Igor Kvasha, whose photo and biography are presented in this article, was born in 1933, February 4, in Moscow. He lost his father quite early, at the age of 9. Igor's father, Kvasha Vladimir Ilyich, died in 1942 on the Leningrad front.
Childhood of Igor Kvasha
Igor Vladimirovich's childhood fell on the difficult years of the war and the post-war period. Being evacuated in Siberia, the boy and his friends wanted to help the Red Army. The guys could not think of anything better than to go to the front, running away from the teachers. However, they never succeeded in carrying out their plans.
This was not the only act of Kvasha that can be called reckless. The main feature of the future actor in childhood was by no means diligence. Igor skipped classes, often fought, and when he came to school, he was a troublemaker. Other students, by the will of fate, turned out to be no better, and one day the patience of the teachers came to an end. It was decided to disband the class in which Igor Vladimirovich studied.
Life without a father had a special impact on the formation of Kvasha's character. His mother was forcedto work a lot. She couldn't keep an eye on her son all the time. As a result, the child was left to himself, as well as to the influence of the street. Only from the outside the Arbat lanes seem quiet. In the days of Igor Kvasha's childhood, this was a gangster district, he had to steadily defend his superiority.
The first manifestations of artistic talent
The hooligan way of life, it would seem, is not very compatible with the theater, but Igor already in these years began to show artistic talents. He often read poetry at school parties, and his mother tried to introduce her son to the theatrical environment. From time to time she took Igor to performances. After the House of Pioneers appeared in his life with the theater studio located in it, the boy gradually abandoned all his yard entertainment, since teaching acting skills now took up a lot of his time.
Study at the Moscow Art Theater and work at Sovremennik
Igor Kvasha in 1950 was enrolled in the Moscow Art Theater School to A. M. Karev. His youthful years, according to the actor himself, passed in great difficulty. The study lasted 10-12 hours. It would seem that there was no time for rest, but young people knew how to have fun, trying to use any free minute to the maximum. Igor was fond of sports, he drew beautifully. He began to engage in equestrian sports in his college years, received the 2nd category. In addition, Igor Vladimirovich was fond of football, tennis, hockey.
After meeting O. Efremov, the idea of the Sovremennik Theater appeared,very famous today, and enthusiasts began to rehearse not only for days, but also for nights.
The newly created Sovremennik turned out to be a real breakthrough for its time. First of all, in those years, theaters could not have arisen without the knowledge of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers. And the initiative to create them came mainly from top management. In addition, many productions of Sovremennik became a real challenge to the entire system of the USSR, and therefore not all plays withstood the strict censorship of that time.
First marriage
Two marriages were in the life of I. Kvasha. The first one was pretty short. While still a student, Igor Kvasha married actress Svetlana Mizeri. His wife studied at the same school with Igor, so they have known each other since childhood. After entering one university, they decided to register their relationship. This marriage, however, lasted only a year. Igor Kvasha was already a bachelor in his second year.
The opinion about the frivolity and amorousness of creative people is very common today. However, such a characterization is hardly applicable to Igor Kvasha. He had a strong family, and he did not part with his wife until his death.
Igor Kvasha and his family
The meeting with the second future wife, Tatyana Putievskaya, took place back in 1956. The couple has been inseparable ever since. Kvasha's colleague Galina Volchek contributed to their acquaintance and the beginning of a relationship. Tatyana has nothing to do with the acting environment, but she is successful in the medical field.realized itself. Son Vladimir followed in the footsteps of his mother. He studied to be a doctor, but today he decided to leave medicine due to financial difficulties and go into business. Vladimir Igorevich gave his father two grandchildren. Igor Kvasha's granddaughter Anastasia was born in 1992, and grandson Mikhail was born in 1995.
Oblivion and return to screens
The pictures in which Kvasha was filmed almost did not appear on the screens in the 1960s and 70s. The fact is that in those years there was an unspoken "black list". The actor became objectionable to the Soviet authorities, primarily because of the social circle. The regime of the USSR disliked Vasily Aksenov, Viktor Nekrasov and Vladimir Voinovich. In addition, Kvasha was among those participating in the signing of protest letters. He opposed, in particular, the introduction of Soviet tanks into Czechoslovakia.
However, the situation soon changed. Igor Kvasha since 1970 began to conduct a cycle of poetic programs on the radio. He read poems by famous Russian poets: M. Yu. Lermontov, A. S. Pushkin, V. V. Mayakovsky and others. In addition, he recorded the radio novel by B. L. Pasternak "Doctor Zhivago" and M. A. Bulgakov " White Guard".
Working in movies
At the same time, he actively began acting in films. Actor Kvasha Igor in the period from 1970 to 2012 took part in 66 films. Among them were the classic films "The Same Munchausen" and "The Man from the Capuchin Boulevard".
In 1961, Igor Vladimirovich made his debut in the military drama "In a difficulthour" by Ilya Gurin. He played the fighter Senya. And his first major work is the role of the young Karl Marx in the film "A Year Like Life" by Grigory Roshal. Igor Kvasha, whose filmography is significant, admitted that he played this role with particular interest. He believed that Karl Marx was an extraordinary person, one of those who turn the worlds upside down. The directors subsequently invited him to the role of Marx more than once.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the actor was noted for his remarkable work. It was at this time that the following came out on the screens: the sports drama "Lot", the comedy "Straw Hat", the melodrama "Just Sasha", "The Same Munghausen" (film parable), "Detective" (adventure detective), "The Man from Capuchin Boulevard" (comedy) and "Tales of the Old Wizard". Igor's heroes were unique, always different. They annoyed and surprised, made them love and hate…
Igor Kvasha, whose biography is marked by participation in many films, considers the role of Stalin in the film "Under the Sign of Scorpio" by Yuri Sorokin, released in 1995, to be his best film work. Igor Vladimirovich noted that this is perhaps his only role that he can look at from the outside as if it was not him, but someone else on the screen.
Roles in the theater
However, Igor Vladimirovich always remained primarily a theater actor. Kvasha himself admitted that his theater was invariably in the first place. He was often invited to screen tests, but he refused,thinking that the cinema will interfere with work in the theater.
Igor Vladimirovich played about 50 roles in his native Sovremennik. The most famous of them are the first minister in "The Naked King", Gaev in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard", Joseph Stalin in "The Flight of the Black Swallow …". In addition, he played in the performances "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "Cyrano de Bergerac", "Three Sisters", "The Karamazovs and Hell", etc. Igor Kvasha also tried himself in the theater as a director.
Transmission "Wait for me"
Our compatriots also remembered Kvasha as the host of the "Wait for me" program. Igor Kvasha always let someone else's pain through him. He saved people in real life, and not just in the program "Wait for me." Once, while relaxing at sea, a storm raged, during which he pulled a drowning boy out of the water. Igor Kvasha conducted his program with full dedication. Once during the filming, he was so moved that he had to go backstage, where he cried for several minutes. Igor Kvasha then asked the directors to remove this episode, but the audience, seeing the host turned away and stumbled, still caught the torment that he experienced at that moment. Igor Vladimirovich treated someone else's grief with sincerity and genuine emotion, passing through himself an incredible number of dramas and tragedies of strangers to him. We can only marvel at how much courage, strength, love and patience you need to have in order to find the right words that cansoothe sobbing loved ones who have found each other.
Igor Kvasha himself admits that he got on this program quite by accident. However, it seems that there is some kind of providence in this, thanks to which such a sincere, open person became its leader.
Return point
Igor Vladimirovich in 2007 published a book of memoirs called "point of return". In it, he shared memories of childhood, film work and theater productions, allowing readers to look a little behind the scenes.
Kvasha's illness and death
The actor suffered from bronchial problems in the last years of his life. Because of this, I even had to cancel the tour of my beloved Sovremennik. Nevertheless, colleagues hoped that Igor Vladimirovich would recover and again take the stage in the season, which was his anniversary.
On August 30, 2012, Igor Kvasha died after an operation in a Moscow clinic. The cause of death is cor pulmonale. Igor Vladimirovich died at the age of 80. On September 4, a memorial service was held at Sovremennik. Igor Kvasha was buried in Moscow, at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
Awards
Igor Vladimirovich Kvasha received the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1978. In addition, he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd degree (in 2006), as well as the Order of Friendship, various theater prizes and awards. In particular, he is the winner of the Kumir-99 award for his work in the play Sovremennik."The Cherry Orchard", awards for "Honor and Dignity" (in 2008), "Crystal Turandot" and others.
