George Yumatov. Hero with a tragic fate
Twenty years ago, on October 4, 1997, the outstanding Soviet and Russian film and theater actor Georgy Yumatov died. People's Artist of the RSFSR, Georgy Alexandrovich (1926-1997) played roles in many of the most popular Soviet films. Most of the films in which he starred were devoted to militaryhistorical subject. It was he, Georgy Yumatov, who was the main character of the Officers, played in the films Admiral Ushakov, Ships Storming the Bastions, Shipka Heroes, Pedagogical Poem, Different Fates, They were the First.
Military-historical subjects attracted George Alexandrovich Yumatov not by chance. He knew firsthand what a military feat was. Like many of his peers, George Yumatov dreamed of the sea. Meanwhile, on June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began. When George Yumatov found out about the wound of his brother Konstantin, he decided to go to war himself. He was only 15 years old. Yumatov entered the Moscow Naval School as a boy. Thus began the first page of his heroic biography - the path of a military sailor. In 1942, Yumatov was enrolled as a youngster on the “Brave” torpedo boat. Yumatov was then only sixteen years old. The following year, 1943, he became the helmsman — a torpedo boat signalman. The boat was part of the Kerch brigade of armored boats of the Black Sea fleet. Anyone who is more or less familiar with the history of the Great Patriotic War will understand everything by the first word in the name of the brigade. It was a real belligerent force, and service on a torpedo boat was very difficult. But to seventeen-year-old Yumatov she was quite on the shoulder. Georgy perfectly mastered the profession of signalman, having achieved the highest successes in it and quickly becoming an unsurpassed master of his craft.
The team of armored boats, where he served Yumatov, went from Yeisk through Kerch and Odessa to the Danube. There the enemy torpedo hit the boat. Many colleagues of the young signalman died, but Jumatov managed to swim out. George was not the only signalman on his torpedo boat. More than once he, as a simple marine, went into bayonet attacks, since the tasks of the armored boats included the provision of landing operations in the rear of the enemy. In dozens of amphibious operations Yumatova managed to survive. He survived three drowned fighting boats, three heavy wounds and a contusion, frostbite of hands. After the death of George Yumatov, his fans learned that during the war the young sailor was almost given the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But, like many true heroes, who have not been assigned this title, fate did not work out for George. He got into trouble somewhere, after which in the political department or at the headquarters he turned over the award of a brave sailor.
In August, 1945, wounded by George Yumatov, was demobilized from the Navy. Only nineteen years old was Georgy, and he was already a veteran with two years of fierce fighting behind his back. “For the Capture of Budapest”, “For the Capture of Vienna”, the Ushakov Medal ... All these are his awards. The Ushakov Medal Yumatov received the number six, and in fact it was issued to the sailors only for personal courage. It is quite probable that a good naval officer could turn out from George Yumatov, but the young man chose a different path in life, which he later never regretted. Almost immediately after his return to Moscow, director Grigory Vasilyevich Alexandrov noticed him and invited him to star in his films. It was pure coincidence - Alexandrov, resting in a cafe, noticed a young sailor with a textured appearance and immediately decided to invite him to his place, to the shooting.
So yesterday’s signal-steamer of the armored trooper Georgy Yumatov became an actor. First, he played a cameo role as an assistant make-up artist in the film "Spring", filmed in 1947 year. Then there was the role of a soldier in the military-patriotic film "Private Alexander Matrosov" directed by Leonid Davidovich Lukov. Then came the turn of the "Young Guard" directed by Sergei Apollinarievich Gerasimov - a film about the legendary underground workers of Krasnodon, shot in 1948 year. In it, George Yumatov played the underground fighter Anatoly Popov.
A naval sailor, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, George Yumatov was repeatedly invited to make films on the heroic history of the Russian Navy. In the film “On Peaceful Days”, one of the first Soviet action films made in 1950, Yumatov played the role of coca sailor Kurakin. The film is about a Soviet submarine that hit a mine. In 1953, Yumatov starred in the film "Admiral Ushakov" of the first part of the trilogy of director Mikhail Ilyich Romm, where he played Viktor Ermolaev. In the same year, the second part of the trilogy was released - “Ships Storm Bastions”, where Yumatov also plays Ermolaev. In 1954, Yumatov plays the soldier Sashko Kozyr in the film “Heroes of Shipka”, devoted to the events of the Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878. The liberation of Eastern Europe is a subject close to Yumatov. He personally took part in the battles for Ishmael, Budapest and Bucharest, stormed Vienna, distinguished himself during the storming of the Imperial Bridge - a tactical landing operation of the Danube Flotilla. Now in the cinema, Yumatov played the Russian soldier who liberated Bulgaria from the Turkish invaders.
Actor George Yumatov was great. Although he lacked specialized education, innate talent and natural ingenuity allowed him to easily get used to the images of movie characters. Appearance was also suitable - Yumatov easily reincarnated from a young Komsomol underground worker into a Russian soldier of the last century, from a sailor to a worker. Period 1950-x - 1960-x. became for young George Yumatova time of incredible demand. He was invariably invited to paintings devoted to wars and revolutions, especially if sailors or naval officers were to play. "The collapse of the Emirate", "They were the first", "Storm", "The Ballad of a Soldier", "Cruelty", "Empty Flight", "Attention, Tsunami!", "Dangerous Tours" - this is not all adventure and military Historical films in which George Yumatov starred in 1950 - 1960.
Perhaps the peak of a film actor’s career for Georgy Alexandrovich Yumatov was the role of cadre serviceman Alexei Trofimov, who went through almost all the wars of the Soviet Union in the first half of the twentieth century, in the sensational film “Officers”, filmed in 1971. “There is such a profession - to defend the Motherland” - these words from the film spread all over the Soviet Union and for a long time became the life motto for many thousands of Soviet personnel officers. Georgiy Yumatov played Alexey Trofimov brilliantly. Even the wound “to draw” the make-up artists did not have to - in the episode where Alexey Trofimov returned from Spain, he shows his wife a real scar from the injury (Georgy Yumatov was repeatedly wounded at the front).
"Officers" brought all-Union fame and popularity to Yumatov. Probably hundreds of thousands of Soviet women were secretly in love with him, and even more young men dreamed of "making life" with the valiant officer Alexei Trofimov. All the seventies and eighties, George Yumatov was filmed in numerous Soviet motion pictures, mainly again on the military-historical and adventure themes. He played in "The End of the Emperor of the Taiga", in the "Preliminary Investigation", in "Petrovka, 38". Finally, Yumatov had to play himself in the popular film “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears”. Gradually, however, the roles in which Yumatov starred were becoming increasingly secondary and episodic. An aging actor is increasingly less invited to shoot. And the reason is not only age.
Back in 1947, George Yumatov married the Krepkogorskaya Museum. The girl was two years older than Yumatov. In contrast to the self-taught Yumatova, Muza Krepkogorskaya was a professional actress, and hereditary as well - her father was a musician, one of Shalyapin’s accompanist. On the set of the “Young Guard”, Krepkogorskaya met the charming young man George Yumatov. But at his own wedding, the actor went over so much with alcohol that the celebration went on without him. It was this pernicious propensity that played a tragic role in the life of George Yumatov. We will not dwell on the sad passion of the actor, but we note that it was one of the reasons for the gradual decline of the creative career of both Yumatov himself and the Musica of Krasnogorsk, which was also not alien to the bohemian way of life.
While Georgy Alexandrovich was actively invited to the cinema, the family lived very well. Yumatov and Krepkogorskaya purchased a three-room apartment in Moscow, in a cooperative house near the Aeroport metro station. Yumatova was constantly invited to the restaurants and cafes by numerous colleagues and fans, which aggravated the actor’s addictive relationship anyway. However, for the time being - for the time all was more or less well. The talent and fame of Yumatov were so great that the directors preferred to close their eyes to his lifestyle. The situation was worsened by the fact that Muza Krepkogorskaya, also an actress, and a professional one, was never able to achieve success equal to that of her husband. She was invited only in cameo roles, and then she fell out of the cage of the national cinema.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Georgy Alexandrovich Yumatov was already an elderly person. He had no children with the Museum of Krasnogorsk, therefore the only ones he cared about were his wife and dogs. The actor was very anxious about dogs. In March, 1994 of the year, his beloved dog, Frostie, died. With the help of the local janitor, Yumatov buried his pet, and then invited the 33-year-old janitor to recite the dog to his home. A glass is second, word for word, and now the young janitor began to express Georgy Alexandrovich - “You, grandfather, they say, fought and would fight worse - and now we would live better under the rule of Germany”. This drunk veteran of World War II could not stand. What happened on that ill-fated day in the apartment, nobody knows. But the result of the joint drinking of intoxicating drinks was sad - George Yumatov shot the janitor with a gun. 68-year-old actor arrested. It was an extraordinary event. The legend of the Soviet cinema, the protagonist of the most popular movie "Officers" arrested for drunken murder. And the age of Yumatov, his state of health were already such that he could not endure the impressive term of imprisonment laid down for such a crime.
In the end, it was possible to reclassify the case from murder to the excess of the limits of necessary self-defense. After all, the young janitor clearly represented a great threat to the 68-year-old pensioner. In addition, a knife appeared in the case - it is possible that the janitor could start threatening Yumatov. In June, George Yumatov 1994 was released on a written undertaking not to leave the “Matrosskaya Tishina” detention facility. In prison, the actor spent only two months. A year later, in honor of the 50 anniversary of the Victory, Georgy Alexandrovich Yumatov, as a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, was amnestied and the case of the killing of the janitor was closed.
The story of murder and arrest was a great shock for Georgiy Yumatov. Returning from the detention center, he quit drinking, began to go to church often. In fact, it was he who took the main chores in housekeeping and caring for the ever-painful wife of the Muse Krepkogorskaya. However, the state of health of George Yumatov himself became worse and worse - the injuries of youth and the unhealthy lifestyle that the actor led for decades had an effect. Yumatova was diagnosed with abdominal aortic aneurysm, underwent surgery. However, soon he had a stomach hemorrhage, but Yumatov refused from hospitalization.
The killing of the janitor put a cross on the actor's film career. The directors began to fear inviting Yumatov to shoot, although he quit drinking. The last time on the TV screen Yumate appeared in the festive program "Field of Miracles" before the next anniversary of the Great Victory in 1997. October 4 1997 from the rupture of the abdominal aorta George Alexandrovich Yumatov died on the 72-th year of life. The organization of the funeral of Yumatov, a lonely and poor man, was taken up by a famous director Viktor Merezhko. He managed with difficulty to get the actor buried in the Vagankovo cemetery, next to his mother-in-law, the mother of the Musica Krepkogorskaya. The widow of Yumatova experienced the death of her husband very hard and two years later, in 1999, she died. Their grave is very modest - and you cannot say that one of the most popular actors of Soviet cinema for several decades was buried here.
Georgy Yumatov can rightfully be called a representative of the golden galaxy of Soviet film actors. Like many of his colleagues, Yumatov not only made a huge contribution to the development of national cinema, but was also a great patriot of his country, spilling a lot of blood for it during the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, fate turned out to be so that at the end of his life Georgiy Alexandrovich had to endure terrible trials, which both knocked down his and so-called shaky health.
Military-historical subjects attracted George Alexandrovich Yumatov not by chance. He knew firsthand what a military feat was. Like many of his peers, George Yumatov dreamed of the sea. Meanwhile, on June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began. When George Yumatov found out about the wound of his brother Konstantin, he decided to go to war himself. He was only 15 years old. Yumatov entered the Moscow Naval School as a boy. Thus began the first page of his heroic biography - the path of a military sailor. In 1942, Yumatov was enrolled as a youngster on the “Brave” torpedo boat. Yumatov was then only sixteen years old. The following year, 1943, he became the helmsman — a torpedo boat signalman. The boat was part of the Kerch brigade of armored boats of the Black Sea fleet. Anyone who is more or less familiar with the history of the Great Patriotic War will understand everything by the first word in the name of the brigade. It was a real belligerent force, and service on a torpedo boat was very difficult. But to seventeen-year-old Yumatov she was quite on the shoulder. Georgy perfectly mastered the profession of signalman, having achieved the highest successes in it and quickly becoming an unsurpassed master of his craft.
The team of armored boats, where he served Yumatov, went from Yeisk through Kerch and Odessa to the Danube. There the enemy torpedo hit the boat. Many colleagues of the young signalman died, but Jumatov managed to swim out. George was not the only signalman on his torpedo boat. More than once he, as a simple marine, went into bayonet attacks, since the tasks of the armored boats included the provision of landing operations in the rear of the enemy. In dozens of amphibious operations Yumatova managed to survive. He survived three drowned fighting boats, three heavy wounds and a contusion, frostbite of hands. After the death of George Yumatov, his fans learned that during the war the young sailor was almost given the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But, like many true heroes, who have not been assigned this title, fate did not work out for George. He got into trouble somewhere, after which in the political department or at the headquarters he turned over the award of a brave sailor.
In August, 1945, wounded by George Yumatov, was demobilized from the Navy. Only nineteen years old was Georgy, and he was already a veteran with two years of fierce fighting behind his back. “For the Capture of Budapest”, “For the Capture of Vienna”, the Ushakov Medal ... All these are his awards. The Ushakov Medal Yumatov received the number six, and in fact it was issued to the sailors only for personal courage. It is quite probable that a good naval officer could turn out from George Yumatov, but the young man chose a different path in life, which he later never regretted. Almost immediately after his return to Moscow, director Grigory Vasilyevich Alexandrov noticed him and invited him to star in his films. It was pure coincidence - Alexandrov, resting in a cafe, noticed a young sailor with a textured appearance and immediately decided to invite him to his place, to the shooting.
So yesterday’s signal-steamer of the armored trooper Georgy Yumatov became an actor. First, he played a cameo role as an assistant make-up artist in the film "Spring", filmed in 1947 year. Then there was the role of a soldier in the military-patriotic film "Private Alexander Matrosov" directed by Leonid Davidovich Lukov. Then came the turn of the "Young Guard" directed by Sergei Apollinarievich Gerasimov - a film about the legendary underground workers of Krasnodon, shot in 1948 year. In it, George Yumatov played the underground fighter Anatoly Popov.
A naval sailor, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, George Yumatov was repeatedly invited to make films on the heroic history of the Russian Navy. In the film “On Peaceful Days”, one of the first Soviet action films made in 1950, Yumatov played the role of coca sailor Kurakin. The film is about a Soviet submarine that hit a mine. In 1953, Yumatov starred in the film "Admiral Ushakov" of the first part of the trilogy of director Mikhail Ilyich Romm, where he played Viktor Ermolaev. In the same year, the second part of the trilogy was released - “Ships Storm Bastions”, where Yumatov also plays Ermolaev. In 1954, Yumatov plays the soldier Sashko Kozyr in the film “Heroes of Shipka”, devoted to the events of the Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878. The liberation of Eastern Europe is a subject close to Yumatov. He personally took part in the battles for Ishmael, Budapest and Bucharest, stormed Vienna, distinguished himself during the storming of the Imperial Bridge - a tactical landing operation of the Danube Flotilla. Now in the cinema, Yumatov played the Russian soldier who liberated Bulgaria from the Turkish invaders. Actor George Yumatov was great. Although he lacked specialized education, innate talent and natural ingenuity allowed him to easily get used to the images of movie characters. Appearance was also suitable - Yumatov easily reincarnated from a young Komsomol underground worker into a Russian soldier of the last century, from a sailor to a worker. Period 1950-x - 1960-x. became for young George Yumatova time of incredible demand. He was invariably invited to paintings devoted to wars and revolutions, especially if sailors or naval officers were to play. "The collapse of the Emirate", "They were the first", "Storm", "The Ballad of a Soldier", "Cruelty", "Empty Flight", "Attention, Tsunami!", "Dangerous Tours" - this is not all adventure and military Historical films in which George Yumatov starred in 1950 - 1960.
Perhaps the peak of a film actor’s career for Georgy Alexandrovich Yumatov was the role of cadre serviceman Alexei Trofimov, who went through almost all the wars of the Soviet Union in the first half of the twentieth century, in the sensational film “Officers”, filmed in 1971. “There is such a profession - to defend the Motherland” - these words from the film spread all over the Soviet Union and for a long time became the life motto for many thousands of Soviet personnel officers. Georgiy Yumatov played Alexey Trofimov brilliantly. Even the wound “to draw” the make-up artists did not have to - in the episode where Alexey Trofimov returned from Spain, he shows his wife a real scar from the injury (Georgy Yumatov was repeatedly wounded at the front).
"Officers" brought all-Union fame and popularity to Yumatov. Probably hundreds of thousands of Soviet women were secretly in love with him, and even more young men dreamed of "making life" with the valiant officer Alexei Trofimov. All the seventies and eighties, George Yumatov was filmed in numerous Soviet motion pictures, mainly again on the military-historical and adventure themes. He played in "The End of the Emperor of the Taiga", in the "Preliminary Investigation", in "Petrovka, 38". Finally, Yumatov had to play himself in the popular film “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears”. Gradually, however, the roles in which Yumatov starred were becoming increasingly secondary and episodic. An aging actor is increasingly less invited to shoot. And the reason is not only age.
Back in 1947, George Yumatov married the Krepkogorskaya Museum. The girl was two years older than Yumatov. In contrast to the self-taught Yumatova, Muza Krepkogorskaya was a professional actress, and hereditary as well - her father was a musician, one of Shalyapin’s accompanist. On the set of the “Young Guard”, Krepkogorskaya met the charming young man George Yumatov. But at his own wedding, the actor went over so much with alcohol that the celebration went on without him. It was this pernicious propensity that played a tragic role in the life of George Yumatov. We will not dwell on the sad passion of the actor, but we note that it was one of the reasons for the gradual decline of the creative career of both Yumatov himself and the Musica of Krasnogorsk, which was also not alien to the bohemian way of life.
While Georgy Alexandrovich was actively invited to the cinema, the family lived very well. Yumatov and Krepkogorskaya purchased a three-room apartment in Moscow, in a cooperative house near the Aeroport metro station. Yumatova was constantly invited to the restaurants and cafes by numerous colleagues and fans, which aggravated the actor’s addictive relationship anyway. However, for the time being - for the time all was more or less well. The talent and fame of Yumatov were so great that the directors preferred to close their eyes to his lifestyle. The situation was worsened by the fact that Muza Krepkogorskaya, also an actress, and a professional one, was never able to achieve success equal to that of her husband. She was invited only in cameo roles, and then she fell out of the cage of the national cinema.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Georgy Alexandrovich Yumatov was already an elderly person. He had no children with the Museum of Krasnogorsk, therefore the only ones he cared about were his wife and dogs. The actor was very anxious about dogs. In March, 1994 of the year, his beloved dog, Frostie, died. With the help of the local janitor, Yumatov buried his pet, and then invited the 33-year-old janitor to recite the dog to his home. A glass is second, word for word, and now the young janitor began to express Georgy Alexandrovich - “You, grandfather, they say, fought and would fight worse - and now we would live better under the rule of Germany”. This drunk veteran of World War II could not stand. What happened on that ill-fated day in the apartment, nobody knows. But the result of the joint drinking of intoxicating drinks was sad - George Yumatov shot the janitor with a gun. 68-year-old actor arrested. It was an extraordinary event. The legend of the Soviet cinema, the protagonist of the most popular movie "Officers" arrested for drunken murder. And the age of Yumatov, his state of health were already such that he could not endure the impressive term of imprisonment laid down for such a crime.
In the end, it was possible to reclassify the case from murder to the excess of the limits of necessary self-defense. After all, the young janitor clearly represented a great threat to the 68-year-old pensioner. In addition, a knife appeared in the case - it is possible that the janitor could start threatening Yumatov. In June, George Yumatov 1994 was released on a written undertaking not to leave the “Matrosskaya Tishina” detention facility. In prison, the actor spent only two months. A year later, in honor of the 50 anniversary of the Victory, Georgy Alexandrovich Yumatov, as a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, was amnestied and the case of the killing of the janitor was closed.
The story of murder and arrest was a great shock for Georgiy Yumatov. Returning from the detention center, he quit drinking, began to go to church often. In fact, it was he who took the main chores in housekeeping and caring for the ever-painful wife of the Muse Krepkogorskaya. However, the state of health of George Yumatov himself became worse and worse - the injuries of youth and the unhealthy lifestyle that the actor led for decades had an effect. Yumatova was diagnosed with abdominal aortic aneurysm, underwent surgery. However, soon he had a stomach hemorrhage, but Yumatov refused from hospitalization.
The killing of the janitor put a cross on the actor's film career. The directors began to fear inviting Yumatov to shoot, although he quit drinking. The last time on the TV screen Yumate appeared in the festive program "Field of Miracles" before the next anniversary of the Great Victory in 1997. October 4 1997 from the rupture of the abdominal aorta George Alexandrovich Yumatov died on the 72-th year of life. The organization of the funeral of Yumatov, a lonely and poor man, was taken up by a famous director Viktor Merezhko. He managed with difficulty to get the actor buried in the Vagankovo cemetery, next to his mother-in-law, the mother of the Musica Krepkogorskaya. The widow of Yumatova experienced the death of her husband very hard and two years later, in 1999, she died. Their grave is very modest - and you cannot say that one of the most popular actors of Soviet cinema for several decades was buried here.
Georgy Yumatov can rightfully be called a representative of the golden galaxy of Soviet film actors. Like many of his colleagues, Yumatov not only made a huge contribution to the development of national cinema, but was also a great patriot of his country, spilling a lot of blood for it during the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, fate turned out to be so that at the end of his life Georgiy Alexandrovich had to endure terrible trials, which both knocked down his and so-called shaky health.
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