actor fell asleep right in the dressing room, at this time a cart lumbered along the street. “Five rubles passed,” muttered Yevgeny Leonov, without waking up.
The money that Leonov earned in the theater was clearly not enough for life, so he did not refuse to earn extra money, acting mostly in the crowd. The first episodic roles in the movie actor played in 1948-1949 years in the paintings of Vladimir Nemolyaev "Happy flight" and "Pencil on ice." After these films in 1951, there was an episode in the sports comedy of Vladimir Petrov “Sports Honor”, in which Leonov appeared on the screen as a waiter, and in 1954, in the heroic adventure picture of Vladimir Nemolyaev “Sea Hunter”, playing the role of coca.
In the middle of 1950-s, significant changes occurred in Yevgeny Leonov’s life, which concerned not only work in the cinema and theater, but also personal life. In 1955, Leonov starred in Yosif Kheifits’s criminal drama “The Case of Rumyantsev”, playing the role of Snegiryov, as well as in Alexander Stolper’s adventure film “The Road” (the role of Pashka Eskov). In these two films, the directors entrusted him with very interesting and complex roles.
It should be noted that in spite of the fact that Leonov was an actor, played in the theater and cinema, in his personal life he was a rather shy person, which complicated his relationship and acquaintance with the girls, he got married quite late in the year 31. The actor met his future wife, Vanda, on the Stanislavsky Theater tour in Sverdlovsk in 1957. Upon returning home to Moscow, the actor began to call the girl, persuading her to come, he succeeded. Wanda arrived in the capital and liked the parents of the actor, after which Yevgeny Leonov immediately offered the girl his hand and heart. However, Wanda's parents were not thrilled with the alleged marriage, as they considered the actor's profession to be unpromising and unserious. But in this matter the character of Wanda manifested itself, which told the parents that it would still marry Leonov. As a result, they had to accept the decision of their daughter, and on November 16 of the year 1957 between Yevgeny Leonov and Vanda Stoilova was officially registered. Already after 2, Andrei, the only son of Yevgeny Pavlovich, was born in their family.
The finest hour in the career of actor Leonov came in 1961, when Vladimir Fetin’s comedy “Striped Flight” came out on Soviet movie screens, in this film Eugene played the barman Shuleykin, who pretended to be the tiger's tamer. The original situation of the film concealed a huge number of opportunities for an eccentric comedy, and the authors of the film were able to successfully take advantage of this. The comedy was very fun, full of tricks and dynamic. Yevgeny Leonov played in the film without fear of a frank farce, but at the same time turned out to be very touching in his naive simplicity. The role of the barman Shuleykin brought Leonov truly nationwide fame, in an instant he became one of the best comedians of the USSR. The film was a huge success with the audience, taking first place at the 1961 rental of the year. The comedy "Striped Flight" that year saw 32 million people.
Director Vladimir Fetin, who discovered the comedy talent of Yevgeny Leonov for the Soviet audience, later 3 offered the actor a dramatic role in the melodrama “Don Tale” based on the stories “Shibalkovo Seed” and “Rodinka” by Mikhail Sholokhov. The film told about the difficult fate of the Don Cossack Yakov Shibalka, who accepted the revolution in the country, and about his tragic love for a woman who did not share these views. This film work by Leonov was highly appreciated - the actor won an award in India at the 3 International Film Festival in New Delhi, as well as at the All-Union Film Festival in Kiev.
Despite the success of the film “The Don Story”, the directors continued to invite Yevgeny Leonov to comedic roles. But after this picture, the usual comedic characters of his characters more and more often began to be filled with tragicomic colors. That, for example, was his Ivan Travkin from the thirty-three comedy film. Behind the seemingly uncomplicated plot of this picture was a caustic satire on many phenomena of the Soviet reality of those years. It is no coincidence that the film was declared “ideologically harmful”, it was simply “put on the shelf”, the film was banned for 25 years and all the time it did appear sometimes on the screen. Then followed the new acting in the cinema. Leonov starred in Viktor Merezhko’s debut comedy “Zarechenskie grooms” (matchmaker Koroteika), the lyric drama “The Magician” (Rassomahin) by Peter Todorovsky, the tale “The Snow Queen” (King) of Gennady Kazan, the film director “Virineya” (Mikhailo) Vladimir Fetin and others. Leonov played a very good role of a soldier who allegedly left the pages of Russian fairy tales in the tragicomedy of George Danelia “Do not worry!” In 1969.
Leonov's dramatic talent was also shown on the theater stage. In 1966, the actor struck the audience exactly in style and masterful performance of the role of king-tyrant Creon in the play "Antigone", which was staged by Boris Lvov-Anokhin. When the director invited Yevgeny Leonov to this role, many people took this choice negatively: “Leonov and Creon? Yes, you are crazy! But the performance took place and was a great success with the audience and critics.
Frame from the film "Belarus Station"
In 1970-s, the actor played his most significant and noticeable film roles, most of the films of these years with his participation were in the golden fund of the national cinema. It is very important that these pictures were completely different in content and genre. So in 1970, Leonov starred in the film story "Belarusian Station" by Andrei Smirnov. According to the plot of the film, his former front-line friends — representatives of various professions: an accountant, a journalist, a simple mechanic, and a plant manager — gathered at the funeral of a prominent commander. The finest and most tragic moment of the film was its finale, when friends gather together in the house of the former nurse and perform the wonderful song of Bulat Okudzhava “We need one victory” (“The tenth landing battalion”). Surprisingly, the censors did not like this picture either, having lain on the shelf for two years. And only when the film Belarusian Station received an honorary prize at the festival in Karlovy Vary, it was released on a wide screen in the Soviet Union.
The actor played a completely different role in the eccentric comedy “Gentlemen of Fortune” by Alexander Sery. In this film, Yevgeny Leonov had two main roles at once - the director of the kindergarten, Yevgeny Ivanovich Troshkin and the cruel thief named Assistant. On the instructions of the police Troshkin was supposed to be reincarnated for a time in the Associate Professor. In order to play this role more convincingly, Leonov visited the special prison of Butyrka, where he looked through the peephole of the camera, studying the life and behavior of prisoners. The observations of the actor, his skill and talent helped to recreate the unforgettable characters on the screen. In the eyes of the viewer, the actor instantly reincarnated from a touching kindergarten director to a cruel recidivist. The film "Gentlemen of Fortune" was released on Soviet screens in 1972, instantly caught the fancy of the audience. Phrases, sayings and aphorisms from this picture instantly become winged and famous: “fall apart,” “radish is a bad person.” In the same year, another significant event in the life of Yevgeny Pavlovich Leonov took place - he became a people's artist of the RSFSR.
It should be noted that Leonov starred a lot from George Danelia: the paintings “Thirty-three”, “Do not grieve!”, “Afonya”, “Mimino”, “Autumn marathon”, as well as the same “Gentlemen of Fortune”, where Danelia was the author script. For this great Soviet director, Yevgeny Leonov was a real talisman, and their creative union left us with a rich cultural heritage.
Shot from the movie "Gentlemen of Fortune"
In 1978, director Mark Zakharov invited Leonov to play the role of the king in his painting Ordinary Miracle. It was an adaptation of the play of the same name by Eugene Schwartz. The role for Leonov, who was accustomed to playing kindhearted characters, was somewhat unusual, but the actor managed, creating on the screen an unforgettable character - the Tyrant King, filling it with extraordinary irony and touchingness. In the same year, 1978, Evgeny Pavlovich was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR. When the question of conferring this high rank to Leonov was discussed, someone said: “Isn’t Leonov popular? Yes you! Check, it has long been national. " And indeed, people's love and glory for many years ahead of the official recognition of the merits and talents of the actor from the state.
The beginning of 1980's was marked for Yevgeny Leonov with two new works in the cinema. In the comedy “For matches” by Leonid Gaidai, he played a Finnish peasant Ihalainen, and in the tragicomedy “Say a word about poor hussars” Eldar Ryazanov, actor of the provincial theater Bubentsov. The audience met both of these films with their favorite actor very warmly. The film “Behind the Matches”, although it was somewhat weaker than the previous works of Leonid Gaidai, always enjoyed the love of the audience. If we talk about the film “About the poor hussar put in a good word”, then this tape has become a classic of domestic cinema.
Another significant filmmaker 1980's was the comedy of George Danelia "Kin-dza-dza". For the role of chatlanin Wefa in this work, the director invited Leonov in the middle of the 1980s. The film was filmed with great difficulty, since it took place in the Karakum Desert, in mildly unfavorable weather and climatic conditions. With air temperature + 50-60 degrees Celsius, it was possible to shoot only in the morning and evening hours. In 1986, the comedy appeared on Soviet screens. Initially, most of the audience (especially the older generation) did not accept it, but over time this film acquired the status of a cult, adding to the list of outstanding works by George Danelia and Yevgeny Leonov.
Frame from the film "Kin-Dza-Dza"
All this time, the actor did not stop playing in the theater. Work on the theatrical scene Yevgeny Leonov gave himself. For all this time they have not been disrupted a single performance. Yevgeny Pavlovich went on the scene even when he was ill with pneumonia, and his temperature was under forty. In the summer of 1988, when the theater Lenk was on tour in Germany in Hamburg, a terrible misfortune happened to Yevgeny Leonov. While touring as a result of a massive heart attack, the actor experienced clinical death. In Germany, he underwent a coronary artery bypass surgery, was in a coma for 16 days. All these days and nights near him were his wife and son. And after just 4 a month after what happened, he was already rehearsing the main role of Tevye the Milkman in the new play “Memorial Prayer”. The performance premiered in 1989. After the premiere, crowds of admiring spectators walked to the stage, carrying armfuls of flowers to Leonov.
In 1990, the actor starred in movies very rarely. First of all, the transferred surgery and clinical death had an effect, all this could not pass without a trace, Leonov had health problems. But the main reason was still the general collapse of the domestic film industry. At the beginning of 1990, the actor appeared only in the small role of the embassy watchman in the comedy George Danelia “Passport”, and also played Yakov Alekseevich in the film “Nastya”. Finally, in 1993, he played a major role in Ivan Schegolev's comedy film “American Grandfather,” this was his last work in film.
Yevgeny Pavlovich Leonov died 29 in January 1994, he was 67 years old. He died instantly, as the doctors later said, due to the separation of a blood clot. The actor died gathering in the play "Memorial Prayer." When spectators gathered in the theater were told that the play would not take place due to the death of Yevgeny Leonov, not one of them gave up his ticket. Candles were brought from the nearest church, the people stood all evening with them outside the theater building. Thousands of fans of his talent came to the funeral of the actor, which took place in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Four years after the death of the actor, in 1998, satirist and playwright Grigory Gorin noted: “Many still don’t believe in the death of Yevgeny Leonov. The death of actors in general has become a surreal concept. If a voice sounds, if a person is shown on TV almost every week, if photos are viewed from the covers of books ... What does death have to do with it? Best of all this nonsense was noted by the boy in our yard. He was 6 years old, he played in the sandbox. His friend, two years older, told him what he heard: "Winnie the Pooh is dead!" - "You're lying!" - quietly said the boy. - Winnie the Pooh is not dead. He is coming to visit tonight! ”
It is significant that the monuments that are associated with Yevgeny Leonov, for the most part devoted to the characters played by the actor. For example, in Moscow, Troshkin (Associate Professor) from the comedy “Gentlemen of Fortune” cast in bronze was installed in bronze in the head of the kindergarten. In the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art, viewers can see a monument to the heroes of the comedy Mimino, including the character of Yevgeny Leonov. A sculpture depicting Kohl's plasterer from the film “Afonya” was installed in Yaroslavl. This best confirms Leonov's acting talent and skill, people's love for his characters. Thanks to the rich acting heritage, more than one generation of viewers in our country will be able to meet and love the work of this remarkable actor and person.
Based on materials from open sources
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