Frunzik Mkrtchyan died under what conditions. Frunzik Mkrtchyan: the sad fate of a funny man

Frunze (Frunzik, Mher) Mushegovich Mkrtchyan (July 4, 1930, Leninakan (now Gyumri) - December 29, 1993, Yerevan) - Armenian, Soviet actor theater and cinema, theater director. National artist USSR (1984). Laureate State Prize USSR (1978).

Born into a large family of refugees from the Armenian Genocide. Frunzik's parents were 5 years old when they ended up in Orphanage. They grew up there together, got married in 1924, and when one of the largest textile mills in the Soviet Union opened in Armenia, they got a job there together. Father - Mushegh Mkrtchyan (1910-1961), timekeeper, mother - Sanam Mkrtchyan (1911-1970), dishwasher in the factory canteen. His real name is Mher (from Armenian - sunny), although according to his passport he wrote it as Frunze Mkrtchyan. His father had great respect for commander Mikhail Frunze. So he named his son after him. Brother - Albert (born 1937), director, screenwriter. Sisters - Ruzanna (b. 1943), Clara (1934-2003). To feed a large family, the father once stole a small piece of fabric from a factory and was sentenced to ten years, after which the family began to starve, since Sanam received only 30 rubles for her work.

As a child, Frunzik was helpless, everyone laughed at him, he was thin, with a big nose. The boy drew beautifully, but did not think about any other profession other than acting. The Mkrtchyans' apartment was on the second floor. On the staircase, ten-year-old Frunzik hung a curtain and staged one-man performances in front of the children sitting on the stairs. When, after one of the performances, he went out to bow, he was surprised to notice that the audience had become larger - little spectators were sitting on the laps of their parents, who selflessly applauded the young genius. Frunzik never worried about his appearance. Moreover, he himself did not see anything unusual in her. And he even made up jokes about his nose, which was outstanding in all respects.

From 1945 he worked as an assistant projectionist at the Leninakan textile mill club, in free time There he also played in an amateur drama club. In 1945-1946 he studied at the studio of the Leninakan Theater. A. Mravyan (now Gyumri Theatre of Drama them. Vardan Adzhemyan). Since 1947 - an actor in this theater. Even then no one doubted that the boy was extremely gifted.

In 1951-1956 he studied at the Yerevan Theater and Art Institute (course of V. B. Vagharshyan). In Yerevan they still tell with admiration how 17-year-old Mkrtchyan played the role of an 80-year-old man and no one could recognize the hunched old man as a guy from the working outskirts. In parallel with his studies, Mkrtchyan acted in films for the first time - he played in a short episode in Alexander Rowe’s film “The Secret of Lake Sevan”. The first film with his participation (“In Search of the Addressee”) was released in 1955. And his full-fledged debut on the silver screen took place in 1960 in the film by G. Malyan and G. Markaryan “The Music Team Guys,” in which he played a musician named Arsen.

Since 1956 - actor of the Armenian Theater named after. G. M. Sundukyan in Yerevan. “Frunzik’s theatrical triumph began with his very first roles,” says Albert Mkrtchyan. “As a second-year student theater institute, he received an invitation to the Theater. Sandukyan for the role of Aesop, which he was supposed to play together with his teacher. After the first performance, the teacher approached Frunzik, kissed him and gave up the role. Whom he later played in the theater, from Tsar Guidon to Cyrano de Bergerac.

But Mkrtchyan had to wait five years for his next film work, and in 1965 it became the role of Professor Berg in the comedy “Thirty-three” directed by Georgy Danelia. However, the film was very quickly withdrawn from distribution for ideological reasons. Mkrtchyan’s next film work was a role in Rolan Bykov’s film “Aibolit-66”. Mkrtchyan got into this picture thanks to the patronage of actor and director Frunze Dovlatyan, who suggested that Bykov try Mkrtchyan for the role of one of the robbers. The actor was approved, and soon Mkrtchyan, in the role of Barmaley, found himself in a bright and eccentric trinity of robbers, which immediately won the sympathy of the audience after its release in 1966.

Cinema also immediately fell in love with him. In the same 1966, the sparkling comedy by Leonid Gaidai “Prisoner of the Caucasus” was released on the screens of the USSR, in which Mkrtchyan got the role of uncle main character Dzhabraila. Frunzik truly became a superstar after his role as driver Khachikyan in Danelia’s film “Mimino.” Although, if you believe the director of the film, Georgy Nikolaevich Danelia, Frunzik Mkrtchyan, or rather, the driver Rubik, might not have existed at all. According to the script, the main character had to be accommodated in a Moscow hotel. The rooms in those days were double. Valiko’s neighbor could be an endocrinologist from the Urals or a driver from Armenia played by Frunzik Mkrtchyan. They tossed a coin. It came up heads - Khachikyan.

By the way, Frunzik himself came up with a lot of funny remarks that have become truly popular. The scene of the interrogation of witness Khachikyan in court is an absolute improvisation of the actor. At Mkrtchyan’s suggestion, the director filmed an episode in which the characters Frunzik and Kikabidze found themselves in the same elevator along with two Chinese. And one Chinese said to another: “How similar these Russians are to each other.” At the request of censors, the episode had to be cut from the film. The filming of “Mimino” was also memorable for its unpleasant moments - Mkrtchyan began to drink heavily. Filming had to be canceled several times. In the end, Danelia set a strict condition for Frunzik - either alcohol or cinema. Mkrtchyan did not touch alcohol for several days. And then he came to the director and said sadly: “I understand why the world is ruled by mediocrity. They don’t drink and start working on their careers from the very morning.”

“Did Frunzik consider himself realized? Of course not. Only a fool would think that way. The father did not live to see his son's glory. But mom made it. She loved Frunzik very much. We - me and our two sisters - even took offense at her. But my mother said that we were already fighting, but Frunzik was helpless. When my brother was already very popular, he would come home, get into the shower and call his mother. She came and washed him. There was such music between mother and son,” recalled Albert Mushegovich. “He treated fame calmly and never suffered star fever. But people reacted violently to the “living” Frunzik, which was tantamount to an invasion of personal territory. Every passerby in Yerevan considered him a family member. One day we went down to Moscow Metro and were able to go through only one stop - with applause.”

Frunzik Mkrtchyan in the film “Thirty Three”, 1965

Despite universal adoration, Frunzik was unhappy in his personal life. Mkrtchyan’s tragedies began when he was a student. He fell in love with a girl named Juliet, whose parents were against their marriage. The struggle for my beloved continued for several years and ended in complete failure. Perhaps out of frustration, Frunzik married the girl Knara, she had nothing to do with art, the marriage lasted only a year. Frunzik met his second wife within the walls of the theater institute. The beautiful Donara Pilosyan was the star of the course, many people followed her, but when Frunzik decided to marry her, his friends were very surprised.

The couple had two children - son Vazgen and daughter Nune. The actor adored them and brought a ton of toys from every trip. But more often than not, he immediately took them away from the children and began to play himself. “Everything was interesting to him,” says Albert. “How, for example, toy pigeons work, which fly into the sky and then return to your hands. Frunzik took them apart, trying to understand the mechanism. And, of course, then I couldn’t put it back together. Until the end of his life he was surprised by something. For example, I couldn’t understand how the TV worked. How does this film from America reach Yerevan? I disassembled the receiver, untwisted everything, and then even the master couldn’t fix anything.”

Donara accompanied her husband everywhere. IN " Captive of the Caucasus“She played the wife of Comrade Saakhov’s driver, who sadly tells Yuri Nikulin’s hero about local customs - bride kidnapping. Every day Donara's behavior became more and more strange. She arranged terrible scenes of jealousy for her husband. Finally, Frunzik could not stand it and, on the advice of friends, turned to doctors. The doctors' verdict turned out to be terrible - schizophrenia. When the efforts of local specialists were powerless, Donara was sent to a psychiatric clinic in France.

Frunzik’s personal life seemed to improve over time. He met a charming woman. Tamara was the daughter of the chairman of the Writers' Union of Armenia, Hrachya Hovhannisyan. They say that when the actor once again went to the registry office, one of his friends scolded him, asking if he frequented this institution. To which Frunzik replied with his characteristic humor: “Chaplin actually married eight times. Am I worse? Alas, this marriage did not bring happiness to Mkrtchyan either.

Frunzik and Tamara.

“Was he a reserved person? - says Albert Mushegovich. - No, he lived among people. And at the same time he lived alone. Once he was asked why he walked the streets at night alone, Frunzik was surprised: “Why alone? Cats are walking, dogs are walking. So I'm not alone." He was amazingly thin and kind person. Even too kind. Everyone had complaints against him, but he had none against anyone. Frunzik was real people's deputy, unofficial, of course. Helped thousands of people. Nobody could refuse him..."

Frunzik Mkrtchyan in the film “The Soldier and the Elephant”.

Nune's daughter had gotten married by this time and left with her husband for Argentina. The meaning of Frunzik’s life was his son Vazgen. However, the young man’s behavior also began to alarm his father. Vazgen was shown to the best psychiatrists, who, alas, could not do anything. The boy was inherited mental illness mother. They say that when Vazgen was placed for some time in the same French clinic where Donara was, they did not even recognize each other.

Frunzik Mkrtchyan in the film “The Adventures of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.”

As a theater director, Mkrtchyan staged performances in Armenia and abroad. IN last years During his life, Frunzik abandoned cinema, concentrating all his efforts on creating his own theater (now the Yerevan Artistic Theater named after Frunze Mkrtchyan). “On December 28, 1993, I spent the whole day at his house,” says Albert Mkrtchyan. “We sat and talked about art. Frunzik was only interested in this. I remember he once again put on a cassette of Albioni’s Adagio, which he was going to use in his next performance. Then I put him to bed and went home for a few hours.

It was five in the evening. When I got home, I immediately started calling Frunzika - I had some kind of bad feeling. Although he understood that this was impossible - Frunzik’s phone was faulty, and it was only possible to make calls from it, and not receive calls. And at seven in the evening they called me and said that Frunzik was no longer there. He became ill, and the ambulance could no longer do anything. Heart attack. He was 63 years old...

At first, the government wanted to postpone the funeral to January 2. But I didn't agree. Armenia said goodbye to its brother on December 31, thousands of people followed the coffin. He was buried in the Pantheon of Geniuses of the Armenian Spirit in Yerevan, Armenia.

Frunzik Mkrtchyan's grave in the Pantheon. After 17 years, the monument was replaced.

Now they are starting to make a legend out of my brother, telling things that did not happen. They say his health was undermined by the death of his daughter in a car accident. In fact, Nune died five years after Frunzik passed away. She had a uterine tumor and had a successful operation. Nune was sitting in her room with her husband, and a blood clot broke loose. After the death of my brother, I adopted Vazgen. But he was gone too. Cirrhosis of the liver. He was 33 years old.

Did Frunzik have a tragic life? Which one great artist Isn't life tragic? This is probably payment for the talent with which the Lord awarded them. Frunzik, of course, understood what kind of actor he was. But he never showed it. Because he was a man with capital letters, as his beloved Gorky wrote. Who was left after him? The people who adore him. I stayed, ours younger sister, our grandchildren. So the Mkrtchyan family continues. One of them will definitely be as talented as Frunzik.”

Monument. Frunzik Mkrtchyan in Gyumri, Theater Square.

Journalist Joseph Verdiyan wrote after the death of Frunzik Mkrtchyan: “A couple of weeks after Frunzik’s funeral, I invited his brother, the famous film director Albert Mkrtchyan, to my place, and we talked for several hours in the kitchen about his great brother. I remember: “Frunz wanted death, he was eager for it, he dreamed about it, cruelly extinguishing his life instincts. It was not time that destroyed him, nor his addiction to wine and tobacco... No, he deliberately went to his death, not having the strength to survive the illness of his son and wife - a huge family grief.”

Monument to Frunzik Mkrtchyan in Yerevan, Opera Garden.

Many phrases voiced by the actor have become catchphrases, among them:

“Why don’t you eat kefir? What, don’t you like it?”

“I feel such personal hostility towards the victim that I can’t eat.”

Monument to the heroes of the film “Men” by sculptor David Minasyan in the Saryanovsky kindergarten. Yerevan.

“Valiko-jan, I’ll tell you one smart thing, but don’t be offended!”

“What these Zhiguli are thinking, I don’t know. They are spinning, spinning, spinning under their feet...”

Monument to the heroes of the film “Mimino” in Moscow.

“If you refuse, they will kill you.”

“You did not justify the high trust placed in you”

“Don’t confuse your personal hair with the state one.”

Monument to Frunzik Mkrtchyan in Yerevan.

Frunzik Mkrtchyan

Mher Mkrtchyan

Մհեր Մկրտչյան

Born in Leninakan (Gyumri), in a large family of refugees from the Turkish massacre - ordinary workers at a textile factory.
Real name is Mher Mkrtchyan. Although according to the passport it was written as Frunze Mkrtchyan. His father had great respect for commander Mikhail Frunze. So he named his son after him - Frunze.

People's Artist of the Armenian SSR (1971).
Honored Artist of the Dagestan SSR (1972).
People's Artist of the USSR (01/18/1984).

Since 1945, he has been an assistant projectionist at the textile factory club in the city of Leninakan, and in his free time attends amateur theater rehearsals. Since 1947 he worked at the Leninakan Theater named after Mravyan.

Graduated from the Yerevan Theater and Art Institute (1956).
Since 1956 - actor Academic Theater named after Sundukyan in Yerevan.

His father, Mushegh Mkrtchyan (1910-1961), was a timekeeper, his mother, Sanam Mkrtchyan (1911-1970), was a dishwasher in a factory canteen.
Younger brother - Albert Mkrtchyan (1937) - film director, screenwriter.
Sisters - Clara Mkrtchyan (1934-2003), Ruzanna Mkrtchyan (1943).

He was buried in the Pantheon of Heroes of the Armenian Spirit in Yerevan, Armenia.

Chapter 33 of the cycle “To Be Remembered” by Leonid Filatov is dedicated to the life and work of the actor.

prizes and awards

Laureate of the State Prize of the Armenian SSR (1975, for participation in the film “Triangle”).
Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1978, for participation in the film “Mimino”).
Winner of the All-Union Film Festival in the category "First Prize for Best Actor's Work" in 1978.
Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots (2001) (posthumously).

The actor, who almost always brought a smile to the audience, saddened the audience only once when he died on December 29, 1993. Frunzik Mushegovich Mkrtchyan was buried on New Year's Eve.

Later, the authors of a documentary film about the fate of the Armenian actor will emphasize in sync: New Year's Eve The Armenians drank the first glass without clinking and in silence. The time was difficult, almost a siege, there was no electricity supplied to houses, and it seemed to everyone that the usual normal life ended. Amateur footage of the funeral was superimposed on the sound of the national wind instrument: the soul bursts into tears when you hear the “lamentation” of the duduki - a paraphrase of folk melodies - and see in the frame the tear-stained faces of thousands and thousands of Yerevan residents applauding the actor in last time...You can't compile such footage.

Nowadays, the actor is most often remembered in the role of chauffeur Khachikyan in the film “Mimino,” and Mkrtchyan is familiar to biased viewers from an episode in the film “Don’t Cry!” Remember how two people who had committed a fine are sitting in a debt hole and Mkrtchyan’s character suddenly asks his counterpart: “Do you want some candy?” And then he answers himself: “No!”

Many called him "sad cheerful man" Still, there is a tragic beginning in the comic. Journalists also called the world-famous clown Yengibarov a clown “with autumn in his heart”...

The media claimed that during the filming of Mimino, Frunzik Mkrtchyan began to drink heavily. Filming even had to be canceled several times. As a result, director Danelia set a strict condition for the actor - either alcohol or a role. Mkrtchyan did not touch alcohol for several days. And then, they write, he came to the director and sadly said: “I understood why the world is ruled by mediocrity. They don’t drink and start working on their careers from the very morning.” AND best scene Mkrtchyan skillfully improvised the interrogation of witness Khachikyan in court.

It would seem that then, during life in the Soviet Union, universal adoration was a passport to a happy and prosperous life. For example, a famous actor went through passport control at airports without documents: he simply showed his famous profile. A big nose, sad eyes, eyebrows wrinkled in sadness... He was called a comedian without a smile, like the great Max Linder. The actor’s relatives said that even as a child, Frunzik was helpless, “everyone laughed at him.” The little actor turned the site of a communal apartment into theater stage. He performed one-man performances on it, saying “whatever came into his head.” And the neighboring spectators laughed...

Legend has it that the actor himself treated his massive nose with humor and even composed jokes about himself. Vakhtang Kikabidze told the following story in an interview: “Archil Gomiashvili and I went to the premiere of the play Cyrano de Bergerac, in which Frunz played the role of Cyrano. In this performance there is a very long monologue by Cyrano, where he talks about his huge nose. For Frunz, this monologue turned out to be very short, it didn’t even last a minute. When we were driving in the car after the performance, I said to him: “Listen, Frunz, why did you shorten this long monologue so much? Still classic...” And he answers: “Buba jan, when you talk about your nose for a long time, it’s unpleasant for Armenians.”

The actor’s brother Albert Mkrtchyan recalled an incident in the USA. “I have an article from the New York Times. “Five minutes of silence of Mher Mkrtchyan” is called. The fact is that at one of his performances in America, more than half of the audience were Americans who spoke neither Russian nor Armenian. Then the brother came to the front of the stage and stood silently for five minutes and looked into the hall. The audience fell from their chairs to the floor laughing. And Frunzik looked at them once again, bowed and left.”

They say that even today in many offices in Yerevan there are portraits of the talented fellow countryman Frunzik Mkrtchyan.

The actor's personal life was secretive and complex. As it turned out later, she was terribly unhappy. Unlike the life of a star of the Soviet screen.

Due to tragic coincidences, neither the son, nor the daughter, nor the actor’s wife survived to this day. Frunzik Mkrtchyan had three marriages; they met actress Damira, his second wife, while still at the institute. They gave birth to two children. In professional circles they said that the death of his daughter finally finished off Frunzik Mkrtchyan’s heart, but in fact, Nune died five years after the actor passed away. His brother Albert spoke about this: Nune, who had undergone a complex operation, was sitting in the ward with her husband, and a blood clot came loose from her... By the way, after the death of Frunzik, his adult mentally ill son Vazgen was also adopted by him... Vazgen died at the age of 33 from cirrhosis of the liver . This happened quite recently.

Events developed and “finished off” Frunzik Mushegovich increasingly: life in the house after a while became unbearable due to scenes of Damira’s jealousy. As it was said in the same documentary, after performances or filming, the artist did not even want to return home. The wife's hysterics and scandals were inexplicable and became more frequent. The birth of a second child, a son, did not change anything. This continued until famous artist did not go to the doctors. The verdict is schizophrenia.

And at first they life together she even accompanied her husband on the set... For example, in “Prisoner of the Caucasus,” Damira was given an episode: she played the wife of Comrade Saakhov’s driver. Remember beautiful woman, who sadly tells the hero of Yuri Nikulin at the gate about local customs - bride kidnapping? In a word, when the efforts of local specialists were powerless, Damira was sent to a psychiatric clinic in France.

Later, Frunzik married again to a charming woman - the daughter of the chairman of the Writers' Union of Armenia Oganesyan. They say that when the actor once again went to the registry office, one of his friends scolded him, asking if he frequented this institution. To which Frunzik replied with his characteristic humor: “Chaplin actually married eight times. Am I worse? Alas, this marriage also broke up. “Was he a reserved person? - says Albert Mushegovich. - No, he lived among people. And at the same time he lived alone. Once, when he was asked why he walked the streets at night alone, Frunzik was surprised: “Why alone? Cats are walking, dogs are walking. So I'm not alone."

After failures in his personal life, Frunzik focused his attention on children and theater. Everything seemed to be getting better. Nune's daughter got married and left with her husband for Argentina. The meaning of Frunzik’s life was his son Vazgen. However, the young man’s behavior also began to worry his father. Vazgen was consulted by the best psychiatrists, who, alas, were powerless in this case. The boy inherited his mother's mental illness. They say that when Vazgen was placed for some time in the same French clinic where Damira was, they did not even recognize each other. Tragedy...

In the last years of his life, Frunzik abandoned cinema, concentrating all his efforts on creating his own theater. Colleagues at the Yerevan Sundukyan Theater call him an actor from start to finish. Frunzik Mkrtchyan conquered all the roles: tragedian, comedian, classical, contemporary... And everything should have worked out for the famous and beloved actor... And the theater could and should have been... He didn’t have time. Or tired?

He died instantly in his sleep. Heart attack. People's Artist of the USSR, laureate of the USSR State Prize, laureate of the State Prize of the Armenian SSR Frunzik Mkrtchyan was only 63 years old.

Albert Mkrtchyan once expressed his version of his brother’s death: “Frunz wanted death, he was eager for it, he dreamed about it, cruelly extinguishing his life instincts. It was not time that destroyed him, nor his addiction to wine and tobacco... No, he deliberately walked towards his death, not having the strength to survive the illness of his son and wife - a huge family grief.”

Center" - " Frunzik Mkrtchyan. Tragedy funny man "(13.30), and "Russia K" - films" Men" (15.20) and " Sad story the last clown. Frunze Mkrtchyan" (16.30).

Frunzik Mkrtchyan born in Armenia, in the city of Leninakan (now called Gyumri). His parents - father Mushegh and mother Sanam - worked in a textile factory. Frunzik has been an excellent drawer since childhood. His father wanted him to become an artist, but the boy suddenly fell ill with the theater. He hung a blanket on the staircase (the apartment was on the second floor) and staged performances, which were attended by both children and adult neighbors.

His parents named him Frunzik, recalled the actor’s younger brother Albert Mkrtchyan, in honor of the Soviet military leader Mikhail Frunze. In the 30s, Armenians were accused of nationalism, so they began to give children strange names. And when, many years later, the Sundukyan Theater, where his brother worked, toured Lebanon, the local Armenians called it Mher. This biblical name, which translated means “Sun,” really attracted his brother.

sunny Boy

Frunzik was actually bright, sunny child– gentle, trusting and very kind. He loved to joke and play mischief. True, already in childhood he amazed everyone with his sad eyes. It seemed that even then he knew his whole life in advance - difficult, tragic. Who knows if he had not associated himself with acting profession, maybe everything would have turned out differently?

As a child, Frunzik was helpless, everyone laughed at him, he was thin, with a big nose. And suddenly it turned out that God gave him enormous acting talent,” said Albert Mkrtchyan.

Little Frunzik loved Charlie Chaplin and often compared himself to him.

Chaplin for me is like Bach in music - a teacher of humanity,” said the actor. - Just as life is full of surprises, Chaplin never ceased to surprise me. Once Moscow television filmed about me documentary. It began with shots where a little boy watches a film with Chaplin in the cinema and is eager to act in a movie. It was pure truth. I became a comedian because I dreamed of it since childhood.

When the war began, Frunzik's father went to the front, his mother worked as a dishwasher, and Frunzik sat all day long in the projectionist's booth in the factory House of Culture. Before that, having left school at thirteen, he had been both a shoemaker's apprentice and puppet affairs a master, and even a clothing cutter. The projectionist took the boy to theater studio, they took him. And soon he appeared on the stage of an amateur theater. In his first performance, Frunzik was supposed to say: “You have a letter from the prince!” But as soon as he appeared on stage, the audience began to laugh. Frunzik looked into the hall and said: “You know, hand over this letter to the prince yourself - I have no time, I have business.” He said - and ran backstage, where there was also deafening laughter. Frunzik was upset, but years later he realized that laughter in auditorium- a sign of a good game. And then, leaving the House of Culture, he realized something else for himself: he could no longer live without the theater.

“I was laughing so hard!”

In 1956, Mkrtchyan graduated from the Yerevan Theater and Art Institute and was immediately accepted into the Sundukyan Academic Theater in Yerevan. At the same time, he played his first role in the film " Looking for the addressee».

Frunzik’s theatrical triumph began from his very first roles, said Albert Mkrtchyan. - As a second-year student at the theater institute, he received an invitation to the Theater. Sundukyan for the role of Aesop, which he was supposed to play together with his teacher. After the first performance, the teacher approached Frunzik, kissed him and gave up the role.

Then there were the films: “ 33 » Georgiy Danelia,

« Aibolit-66» Rollan Bykov,

« Captive of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures» Leonid Gaidai.

But Mkrtchyan’s real popularity came from the role of driver Khachikyan in the film Danelia “ Mimino».

The phrases of the hero Mkrtchyan from “Mimino” have become popular: “Why don’t you eat kefir? What, don’t you like it?”, “Thank you, I’ll stand on foot!”, “Valiko-jan, I’ll tell you one smart thing, just don’t be offended!”, “I was laughing so hard here,” “What are these Zhiguli cars thinking?” ?... The actor came up with them all himself.

Danelia gave him the opportunity to completely improvise. So, for example, Frunzik persuaded the director to film an episode in which his Khachikyan and the hero Kikabidze are riding in an elevator along with two completely identical Japanese men. In the video, one Japanese man said to another: “How similar these Russians are to each other!” But, unfortunately, for censorship reasons this scene was not included in the film.

By the way, for this role the actor was the only one from the Mimino film group to receive the USSR State Prize.

While working on this film, the actor began to drink and break down due to problems in the family. Danelia endured it for a long time, and then gave an ultimatum - if you drink, I won’t take it off! For about a week, Frunzik came to the set sober. And somehow he approached Danelia and said with sadness: “I understood why the world is ruled by mediocrity. They don’t drink and start working on their careers from the very morning.”
A few days after this, one of the scenes of “Mimino” was filmed in the restaurant of the Rossiya Hotel. The heroes of Kikabidze and Mkrtchyan are trying to out-dance each other. Frunzik came to this shooting a little drunk, but despite this, he danced beautifully. However, he could not do the splits and pick up the handkerchief that was lying on the floor. One take, a second, a fifth... Everyone was already tired of laughing, and it was a pity that Mkrtchyan was red from the tension. Then Danelia called Kikabidze and asked him to snatch the handkerchief from under Mkrtchyan’s feet. Vakhtang Konstantinovich coped with the task brilliantly, and Mkrtchyan, realizing that he had been tricked, raised his head and looked at everyone with such an offended look that film set Laughter broke out again.

Donarin prisoner

Legend has it that Mkrtchyan had two passports: one in the name “Frunzik Mkrtchyan”, and the second in the name “Mher Mkrtchyan”. True, according to rumors, he managed to lose them and lived well without documents. After all, the actor had phenomenal popularity; he was loved in every corner of the Soviet Union.

However, despite universal adoration, personal life Mkrtchyan’s situation didn’t work out. His first marriage was very short-lived. Then he met beautiful girl by name Donara, fell in love. When they met, he was over thirty, she was eighteen. He was famous actor, she is a student at a theater school. Soon Donara became his wife, and she was destined to play a fatal role in Mkrtchyan’s life.

At first everything went well. Donara played with her husband in " Captive of the Caucasus" (In the film she played the role of the wife of Comrade Saakhov’s driver, who bitterly tells the hero Yuri Nikulin about local customs - bride kidnapping.)

And then the couple had a son, Vazgen, and a daughter, Nune. Frunzik idolized children and showered them with toys, which, by the way, he also loved.
“He was interested in everything,” said Albert Mkrtchyan, “how, for example, toy pigeons work, which fly into the sky and then return to your hands.” Frunzik took them apart, trying to understand the mechanism. And, of course, then I couldn’t put it back together.

Over the years, oddities began to appear in the behavior of Mkrtchyan’s wife. Donara tried not to let her husband go one step further. She became pathologically jealous and made terrible scenes of jealousy for her husband. Friends advised Frunzik to show her to a psychiatrist, who made a disappointing diagnosis - schizophrenia. After treatment in Armenia, he moved his wife to one of the French psychiatric clinics. But all efforts were in vain, Donara died. Frunzik started drinking.

When he was 54, he married again. His chosen one was the daughter of the chairman of the Writers' Union of Armenia Tamara Oganesyan- a prominent girl, 25 years younger than Mkrtchyan.

According to the recollections of friends, when someone asked him what kind of marriage you had, the actor jokingly replied: “Chaplin actually got married eight times. Am I worse?
Unfortunately, this marriage did not make Mkrtchyan’s life happier (Tamara resembled her former wife in character and temperament), and it soon broke up.
Frunzik, who was always among people, now fell in love with loneliness.

Once he was asked why he walked the streets at night alone, Frunzik was surprised: “Why alone? Cats are walking, dogs are walking. So I’m not alone,” his younger brother recalled. - He was an amazingly subtle and kind person. Even too kind. Everyone had complaints against him, but he had none against anyone. Frunzik was a real people's deputy, unofficial, of course. Helped thousands of people. Nobody could refuse him...

Children also did not become a joy for Frunzik. After marriage, the actor's daughter Nune moved to Argentina. And Vazgen’s son, like his mother, began to experience strange things. Frunzik took him to the best psychiatrists, but they all gave his son the same diagnosis as his wife. Alas, schizophrenia is inherited - it is impossible to get rid of it.

Death Wish

In recent years, Frunzik has refused film roles. “At my age they don’t play anymore,” he noted bitterly. He dreamed of his own theater and spent all his energy on its creation. However, he did not have time to fully enjoy his brainchild...

We sat and talked about art. Then I put him to bed and went home for a few hours. It was five in the evening. When I got home, I immediately started calling Frunzika - I had some kind of bad feeling. Frunzik's phone was faulty. And at seven in the evening they called me and said that he was no longer there. He became ill, and the ambulance could no longer do anything. Heart attack...

Frunzik Mkrtchyan was 63 years old...

He wished for death, he yearned for it, he dreamed about it, cruelly extinguishing his life instincts, said his younger brother. - It was not time that destroyed him, nor his addiction to wine and tobacco... No, he deliberately walked towards his death, not having the strength to survive the illness of his son and wife - a huge family grief.

He was buried under New Year, December 31, at the Pantheon of Heroes of the Armenian Spirit in Yerevan.
Why did the brilliant actor have to endure so many trials and tribulations? What is it - fate hanging over his fate, or payment for incredible talent?

Frunzik's daughter Nune died five years after her father's death, then his son Vazgen died. And two years ago his younger brother Albert, who before last day was artistic director Mher (Frunzik) Mkrtchyan Theater...

Dmitry Sergeev

- July 4, 1930, Leninakan - December 29, 1993, Yerevan) - famous Soviet theater and film actor, theater director. People's Artist of the USSR (1984)." />

Frunze (Frunzik, Mher) Mushegovich Mkrtchyan(hy Ֆրունզիկ (Մհեր) Մուշեղի Մկրտչյան; July 4, 1930, Leninakan - December 29, 1993, Yerevan) - a famous Soviet theater and film actor, theater director. People's Artist of the USSR (1984). Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1978).

Biography

• Since 1945 - assistant projectionist at the textile factory club in the city of Leninakan, in his free time he attends rehearsals of an amateur theater.
• Since 1947 - Leninakan Theater named after. Mravyan.
• 1951-1956 - studied at the Yerevan Theater and Art Institute.
• 1956 - accepted into the troupe of the Academic Theater named after Sundukyan in Yerevan. In parallel with his studies, he begins acting in films. The first film with his participation (“In Search of the Addressee”) was released in 1955.

Family

• Father - Mushegh Mkrtchyan (1910-1961) timekeeper.
• Mother - Sanam Mkrtchyan (1911-1970) dishwasher in the factory canteen.
• Brother - Albert (born 1937) director, screenwriter.
• Sisters - Ruzanna Mkrtchyan (b. 1943), Clara (1934-2003).
• His first love is Juliet, whom he never married because her family objected and she was married off to someone else.
• First wife - Donara (1941-2011), mother of his children, known in Russia as his wife Dzhabrailova in "Prisoner of the Caucasus". Theater actress Sundukyan. She suffered from a severe hereditary mental illness. She was hospitalized in France. She was also in a psychiatric hospital in the city of Yerevan. She spent the last 25 years of her life in the Sevan psychiatric hospital.
  • The son, Vazgen (also called Vaag), suffered from a hereditary mental illness that was passed on to him from his mother, and died after the death of his father, in 2003, at the age of 33.
  • Daughter Nune (Nina) died in a car accident in Argentina in 1988 (she was 39 years old). (according to other sources, in particular - brother Frunzik, died in the postoperative period (cervical cancer) from blockage by a blood clot. Source - http://akter.kulichki.net/se/mkrtchan.htm)
• The second wife is Tamara, an actress, the daughter of the chairman of the Writers' Union of Armenia, Hrachya Hovhannisyan.
• Granddaughter (from daughter) - Gayane, lives in Argentina.

Personal life

Mkrtchyan's first wife, Donara Pilosyan, suffered from mental illness and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Mkrtchyan became a single father with two small children. His son inherited his mother’s mental illness, which later led Mkrtchyan to depression and alcohol abuse. In 1993, he died in his apartment in Yerevan. Thousands of people came to the funeral; a funeral column with Mkrtchyan’s body passed along the central street of the city. He was buried in the Pantheon of Heroes of the Armenian Spirit in Yerevan.