He has played a great many wonderful roles on the stage of the theater and in the field of cinema. Most viewers of different ages not only know his characters, but also quote their statements. This is the absurdly honest investigator of the Podberezoviks from “Beware of the Car”, and the driver Sasha, who exuded simply unprecedented charm from the well-known melodrama about Plyushchikh’s poplars, and the stoic-principled Doctor Aibolit … Surely, everyone has already guessed who will be the hero of this article. Of course, this is Oleg Efremov, whose biography contains many interesting facts.
The childhood of a genius
One of the most famous Soviet actors and directors was born on October 1, 1927 in a huge communal apartment on the Arbat. The best childhood friends of little Olezhka were Seryozha Shilovsky (adopted son of Mikhail Bulgakov, writer) and Sasha Kaluga (son of Vasily Kaluga, actor). As a child, the future actorOleg Efremov, whose biography has always aroused genuine interest among admirers of his talent, often visited Nashchekinsky Lane, in the Bulgakovs' house. Still not suspecting how lucky he was to communicate with such a great person, he tried to absorb all the creative atmosphere that prevailed there. At the age when he came to visit, the boy had not yet read a single Bulgakov's work. But years later, having managed to enjoy the magnificent style and intricate tale, Efremov staged several of the writer's works on the theater stage.
Oleg Efremov spent all his school years in Vorkuta. His biography at that time was replenished with the fact of acquaintance with real camp life, because his dad worked as an accountant in the Gulag.
Well hello, Moscow Art Theater
After the end of the war, young Efremov decided to take exams at the Moscow Art Theater School. A lot of young people felt the desire to study at the acting department, so the competition was quite serious. But the eighteen-year-old boy, not shining with bright beauty, instantly conquered the selection committee and passed the competition the first time. He was simply fantastically lucky to study on a course taught by Vasily Toporkov, an outstanding Soviet director and actor, and Mikhail Kedrov, a brilliant Soviet theater director.
So, in the victorious spring of 1945, young Efremov becomes a student. In the first year, being subdued to the depths of the soul by the teachings of the great Stanislavsky, several children took an oath of allegiance to their ideological inspirer, sealing it forreliability with their own blood. Among these classmates was the hero of our story.
New Glavrezh
This was Oleg Efremov from the very beginning of his career. The biography, personal life of this most talented person from the very first appearance on the screen and the first steps on the stage aroused genuine public interest.
He kept a student diary, in which one day an unusual for that time and even impudent entry about dreams appeared: he wrote that he would be the main director at the Moscow Art Theater. It was possible to understand this person by one phrase - he came to art to be a leader there, and not otherwise. But after graduation, the guy did not get into the Moscow Art Theater even as an extra. It was like death for him! But Efremov did not give up and went to serve in the Central Children's Theater.
On the stage
It was within these walls that Oleg Nikolaevich Efremov, whose biography often appeared in various printed publications in Soviet times, got the main role. It was a production of "Her Friends" (author Viktor Rozov), in which Volodya Chernyshev was Efremov's character. From the premiere performance, he sunk into the hearts of many viewers. Oleg Nikolaevich played so truthfully and sincerely that none of those present in the hall noticed an actor in him. Everyone saw an ordinary schoolboy in front of them.
After a while, this theater gained immense popularity. On his stage, Efremov gave life to over twenty characters. Artist Oleg Efremov, whose biography began to representgreat interest for spectators who attend performances with his participation all the time, he knew how to instantly transform into both Ivanushka the Fool from The Little Humpbacked Horse and the Pretender from Boris Godunov. How he did it, no one understood. But the result was, as they say, obvious.
First troupe
Efremov had not yet celebrated his 30th birthday (it was 1955), when he independently staged a musical comedy called Invisible Dimka, authored by Vadim Korostylev and Mikhail Lvovsky. His debut as a director was no less successful than his debut as an artist.
At that time, it had already become unfashionable and even boring in theater circles to turn to the Stanislavsky method in work. But Oleg Nikolaevich, still remembering that student oath and being faithful to her until the end of his life, found like-minded people from among the students of the Moscow Art Theater School. After all, at the end of his studies and after receiving his diploma, he remained there as a teacher, and the students treated him very warmly and with great respect. It was they who became members of the first troupe of Sovremennik, which subsequently thundered throughout the country.
The name of the theater was 100% justified: the most pressing issues were raised on its stage. The plays that were staged on its stage were the works of contemporary authors: Vasily Aksenov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Alexander Galich. Within these walls, exclusively live communication with the audience prevailed. The theater didn't even have a curtain.
A wild dream come true
Despite the fact that Oleg Efremov was already a theater director, he still remained its actor. Yes, he was the first violin in these walls, determined the style and direction of his offspring, and the rest of the actors were his reflection (in a good way). But the 1970s came, and the dream of Oleg Nikolayevich, once indicated on the pages of his diary, ceased to be just a dream of a young student: he was invited to the Moscow Art Theater as an artistic director. So, by chance, Oleg Efremov crossed the threshold of the famous temple of Melpomene. His biography says that the artist's life has finally become the way he once intended.
Of course, in reality, everything turned out to be completely different from what was thought before. The theater was in the process of collapse, and in modern terms, Oleg Efremov became a crisis manager. He decided that the work would go "perfectly well" if the entire Sovremennik troupe would work with him at the Moscow Art Theater. But only Yevgeny Evstigneev agreed. Some time passed, the new head of the theater restored it, returned it to its former glory. Efremov persuaded Tatyana Doronina, Alexander Kalyagin and Innokenty Smoktunovsky to go there.
Gradually, the troupe of the great Moscow Art Theater grew so much that everyone did not get roles. For some period of time, this situation continued until the master decided to divide the theater. Now Efremov has become the head of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater.
A huge tragedy for Oleg Nikolaevich was the news of the death of his favorite actor - Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Kesha, how often hecalled him. After such a loss, Efremov staged only one play within the walls of his offspring - "Three Sisters". He left the Moscow Art Theater six years after Smoktunovsky, leaving after him. The theater these days was in Taiwan on tour. Spectators who revere the talent of the great master brought so many flowers as evidence of their respect for Efremov the man, Efremov the actor and Efremov the director that in Kamergersky Lane the passage to the Moscow Art Theater building was blocked by this fragrant hill.
Cinematic roads of genius
Efremov made his film debut in 1955. His character was Komsomol organizer Alexei Uzorov in the melodrama "First Echelon". The director of this film was Mikhail Kalatozov himself, who, just a couple of years later, shot the film masterpiece The Cranes Are Flying, later awarded the Palme d'Or at Cannes. After the first role, the films with the participation of Oleg Nikolaevich delighted the audience almost every year.
All his characters are completely different. And yet, Efremov played in such a way that the audience was sure: all the qualities of his character are inherent in the actor himself. The taxi driver Sasha from Three Poplars on Plyushchikha and Maxim Podberezovikov from Beware of the Car were especially fond of everyone. Sasha turned out to be very reverent, caring, empathetic. And Podberezovikov is an honest, strong, fair, real Soviet policeman. These are the wonderful qualities that Oleg Efremov was able to embody in his heroes. His biography includes an interesting fact: at first, Eldar Ryazanov wanted to offer him the role of Yuri Detochkin, but according to the script, Detochkin is a very soft, quiet person, and Oleg Nikolayevich himself during the trials could not help butshow your willpower. Therefore, Ryazanov departed from the original plan: Detochkin was played by Innokenty Smoktunovsky, and Efremov got the image of investigator Podberezovikov.
And it's impossible not to remember the first of the mentioned films. Old-timers said that Pakhmutov could not be persuaded to write a soundtrack for the "poplar" film. But when she saw the footage of the scene in the car, where the heroine of Doronina sang, and the hero of Oleg Nikolayevich listened to her … His look, looking as if from the depths of the soul, shocked and inspired Alexandra Nikolaevna so much that the music flowing from her fingers to the keys piano, turned out to be very piercing. And this episode itself became one of the most powerful and touching in the entire film.
First love and first beauty
It was known to everyone, close and not so, that one of the most talented actors and directors of the twentieth century was too amorous person. Yes, he was not handsome in the generally accepted concept of male beauty, and yet no woman could resist his charm.
This was the actor and director Oleg Yefremov. Biography, personal life, children - all this is so brought together in the fate of a person that even the thought does not arise somehow to separate it. And yet, women in his fate stood a little apart. They were his inspiration, peace, hope for the future. Actor Oleg Efremov had certain hopes for each of them. Biography, the personal life of this talented person has a lotnovels, and there were even more broken women's hearts.
His first great love came to his heart at school. The girl's name was Tanya Rostovtseva. She was two years younger than him. Oleg tried with all his might to attract Tanechka's attention, for example, he threw baby nipples into her window, into which he first poured water. The novel, without having time to really begin, ended in an instant, when one of these nipples hit his aunt obozhe. And Tanechka Rostovtseva, when she grew up, married a very good man - Yuri Nikulin.
Being a student at the Moscow Art Theater School, Oleg Nikolayevich instantly fell in love with a very beautiful girl - Irina Skobtseva, but failure awaited him here too: she preferred another to him, with whom she joined her fate.
First wife. Her patience and frustration. And other ladies…
Being rejected by the first beauty, Efremov did not worry long. He turned his eyes to his classmate Lilia Tolmacheva. Soon followed by a marriage proposal, which the girl accepted. She sincerely fell in love with Efremov. Unfortunately, the marriage was short-lived, lasting only six months. The actor has a new hobby - Margo Kupriyanova, an actress who plays the main role of Dimka in his debut performance. And if the young wife could, if not forgive, at least somehow try to understand the betrayal, then her husband's passion for alcoholic beverages literally finished her off. Lilia Tolmacheva endured, but for a long time her strength was not enough. Then she recalled that Oleg Nikolayevich was not ready for family relationships, almost every day he came home very drunk. Perhaps they were tooyoung, perhaps Efremov had to stop and pull himself together. But it was already too late. Then he repeatedly regretted it and remembered his first wife only with warm, kind words.
Be that as it may, but after a very short time after the divorce, Oleg Nikolaevich realized that he was very drawn to another colleague. It was a very nice woman, prima CDT Antonina Eliseeva. She was 10 years older and married. Her husband was the same handsome prince who was looking for a girl who dropped a glass slipper on the stairs of the palace. But Efremov could not control his feelings…
Second wife and other adores
Thanks to the light hand of Galina Volchek in 1955 he met his second (civil) wife Irina Mazuruk. She was the granddaughter of a polar pilot from the Land of the Soviets. This fragile girl was nine years younger than her idol, she was 19. But, despite her youth, she already had a divorce behind her. The young did not go to the registry office, but they still played the wedding. In this family, the daughter of Efremov Nastenka was born. But even the birth of the first child did not prevent the father from throwing interested glances at all the actresses of the theater.
Oleg Efremov achieved a lot. The biography, the wives of this great master were an indicator of how different this person could be at different periods of his life. Perhaps it was because of his strong character, perhaps because of his genius. But the reality is this.
Another romance that lasted more than one year happened to Efremov with Nina Doroshina (rememberNadyukha from the film "Love and Doves"?). It was a fairly long relationship, very offensive for Irina. She even decided to accept the advances of some men whom she really liked and whom she had always rejected before. And yet Oleg Nikolaevich left the family. For Mazuruk, this was a huge tragedy, she even tried to commit suicide. Luckily, she was rescued. So she grew up without her father's nightly fairy tale Anastasia Efremova, daughter of Oleg Efremov. The biography of the master, however, was replenished with new events and facts.
And the relationship with Doroshina was like a roller coaster. They parted several times, but then converged again. Doroshina even managed to marry Oleg Dal. But Efremov spoiled the celebration by coming there and telling everyone that the bride still loves him. And took her straight from the wedding feast. Dal did not show anyone how painful and hard it was for him. He just hid from everyone for a few days. And when he appeared in public again, he behaved as if nothing had happened. Their marriage only lasted a couple of months.
Oleg Efremov was very addicted. Biography, personal life, children - all this was a single whole for the master, but still sometimes this unity had to be separated.
The most famous actresses of the 20th century - Anastasia Vertinskaya and Irina Miroshnichenko - were on Oleg Efremov's track record. These novels were also quite short, despite the fact that Vertinskaya really hoped for more: she even made a good repair in Oleg Nikolayevich’s apartment and brought new furniture there. But she did not receive not only the heart of the director, but even the main role in histheater.
Third wife. Longest Marriage
Oleg Efremov was able to decide on a serious relationship and even began to think about marriage after meeting Alla Pokrovskaya. In 1962, their marriage took place. This union turned out to be the most successful and longest in Efremov's life: it lasted for twelve whole years. But even with this wife, Oleg Nikolayevich could not deny himself small weaknesses: he quite calmly started romantic relationships with other women. All the years of her life together, Alla tried to come to terms with her husband's betrayals. And yet her patience was not endless. She decided to divorce.
Mikhail, the son of Oleg Efremov, whose biography is now as popular as the biography of his father, was born in this marriage. He also became an actor. As a child, he already tried his hand, even worked on the same set with his famous father.
All the children of Oleg Efremov devoted themselves to art. His biography, even 16 years after his death, is of interest to viewers and those who still remember him on the stage of the theater. Mikhail's son Nikita (grandson of the great master) also serves Melpomene. And daughter Anastasia is the editor-in-chief of the theater magazine Strastnoy Boulevard, 10, and she is also the organizer of theater festivals.
This is how Oleg Efremov lived his life. His biography, his personal life resemble a kaleidoscope: like colored glass, people, meetings, events change … One thing is invariable: the theater has always been the main love of his life; it was to him that he dedicated everythingyour time, strength, opportunities.
