Aleksey Yakovlevich Kapler: life story and biography

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Kapler Alexei Yakovlevich - Soviet film writer, actor, director and TV presenter. He was born into the family of a we althy Jewish entrepreneur and, against the will of his father, began performing on the stage. He was destined to become the first lover of Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva and the last love of the talented poetess Yulia Drunina. His "Kinopanorama" was one of the most popular TV programs on Soviet television, and the films he worked on are masterpieces of Russian cinema.

Birth and family

Aleksey Yakovlevich Kapler was born on September 28, 1903 (according to other sources - 1904) in Kyiv, in a we althy Jewish family. At birth, he was given the name Lazarus, but later he changed it. The boy's father was the famous Kyiv tailor Yakov Naftalievich Kapler. AThis atelier, located on the Passage, dressed the entire high society of the Ukrainian capital. Kapler skillfully sewed outfits of any complexity. His models received top prizes at international exhibitions. In addition to the studio, Yakov Naftalievich owned one of the best bathhouses in Kyiv, where you could not only take a steam bath, but also swim in the pool or take a Charcot shower. The enterprising tailor also owned commercial premises that he rented out, the Zion Hotel and even a small synagogue.

Passion for theater

Yakov Kapler and his wife Raisa Zakharyevna hoped that Lazar would follow in his father's footsteps and continue the family business. However, the business was of little concern to their son. Even in the gymnasium, he became seriously interested in theatrical art and began to dream of an acting profession. Together with friends, he ran away from lessons and, hiding behind the bushes that had grown on the banks of the Dnieper, Kapler Alexei Yakovlevich rehearsed plays. The children became so interested in acting that in 1917, immediately after the revolution, they founded their own small theater called Harlequin. The tailor's son had already managed to change his name by that time and turned into Alexei. With the best childhood friends Grishka Kozintsev and Seryozha Yutkevich, who later became famous figures of Soviet cinema, Alexei Kapler showed the audience puppet shows based on Pushkin's poems.

First steps on stage

Beginning actors understood that in Kyiv they would not be able to achieve the popularity they dreamed of, so they soon decided to move to Petrograd. Here, in 1921, Kapler, Yutkevich and Kozintsev founded the Eccentric Actor Factory (FEKS), which was soon joined by Leonid Trauberg. Performances in the newly created theater were fundamentally different from classical productions. The performances of Kyiv actors, filled with humor, circus tricks and pop numbers, led the audience into a storm of delight.

Kapler Alexey: acting and directing

After working for FEKS for several years, Lucy Kapler (as Alexei was called by close friends) managed to act in two films. In The Ferris Wheel, created in 1926, he got an episodic and almost imperceptible role. In the same year, the young actor played a Significant Person in Gogol's "Overcoat". After finishing work on the film, Kapler became disillusioned with the acting profession. He wanted to create films on his own, and not repeat the texts of roles written by strangers.

In 1927 he moved to Odessa and worked as an assistant to the famous director A. Dovzhenko in the film "Arsenal". However, the ambitious Alexei Yakovlevich Kapler could not walk in assistants for a long time. In 1930, he directed his first film, The Right to a Woman, and the following year, his second film, Mine 12-28, was released. But Lucy Kaplera was in for a bitter disappointment: the Soviet authorities banned both of his directorial works from being shown. At the same time, the film "The Right to a Woman" was declared decadent due to the fact that its main character left her husband, who prevented her from studying ininstitute.

The arrival of success

After the ban on films, Kapler Alexei Yakovlevich did not give up. His biography testifies that he was a purposeful person and rarely truly discouraged. Having failed in directing, Kapler began to master the profession of a screenwriter. In this field, Alexei Yakovlevich expected unprecedented success. For his scripts for the films "Lenin in October" and "Lenin in 1918" in 1941 he was awarded the prestigious Stalin Prize. Subsequently, Kapler became one of the most famous Soviet screenwriters. He worked on such films as "Kotovsky", "Behind the Store Window", "Striped Flight", "Amphibian Man", "Blue Bird", etc.

The beginning of the war, meeting Svetlana Alliluyeva

In the 30s, a huge number of representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia suffered from Stalinist repressions, but they did not touch Kapler. Having received a prestigious government award, he became one of the few who could be called a darling of fate. But this did not last long. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Alexei Yakovlevich went to the front as a war correspondent. In November 1942, he returned to Moscow and was invited by Stalin's son Vasily to a party dedicated to the anniversary of the October Revolution. The celebration was attended by the 16-year-old daughter of the leader of all nations, Svetlana Alliluyeva. The screenwriter, who by that time was already 39 years old, fell head over heels in love with a girl, and sheanswered him in kind. However, dating the daughter of such a high-ranking person was not easy. Sveta never left the house unaccompanied, and the screenwriter was forced to take her to exhibitions, cinemas and museums under the supervision of security guards.

For the young Alliluyeva, the affair with Kapler was the first serious feeling for which she was ready to sacrifice everything she has. Before meeting with Svetlana, Alexei Yakovlevich had one official and two civil marriages behind him. In 1921-1930 he was married to actress Tatyana Tarnovskaya. From this marriage, his son Anatoly grew up. After the divorce, he lived for some time with his colleague Tatyana Zlatogorova, then was in a relationship with actress Galina Sergeeva. But even though Kapler had the glory of a hero-lover, he truly fell in love with Stalin's daughter. He was madly in love with this modest and educated girl, and he could not help his feelings.

Arrest

Kapler Alexei Yakovlevich and Svetlana Alliluyeva did not notice the age difference and felt infinitely happy. Their rare dates were completely innocent, but Stalin, having learned about the adult boyfriend of his daughter, became furious. On his orders, in 1943 Kapler was arrested and charged with spying for Great Britain. On a fabricated case, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and sent to serve his sentence in Vorkuta. Svetlana, on the other hand, received a big thrashing from her father, and a year later she married a friend of her brother, Grigory Morozov. Throughout her life, Svetlana had 5official husbands, but she did not recall any of them in her memoirs with such warmth as her first lover Kapler.

Prison life, love for Valentina Tokarskaya

In Vorkuta, Alex settled down quite well. The head of the prison was sympathetic to the famous cinematographer and allowed him to leave the city colony. Alexey Yakovlevich Kapler worked in a local photo laboratory, and in his free time he wrote a lot and thought about life. In Vorkuta, he met the famous Soviet actress Valentina Tokarskaya, who was serving a sentence for being captured by the Germans at the beginning of the war and, in order to survive, agreed to cooperate with them. While in exile, the screenwriter invited her to marry him and received consent in response. Tokarskaya brightened up Alexei Yakovlevich's prison everyday life and even pulled him out of the noose when, at the moment of greatest despair, he tried to kill himself.

In 1948 Kapler's term of imprisonment ended. He was strongly advised not to return to Moscow and to stay away from Alliluyeva. Alexei Yakovlevich did not even think about looking for meetings with Stalin's daughter, but he decided to go to the capital in order to go to Kyiv from her to visit his parents. As soon as he was in Moscow, he was arrested again and, on another fabricated case, was sent to a camp located in the village of Inta. This time, Kapler had no concessions. Together with the rest of the prisoners, he worked hard in the mine. And only love for Valentina Tokarskaya, who remained in Vorkuta, helped himsurvive during that difficult time. Corresponding with the woman he loved, he believed that the day would come when they could be reunited forever.

Meeting with Yulia Drunina

In 1953, Joseph Stalin died, and Kapler, like most of the people he did not like, was released ahead of schedule. Turned out to be free and Tokarskaya. Arriving in Moscow, the lovers filed an application with the registry office and soon became official spouses. Alexei Yakovlevich again began writing scripts, his wife began to be invited to act in films. But happiness never came to their family. In 1954, 50-year-old Kapler was invited to teach at the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters at the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR. One of his students was the young but already well-known poetess Yulia Drunina. Both at the time of their acquaintance were not free and for a long time tried to fight the feelings that suddenly swept over them. But love won, and in 1960, having divorced their soul mates, Alexei Kapler and Yulia Drunina got married.

All of Moscow was talking about the novel of the screenwriter and poetess. The lovers did not hide their feelings from anyone, did not get tired of confessing their love to each other and appeared together at all social events. Drunina dedicated many beautiful poems to her husband, and he wrote his best scripts over the years he lived with her.

Work in frame

In 1966, Alexey Yakovlevich Kapler came to work as a TV presenter in the Kinopanorama program (photo from the shooting below). He favorably differed from his colleagues in the shop. Charming, bright andcharismatic, Kapler never read a text from a piece of paper and did not make a serious face in front of the camera. He improvised, said what he thought, and was not afraid to ask the guests in the studio not very convenient questions. Alexei Yakovlevich became a favorite presenter for millions of Soviet people. His "Kinopanorama" was watched even by those who had little interest in cinema. He was the permanent host of the program until 1972

Death

Alexey Kapler and Yulia Drunina have been married for 19 years. Unfortunately, they did not have common children. The last years of his life, the screenwriter suffered from cancer, from which he died on September 11, 1979, less than a month before his next birthday. Aleksey Yakovlevich was buried on the territory of the Starokrymsky cemetery, located on the Kuzgun-Burun hill in the Crimea. Here is the grave of Yulia Drunina, who died in 1991.