The actress is 90 years old. Vera Vasilyeva: biography, personal life

Today Vera Vasilyeva accepts congratulations on her anniversary. The popularly beloved actress turned 90, but she admits that her feelings can be described by Gogol’s phrase: “I have an extraordinary lightness in my thoughts.” Vera Vasilyeva says that she always lived only the way she liked, never asked for anything, and received all her awards and titles without making much effort. The main thing for the actress was and remains the audience's love and recognition.

Smiling, charming, cheerful and light. At 90, which she does not hide, Vera Vasilyeva flies up the steps of stairs with enviable ease, plays in several performances and constantly demands new ones.

“What could be better for an actress? Better than a gift It’s impossible to wait!” - admits People's Artist USSR Vera Vasilyeva.

In the year of the anniversary, director Andrei Zhitinkin staged for Vera Vasilyeva new performance- “Fatal Attraction.” Vasilyeva is here - collective image great actresses.

“This is a fantastic actress who immediately tells the director that she will never play old women. She absolutely does not hide her age, and when she, at 90, says in the play: “I have never looked as good as I do now,” there is immediate applause in the audience. Because she really looks amazing, she has an amazing figure and plasticity,” says director Andrei Zhitinkin.

Vasilyeva’s heart, of course, belongs to the theater. But she also has a love affair with cinema: she is still filming. And it all started with the Siberian Nastenka, whom he saw in her famous Ivan Pyryev. For this first serious role, Vasilyeva, still a student, received her first Stalin Prize. He admits that he spent almost all of it on new dresses.

The second Stalin Prize was won by the role of Olga in “A Dowry Wedding.” The performance at the Satire Theater was performed 900 times. In 1953, a film of the same name was released. Until now, there has not been a single meeting with the audience where she was not asked to perform this song.

According to the script, actor Vladimir Ushakov, who fell in love with Vasilyeva’s heroine, soon became her husband. They lived happily together for more than half a century. A rare acting couple. In the life of the seemingly fragile Vera Kuzminichna, the numbers are large and serious: almost 70 years in the only theater - Satire, more than 60 performances, slightly fewer film roles. He has been friends with Alexander Shirvindt for 60 years.

“And I haven’t ceased to be amazed these 60 years. Why? Everything! Completeness complex. Smart, wise, beautiful, talented, moderately cunning, diplomatic, says artistic director Satire Theater Alexander Shirvindt - looks 57 and runs 57, plays 34. She is irrepressible, she is greedy for good work.”

Vera Kuzminichna comes to the theater long before the performance, prepares in solitude and is terribly worried every time. She wants people not to admire her already famous dimples, but to notice her talent, which never tires of searching and finding something new. This, it turns out, is not difficult if you know the secret, which journalists never tire of asking Vasilyeva about.

“Love is a secret. In general, of course, people are very kind, and in return I also want to match the attitude that I experience from people. People are very kind, so I really want not to offend or sadden them in any way,” admits Vera Kuzminichna.

Childhood and youth

They all had to live in communal apartments. The actress later recalled that every time she left the room, she had to scare away the mice. Due to extreme poverty, the girl tried to commit suicide twice, but both times something stopped her.

“This is all some kind of childhood... No one noticed, thank you, Lord. So I gave it up and that was it,” she later said in an interview for a documentary about her career.

One day, my mother’s friend brought Vera to see “The Tsar’s Bride” by N.I. Rimsky-Korsakov at the Bolshoi Theater. At one point, the theater captured the impressionable girl. With a friend, they saved money to go to a performance, at least to the gallery, and once they even sold their textbooks for this and kept one set for themselves.

During the war, Vera remained in Moscow with her father - her sisters went on business trips, and her mother and little son were evacuated. Along with everyone else, Vera carried boxes of sand, was on duty on the roof and helped her father and the military in every possible way. At the very scary days war, Vera was warmed by the thought of the theater.

After school, Vera tried to enroll in a circus school. Having failed the first physical training exam, Vasilyeva submitted documents to the Moscow City Theater School. In 1948, the girl received a diploma as a dramatic actress.

Actor career

The actress also collaborated with a number of regional theaters(in Bryansk, Tver, Orel), in the late 1990s she performed on the stage of the Moscow New drama theater, has been playing since 2006 main role in the play “The Strange Mrs. Savage” at the Puppet Theater. S. V. Obraztsova. Since 2010, Vasilyeva has been performing on the stage of the capital's Modern Theater and Maly Theater.

Vasilyeva’s film debut took place in 1945, in a small role in Konstantin Yudin’s film “Twins”.

Vera Vasilyeva in the film “The Tale of the Siberian Land”

Vera got her first major role two years later - the girl appeared in the role of waitress-barmaid Nastenka Gusenkova in the drama “The Tale of the Siberian Land” by Ivan Pyryev. To get the role of a girl who, according to the director’s idea, was supposed to “look like a woman on a teapot,” during the audition, the slender girl had to stuff two crumpled stockings into her neckline, comb her tight curls and wash off her makeup. The efforts paid off - this role brought the young actress not only national recognition, but also the Stalin Prize.

In the 1950s, Vasilyeva devoted most of her time to the theater and appeared in only four films, including the film-play “Dowry Wedding,” for which she received a second Stalin Prize.

Vera Vasilyeva in the film “Wedding with a Dowry”

In the next decade, Vera Kuzminichna’s most memorable works were her roles in the tragicomedy “Adventures of a Dentist” with young Andrei Myagkov, Alisa Freindlikh and Igor Kvasha, as well as in the 1966 musical comedy “Come to Baikal” by Veniamin Dorman. In addition, actress Giselle Pascal spoke in the voice of Vera Kuzminichnaya in the popular French adventure film"The Iron Mask" (1962).

In the 1970s, Vasilyeva had several bright and memorable roles - in the popular detective series “The Investigation is Conducted by Experts”, the film story “We Didn’t Go Through This” by Ilya Frez about students of a pedagogical university and the drama “Minors” by Vladimir Rogovoy and Eduard Topol, which became the leader Soviet film distribution in 1977.

One of the most famous roles Vera Kuzminichna can rightfully be called her role in the comedy melodrama “Carnival” by Tatyana Lioznova. IN touching story about the young provincial Nina Solomatina, who dreams of conquering Moscow, Vasilyeva played the mother of the handsome student Nikita (Alexander Abdulov), Nina’s lover (Irina Muravyova). The audience was no less delighted by Vasilyeva’s performance in the musical comedy by Vladimir Rogovoy “ Married bachelor", in which the actress played the mother main character Tamara (Larisa Udovichenko).

Vera Kuzminichna played another “star mother” in 1985 in the melodrama “Marry the Captain” with Vera Glagoleva and Viktor Proskurin. In the same year, the actress starred in one of the few Soviet films in the genre of the comedy farce “Malicious Sunday”, in which such stars of Russian cinema as Mikhail Pugovkin, Valentina Talyzina, Borislav Brondukov and Mikhail Kokshenov appeared.

In 1989, Vera Kuzminichna released her memoirs “Continuation of the Soul (Monologue of an Actress),” where she talked about herself and those with whom fate brought her together. After the collapse of the USSR, Vasilyeva’s film roles became fewer, but among them were those that won the hearts of viewers different ages. These include the mini-series “Dandelion Wine” based on the novel by Ray Bradbury, where Vera Kuzminichna’s colleagues film set became Vladimir Zeldin, Liya Akhedzhakova, Sergei Suponev and Innokenty Smoktunovsky, who died before the completion of the film (he was later voiced by Sergei Bezrukov).

In addition, in 1999, together with others popular artists Vasilyeva participated in Viktor Merezhko’s project “Theater and Cinema Stars Sing,” in which she performed several romances.

“Revealing the secrets of the stars”: Vera Vasilyeva

In the early 2000s, Vasilyeva again appeared in the role of Margarita Nikolaevna in the films “The Investigation is Conducted by Experts. Ten years later." The directors filmed 2 more “cases” with the participation of the aged Tomin and Znamensky, who, according to tradition, were played by Leonid Kanevsky and Georgy Martynyuk. Some heroes were no longer in the films - in particular, the viewer did not see Zinaida Kibrit: actress Elsa Lezhdei died of cancer two years before the start of filming.

“Vera Vasilyeva. The secret of her youth"

Many young viewers remember Vasilyeva from the fantasy series “While the Fern Blooms,” which premiered in the fall of 2012 on the STS TV channel. In the series, the actress played the grandmother of an ordinary Moscow guy, Kirill (Alexander Petrov), whose life changed 180 degrees because of a mysterious amulet he received as a gift.

In 2014-2015, Vasilyeva played the bright and memorable role of a grandmother in the mini-series “Village” (Russia-1), the plot of which in some ways echoes the plot of the film “Carnival”, as well as in children's film"Festival of disobedience."

Personal life of Vera Vasilyeva

Vera Vasilyeva in the program “Wife. Love story"

The couple lived together for a long time and happy life, until the actor’s death in 2011. They had no children in their marriage, although at one point fate brought Vera Kuzminichna together with a young woman, Daria, whom she considers her daughter. Vasilyeva completely trusts her and calls Dasha’s son her grandson.

Vera Vasilyeva now

At the end of April 2018, Vera Kuzminichna appeared on Channel One in documentary film"Yuri Yakovlev. They blossomed here without me!”, prepared for the 90th anniversary of the great artist.

“At the age of 14, I almost did something stupid. After reading a book, I decided: it’s better to die young. took a razor and cut her vein twice,” said AiF People's Artist of the USSR Vera Vasilyeva.

Scar as a keepsake

No one in our family has ever had anything to do with the theater. Dad worked as a driver, mom did housework. We lived very poorly, the seven of us in one room on Gusyatnikov Lane, in the Myasnitskaya area. Mom and dad, three sisters, brother and me. But one day Anna Yulievna, a neighbor in our communal apartment, took me to a matinee performance of the opera “ The Tsar's Bride" And I, an 8-year-old girl, saw this beauty - velvet, chandeliers, an orchestra, everything sparkles, like in a fairy-tale palace, I heard divine music... Then I decided: either I will be an artist, or I will not live. I went to the House of Pioneers, to the drama club, to the choir, signed up for theater libraries...

Me and my girlfriend Katya Rozovskaya(we are still friends with her, it’s scary to think how many years!) together we dreamed of a stage. Plans were made - one crazier than the other. We dreamed of running away from home and entering some provincial theater as someone, and then there was some unexpected incident, a debut, like Ermolova, and it will begin theatrical life full of adventure...

As a result, I became an artist, Katya became a theater expert. Now she already has a grandson, I only have the Theater. Only roles born by me. But this is not so little.

What was I like then? Quiet, dreamy, very romantic. At the age of 14 I almost did something stupid. After reading a book, I decided: it’s better to die young than to live and gradually become disillusioned with life. I took a razor and cut my vein twice, then put my hand in a warm basin in the hope that I would die quietly, beautifully. Fortunately, I came to my senses in time. But in memory of this childhood stupidity, two white lines remained on my left hand in the bend of my elbow.

Pyryev and stockings

The fact that I, a third-year student at the theater school, had such a lucky lottery ticket, like the painting “The Legend of the Siberian Land”, there is no special merit of mine. Think, big role my appearance at that time played a role. I was plump and rosy-cheeked. My assistants noticed my good-natured face Pyryeva. They came up and asked: “Girl, do you want to act in a movie?” I wanted it so much that my whole family didn’t sleep a wink all night - we kept thinking and wondering what to dress me in before the screening. As a result, I showed up at Mosfilm in my sister’s dress made of blue silk, tied with a wide belt, wearing makeup and with unimaginably fluffed curls. Pyryev, without saying a word, sent me to the make-up artists. The first thing they did was comb me. She looked at herself in the mirror and was horrified: her eyes were small, like a well-fed pig, her pigtails were thin. They will never take you to the cinema! But it turned out that this is exactly what was needed. Dressed in the costume of the heroine - Nastya Gusenkova. They brought me to Ivan Alexandrovich again. He looked at me so intently and commanded: “Bring two simple stockings.” Brought. Pyryev took them and rolled them into two balls. And, without the slightest hesitation, he stuck a stocking into my cleavage in those places where lush breasts should be. “Well, everything is all right now! Otherwise you won’t understand anything.” I began to look like a busty woman who covers teapots. This one was approved immediately. I remember when filming was already underway, Pyryev often reminded: “They planted everything on Vasilyeva? Then we can begin!”

“The Legend of the Siberian Land”, 1947. Still from the film

I perceived the triumph of the painting “The Tale of the Siberian Land” in 1948 as a miracle of miracles and was to some extent even frightened when they gave the Stalin Prize for it. As I was later told, Joseph Vissarionovich, who always watched all the pictures, saw me on the screen and asked: “Where did they find this beauty?” To which he was told that she was just a third-year student, and therefore was not nominated for the award. Stalin briefly ordered: “She played well, we should give her a bonus.” And I was instantly included in the list.

I don't even know if I was happy. Probably there was. Although I always believed that both the award and the enormous fame that fell on my young, inexperienced head were not entirely deserved. I just got into good hands director. By the way, apparently, this is exactly what Pyryev himself thought. One day he directly told me: “It’s time for you to thank me.” And he made an appointment at the Moscow Hotel. I, suspecting nothing, went. I remember Ivan Alexandrovich sitting on a chair and saying: “Well? Will you thank me?” I answer: “Thank you so much!” And he: “That’s not how they thank you! Come here!" And he started pestering...

Having difficulty breaking free, I ran to the door and heard after me: “You will never act in films again!” “Well, I don’t care,” I thought. He kept his word - not to shoot me. But I’m not offended by Ivan Alexandrovich, I forgave everything a long time ago. After all, whatever one may say, Pyryev gave me not only a role - life. If it weren’t for meeting him, I might have been sent to hell somewhere in the middle of nowhere after graduation. And so... I was immediately invited to the Satire Theater to play the main role - Lizochka Sinichkina in the play “Lev Gurych Sinichkin”. Can you imagine?!

Actress of the Moscow Theater of Satire Vera Vasilyeva in the artistic room. 1956 Photo: RIA Novosti / V. Malyshev

901st wedding

The play “Dowry Wedding,” which premiered on March 12, 1950, on the one hand, gave me the most great love in my life, on the other hand, he gave me a stage partner and a loving husband, with whom we lived happily for 54 years.

The director was a young talented director Boris Ivanovich Ravenskikh. They found out about our affair with him in the theater almost immediately, and I didn’t know how to hide it. For almost seven years I lived with complete readiness to give him my life, if necessary. But he was married to actress Lilia Gritsenko.

Chief director of the Moscow State Academic Maly Theater National artist USSR Boris Ravenskikh, 1975. Photo: RIA Novosti / I. Zotin

The success of "Dowry Wedding" was phenomenal! The performance was performed 900 times, was awarded the Stalin Prize, and was filmed. Volodya Ushakov was my “fiancé Maxim” both on stage and in films. I saw that his feelings for me had long gone beyond the stage and screen, but I couldn’t help myself. Meanwhile, Boris Ivanovich was invited to head the Maly Theater... And all these years I lived as a religious recluse with the hope that he would finally be freed and understand whether he needed me in his life. She suffered terribly, but did not dare to remind her of her love even once. Sometimes at night, at about two o'clock, when all the residents of our communal apartment were fast asleep, I heard phone call, and I ran barefoot down the corridor. In a whisper, shivering from the cold, she answered the mocking question: “Are you awake? Are you waiting? - “Yes, I’m waiting...” He felt guilty and was annoyed with me for remaining patient and faithful.

Vera Vasilyeva and Vladimir Ushakov in the film “Wedding with a Dowry”, 1953

The last straw was the premiere of his play at the Maly Theater on December 4, 1956, which Boris Ivanovich forbade me to attend. I did not go. She lay in her cell in complete darkness and could not sleep. How painful and lonely I was that night... In the morning Volodya Ushakov called me and, as if feeling that I was on the verge of death, he asked, as he had asked many times, when I would agree to be his wife. And then I answered: “I agree.” Volodya immediately rushed over, happy, in a car littered with flowers... I was drowned in flowers. Then we went to the hostel of the Satire Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, where, in addition to Volodya, we lived Anatoly Papanov with my wife Nadya Karataeva, Tatyana Ivanovna Peltzer and others, and he announced the news of our wedding to everyone. Although there was no wedding as such. I remember Tolya Papanov brought half a liter, others took the food into the kitchen - what did anyone have? And we signed at the registry office seven years later. There were no dresses or rings - they just came in and signed.

Alexander Shirvindt as Count Almaviva and Vera Vasilyeva (right) as the Countess in the play The Marriage of Figaro. Satire Theater, 1977 Photo: RIA Novosti / Vitaly Arutyunov

Went "to the side"

I wouldn’t say that I had a close relationship with anyone in the theater. But very good - with many. Tolya Papanov treated me very tenderly, he pronounced my name in a special way: “Ve-e-rochka!” As I sometimes said to a kitten: “My little darling!” I thought he was an amazing artist. But with Andryusha Mironov We probably communicated more closely. He treated my husband very well, and Volodya adored him. At the theater they did their makeup in the same room. Andryusha was always frank with him, even talking about his novels. Through him we became friends with his parents - Maria Vladimirovna Mironova And Alexander Semyonovich Menaker. Their death, as well as Andrei’s early departure, became an insane tragedy for us. My husband just cried out loud...

Vera Vasilyeva in the musical television show “Benefit”, 1978. Photo: RIA Novosti / Rybakov

But I still played Ranevskaya, albeit “on the side” - at the Tver Academic Drama Theater. Then, with joy and pleasure, she went to Orel to play Kruchinin in “Guilty Without Guilt”, played in the plays “Whim” - at the New Drama Theater in Moscow and “The Strange Mrs. Savage” - at the Obraztsov Puppet Theater. These jobs saved me, because what I had dreamed of since my youth, for which I came into the profession, came true. Otherwise, I would simply think that I didn’t have enough talent, I didn’t have enough destiny.

In 2015, before my (scary to say!) 90th birthday, I received a fabulous gift - the role of Irma Garland in the play Fatal Attraction. She played an elderly actress who does not want to come to terms with her age. We can say that this is to some extent about me - after all, I myself hardly feel my age.

What are my secrets? The fact of the matter is that there are none. I’ve never done exercises - I can’t stand it. Since childhood, I have been absolutely unsportsmanlike. I don't have any diets. But I don’t allow myself to gain weight - I stay at the same weight my whole life. However, I eat everything. After the performance, which is practically at night, I like to treat myself to something delicious. I don’t go out unless I paint my eyes and lips. I watch my posture; it is posture that reveals age. You may be surprised, I don’t even know anything about medicine. And thank God! I think the most important thing that keeps me in shape is the theater, my roles, and the love of the audience. They still recognize him on the street. Sometimes I’m walking and suddenly: “Oh, hello! Are you Vera Vasilyeva? - "Yes". - "Be healthy! Happiness to you!” It is very nice. In general, everything worked out for me: the profession I dreamed of, I had a wonderful loving husband, and at the end of my life my goddaughter Dashenka appeared, who cares about me so touchingly that not everyone own daughter It will be like that about your mother. I am 90 years old and I am absolutely happy. What am I dreaming about? Firstly, so that I can see a lot of interesting things. But most of all, I still dream of a good role. And I already have something interesting in mind. About love!

Vera Vasilyeva Born into a simple family: dad is a driver, mom is a housewife. The whole family lived in a communal apartment in a small room. Little Vera had to wash, clean, darn clothes, and even cook dinner. So days dragged on, the girl grew up, but nothing changed in life, still the same communal apartment, still the same neighbors. But when she came home to this tiny room, she dreamed about the theater, about the stage, about the spotlights, the girl spent all her wealth, the pennies accumulated from dinners on tickets that let her into that extraordinary, romantic, colorful, completely different from her monotonous life world.

And then one day, or adolescence affected whether the despair was really so strong, but Vera, deciding that nothing would change in her life, took the razor in her hands and ran it several times along her hand. There was little blood, it barely touched any veins, but it was seriously frightening. She immediately ran for a bandage and hid the traces of her weakness under it. She told her parents that she was injured. And then Vera Vasilyeva swore to her best friend: “I will still be an artist!” And she kept her word.

Vera Vasilyeva in the play based on Lev Slavin’s play “Intervention”. Moscow academic theater Satires, 1967. Photo: RIA Novosti / Miroslav Murazov

She became an actress, got into the theater, and was in great demand in the cinema. Young beautiful actress She was popular with her fellow actors and senior directors. She herself could not resist one of them. Her affair with directed by Boris Revenskikh lasted for 7 years. The young girl listened to every word of the master. He, too, was at first in love, and then gradually moved away, immersed himself in rehearsals, in which other actresses took part. Vera decided to cut to the quick; she did not beg, beg, or return. She just took it and left. Forever.

Vera Vasilyeva during music TV show“Benefit performance”, 1978. Photo: RIA Novosti / Rybakov

For my only husband in my entire life, my feelings were completely different, calmer, measured, and real. She did not sigh, did not suffer, did not cry because of him. Perhaps it was precisely this regularity of feelings, reality, the feeling of real support in life that attracted Vera Vasilyeva to actor Vladimir Ushakov. Future husband, looking adoringly into the eyes of the bride, he vowed: “You will no longer do housework, there are other people for that.” He paid the former cook for cleaning his dorm room and preparing lunch. Anna Ivanovna, who was a little blind and often left food scraps, scraps and scraps in the common kitchen. So Vera still had to do something around the house in secret from her husband, despite the presence of Anna Ivanovna.

Vera Vasilyeva and Vladimir Ushakov, 1953 Still from the film "Dowry Wedding"

The young people got married only 7 years later. And even then it’s a strong word – “got married.” They just went and signed at the registry office, without a veil, without a Mendelssohn march and even without rings.

But the wedding still took place, even though it was already “golden”. Vera Vasilyeva in a chic dress and her husband Vladimir Ushakov in an elegant suit celebrated the occasion with their closest friends and colleagues at the House of Actors. This time, the bride and groom brought rings to the wedding. For all these years, Vera Vasilyeva never remembered her first love and was always faithful to her husband. Although once she did give him a reason for jealousy, but not of her own free will. Once the troupe of the Satire Theater went on tour. In one compartment all the stars of the scene gathered, among them Vera Vasilyeva and Andrey Mironov. Mironov decided to joke, began to stealthily diligently court Vera Vasilyeva, and sometimes glanced sideways at her husband. And for good reason. Suddenly Vladimir grabbed his imaginary rival by the chest and kicked him out of the compartment. It is not known what kind of conversation took place in the train vestibule, but after it Andrei Mironov and Vladimir Ushakov became bosom friends.

Vera Vasilyeva (Countess Almaviva) in a scene from the play directed by V. Pluchek based on the play “Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro” by Pierre Beaumarchais, 1978. Photo: RIA Novosti / Rybakov Vera Vasilyeva and Vladimir Ushakov lived together for 55 years. Vera Kuzminichna always noted that she never had a conflict with this man, who became her destiny for more than half a century. He simply did not give her a single reason for conflict. The reason for the final and irrevocable separation could only be his illness. Now Vera Kuzminichna was caring for her husband. For 15 years she took him to hospitals, worked, earned money for medicine, for doctors, supported him, tried to encourage him as best she could. In these days, weeks, months, years, she was not an actress, she was a wife, stone wall, and she was also her husband’s eyes: after all, at the end of his life, Vladimir was completely blind.

The third heart attack was the last for Vladimir Ushakov. The wife managed to call an ambulance, the doctors even took him to the intensive care unit, but they failed to save Vera Vasilyeva’s husband. After the funeral, Vera Vasilyeva disappeared. IN literally this word. She closed herself off from friends, acquaintances, and colleagues. The only person, whom she allowed to her, was girl Dasha, “goddaughter,” as Vera Vasilyeva herself calls her.

Photo: www.russianlook.com / Anatoly Lomohov

They met when Ushakov was alive. Famous actress got to the hospital to see my husband public transport, Vera Kuzminichna could not spend money on a ride. There are heavy bags in your hands, the road is long. The only person who decided to help was that same Dasha. She accompanied Vera Vasilyeva to the hospital, they started talking, and as a result, gradually the random companion became an assistant, a friend, and an adopted daughter for the actress. Dasha’s daughter Vera Kuzminichna herself now calls her granddaughter, and Dasha her daughter. Actress Vera Vasilyeva has a family again.