Galina Volchek is a Soviet and Russian theater director, actress and teacher, who in 1989 received the title of People's Artist of the USSR. IN theatrical environment she, for example, is called the “Iron Lady” - she is idolized and feared, respected and worshiped. Galina has done a lot in her life to raise culture to high level, for which she became a holder of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland.
Galina Volchek was born in the early 30s in Moscow, into a family that was directly related to the stage and cinema. Galina’s mother, Vera Maimina, is a Soviet film screenwriter, and her father, Boris Volchek, is a famous director and cameraman who shot Soviet film hits “Pyshka”, “Thirteen”, “Lenin in October” and others.
As a child, Galya loved reading, so she rarely free time The girls passed without their favorite book in their hands. Seeing his daughter’s interest, the father pushed Galina to enter the only Literary Institute in the Union named after. But it is unlikely that a child who has absorbed the life of an actor and director from the cradle would have chosen a different path. Galina entered the Moscow Art Theater School, where she studied until 1955.
Theater
The theatrical biography of Galina Volchek is full of significant events from the very beginning. A year after graduation, Galina Volchek, together with Liliya Tolmacheva, founded the new “Studio of Young Actors”, which will soon turn into the cult Sovremennik Theater.
And if in the late 50s Volchek appeared on stage as an actress, then in 1962 Galina Borisovna began her directorial career, which would go down in the history of Soviet and Russian art. Looking ahead, we note that in 10 years Galina will become the main director of the theater, and in the late 80s she will head the theater as artistic director.
In 1984, Galina Volchek plays Martha in the production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and this role becomes Volchik's last appearance in the theater as an actress. From this moment on, the artist focuses on her directorial career.
Volchek’s first directorial experience brings tremendous success. This was a production of William Gibson's play “Two on a Seesaw,” which has not left the Sovremennik stage for more than 30 seasons. Two more significant works director - " An ordinary story"based on the novel and the play "Three Comrades" based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque. The first of them brought Galina Volchek State Prize USSR, and the second in 1999 “raised the ears” of Moscow and created a real sensation.
Galina Volchek was the first Soviet director to break the cultural blockade between Soviet Union and the United States. She staged several performances of Russian classics in American theaters, including the famous Broadway, where a Russian troupe played for the first time since 1924. And these were not just performances “for show”. Volchek’s tours were awarded one of the most prestigious US national awards in the field drama theater- the Drama Desk Award, which for the first time in long history existence of this prize was awarded to a non-American theater.
The famous director shared her experience with the new generation, and taught mainly not in Russia, but abroad. For example, Galina Volchek recently conducted a course of lectures and practical classes at New York University.
Galina Volchek’s last production to date was William Gibson’s play “Two on a Swing” in 2015. This is the same work with which Volchek’s directorial career began. Fans see a mystical and cyclical meaning in this and note with sadness that the first work may be chosen by the director for production specifically in order to become the last.
Movies
Galina Volchek made her screen debut in 1957 in the film adaptation of the Spanish classic novel"Don Quixote", playing the role of the strong maid Maritornes. Then there were roles in the films “The Sinful Angel”, “A Bridge is Being Built”, “King Lear” and others.
Sometimes the actress appeared only in episodes, but she also made them bright and unforgettable. For example, in the tragicomedy “Beware of the Car,” she simply played a tape recorder buyer in a store, but managed to attract the attention of the audience in ten seconds.
In the fairy tales “About Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Little Mermaid”, Volchek has negative roles of the wolf mother and the sea witch, but in them the actress perfectly realized her own talent. The films “Autumn Marathon”, “Unicum” and “Tevye the Milkman” were also successful.
In 1996, the actress stopped acting in artistic paintings, but began to appear annually in documentary projects.
In the new millennium, Galina Volchek starred in a number of films dedicated to the actress’s colleagues: “The Life of Desdemona. ", "Unknown", ". Furious actor", "Three Loves", ". From hatred to love", ". A man with a past" and others.
The actress also starred in multi-part documentary projects “To Be Remembered”, “Idols” and “Film About a Film”, where she also talked about her colleagues, and not about herself. So far only books have been written about Galina Borisovna herself: “Galina Volchek. In the absurd and tragic mirror" by Gleb Skorokhodov, "Galina Volchek. As a rule, outside the rules" and "Galina Volchek. By itself” by Marina Raikina.
Galina Volchek tried herself in cinema and as a director. Is it true, for a long time she just filmed her best theatrical performances“Ordinary story”, “Hurry to do good”, “ The Cherry Orchard" and many others. But she also had experience filming original scripts, for example, the heavy psychological dramas “Echelon” and “Steep Route”.
Galina Volchek on the set of the series " Mysterious passion" In 2015, Galina Volchek suddenly returned to television screens as an actress in a feature series. The actress played herself in the drama “Mysterious Passion,” a film adaptation of the novel of the same name. The series talks about real creative people of the last century, which, for the sake of artistic storytelling, bear fictitious but easily decipherable names.
Personal life
Officially, Galina Volchek was married twice. The first husband of the actress - famous actor Evgeny Evstigneev, with whom she lived for 9 years and gave birth to a son. The son of Volchek and Evstigneev also could not leave the world of cinema and became a director. The child did not save the acting marriage; Volchek and Evstigneev separated.
Volchek claims that she was the initiator of the divorce from Evgeniy Alexandrovich. Despite subsequent relationships, the actress did not have any more children; her son from Evstigneev remained only child Galina Volchek.
Galina's second husband is the Soviet scientist Mark Abelev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, who taught at the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering. Their union also did not last long, and the couple divorced.
Galina Volchek’s third marriage was civil and lasted almost 10 years, but the director prefers not to remember this period. In her own words, she “had two husbands, several affairs and one misunderstanding.” After this relationship, she did not try to start a family anymore, considering that it was impossible to give herself completely theatrical activities and at the same time be a happy family man.
Galina Volchek’s main hobby, as the director likes to say, is “making stars.” Of course, you can’t argue that thanks to Galina Borisovna, the world learned about a huge number of artists. But if we talk about hobbies, it is worth noting that Volchek is a good fashion designer and has created a number of memorable outfits.
In 1995, Galina Volchek agreed to nominate her own candidacy for elections to the State Duma and entered the federal list of the electoral association “All-Russian socio-political movement “Our Home is Russia”.
For four years, the director sat in the State Duma and worked as a member of the Culture Committee, but in 1999, by her own decision, she left the walls of parliament.
Galina Volchek now
Recently, the 83-year-old star’s health has begun to fail. The director often ends up in hospitals, last time Galina Volchek was hospitalized on March 21, 2016 with suspected pneumonia. After Galina Borisovna’s health condition stabilized, the director returned home.
Today Galina Volchek moves to wheelchair, but details about the director’s health have not been disclosed. The press has not come to a consensus on this matter: some claim that Galina Borisovna is confined to a wheelchair and no longer walks, others adhere to the optimistic theory that the director is simply trying not to burden himself and give the body rest.
At the same time, a wheelchair does not prevent Galina Volchek from organizing creative evenings, meeting with friends and attending social events.
On April 28, 2017, Galina Volchek received the title of Hero of Labor Russian Federation with the wording “for special labor services to the state and people.” Also in 2017, Galina Borisovna celebrated a double theatrical anniversary: 60 years of working at Sovremennik, 45 of them as chief director.
Filmography
- 1970 - “King Lear”
- 1975 - “Waves of the Black Sea”
- 1977 - “About Little Red Riding Hood”
- 1979 - “Autumn Marathon”
- 1983 - “Unicum”
- 1983 - “Black Castle Olshansky”
- 1985 - “Tevye the Milkman”
- 1992 - “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
- 2008 - “Contemporary”
- 2010 - “Catherine III”
- 2015 – “Secret Passion”
Putin came to Sovremennik to congratulate Galina Volchek on her anniversary.
Today, December 19, theater and film legend Galina Volchek celebrates her 85th birthday, 60 of which she gave to her beloved Sovremennik Theater. Among his many friends and acquaintances, Russian President Vladimir Putin stopped by to personally congratulate Volchek on his anniversary.
The Russian leader arrived at the historical theater building on Chistoprudny Boulevard, which is opening after reconstruction. Volchek answered the president that there was no need for congratulations, but he did not agree with her.
“It’s definitely necessary, because it’s an opportunity intkbbach and sum up some results, and say words of gratitude to you for your contribution and to national culture, and to the world,” the president said, handing her a bouquet of flowers, a painting and a book.
Putin also asked if there were any comments regarding the reconstruction of the building. The artistic director noted that there are no comments so far, but first we need to move and get comfortable. Volchek also invited Putin to watch the performance at Sovremennik.
Let us note that today in the play “Two on a Swing” at the Sovremennik Theater, Kirill Safonov plays with Kristina Orbakaite, who replaced Chulpan Khamatova. As Volchek shared, she was dumbfounded by the behavior of the actress, because of which the play, which was drawing full houses, almost closed, writes Kommersant.
The thing is that some time ago Chulpan approached Volchek and said that “trouble had happened” to her and she was temporarily unable to continue working in the theater for medical reasons for at least six months. At the same time, she vowed not to film anywhere, asking permission only to concert activities in order to somehow survive.
“But not even a month had passed since I found out that Chulpan was rehearsing in a theater in Moscow, then I found out that she was rehearsing in Riga at the same time, and somewhere else...” said Volchek.
The director was simply speechless from such deceit on the part of the famous actress.
“It didn’t just offend or hurt me. I realized that I had to say goodbye to this performance, that’s all. Then I thought: “No, I don’t have the right, since the audience believed so and went like that... And Kirill... Well, how in general... No, this is impossible." But who will play? I understood that replacing Chulpan Khamatova is not just difficult, that it is very difficult..." concluded Volchek.
It is noteworthy that, unexpectedly for everyone, the performer showed such strong acting talent that Galina Borisovna herself, who had seen everything on stage, was moved to tears.
“This was the first time in my theater... Suddenly I burst into tears and couldn’t stop,” admitted Volchek.
The Moscow Sovremennik Theater is considered one of the best in Russia. Thanks to the stars cast and of course, artistic director, to whom Lately work activity doesn't come easy. Why Galina Volchek in wheelchair and how does she manage to cope with her responsibilities?
People who have noticed drastic changes, like appearance actress and artistic director, and her lifestyle.
Galina Volchek's health status
Photo: rosenberg_david
In fact, there is no need to panic; the woman feels quite self-sufficient. There are many health problems, but at her advanced age this is normal. On December 19, the artist turned 85 years old. She managed to outlive the old-timers of Sovremennik, among whom we remember Oleg Efremov, Nina Doroshina, Oleg Tabakov... Moreover, Galina Borisovna is older than all those who started with her acting career many years ago: Valentin Gaft, Liya Akhedzhakova, Marina Neelova...
This article will talk about famous actress Soviet and Russian cinema, director and teacher - Galina Volchek. During her long life she was able to become “ People's Artist THE USSR". She received the Order of Merit for the Fatherland for her efforts. She has achieved everything in her life herself and is an example to follow. He has a son who admired his mother from an early age and decided to follow in Galina’s footsteps. The life of this wonderful woman is quite busy, so let's move on to detailed analysis biographies.
Height, weight, age. How old is Galina Volchek
Although the actress is already quite an old woman, everyone who is interested in her wants to know everything before the smallest details, including height, weight, age. How old is Galina Volchek, the question arises, because our heroine looks pretty good from the photographs. On this moment The actress is 83 years old. Weight is 65 kilograms, and height is 163 centimeters. Galina was born under the star of Sagittarius in the year of the Rooster. Unfortunately, the woman is now ill and therefore her weight is rapidly decreasing. But fans and loved ones hope for Volchek’s recovery.
Biography and personal life of Galina Volchyok
Biography and personal life Galina Volchek, the most interesting point in the life of an actress. She was born in winter, December 19, 1933 in the capital of Russia. In a family of film scriptwriters and directors. That's why future star, could not go to study in another profession.
She spent her entire childhood reading books. From an early age, Galina enjoyed sitting all day long and getting into the lives of book characters.
In 1955, she graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School, after which she went to work in the theater. She and her colleagues in the workshop, such as Oleg Efremov, Evgeny Evstigneev and others, create the “Studio of Young Actors”, after some time this project will turn into famous theater"Contemporary".
Filmography: films starring Galina Volchyok
In 1962, our heroine decides to try herself as a director and she does it quite well. She received her main success from the play “Two on a Swing,” which was performed on the theater stage more than 30 times. Other works, such as “Three Comrades” and “An Ordinary Story,” also brought considerable success to Galina. She also conquered the United States with her performances, for which she was awarded the Drama Desk Award.
In addition to the theater, the actress also acted in films and has a fairly extensive filmography to her credit. Here are a few of the films where she played direct roles: “Don Quixote” (1957), “Autumn Marathon”, “The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood” and others. She also managed to try herself as a film director, which turned out quite well.
In total, Volchyok was engaged twice in her life. Her first marriage was with her work partner Evgeny Evstigneev, to whom she gave birth to a son. The second marriage was with the scientist Mark Abeleyev, but they also had to separate.
Family and children of Galina Volchek
The family and children of Galina Volchyok are an accessible topic for everyone to read. If you don’t yet know what family our heroine was born into, we’ll tell you. The girl's father was a certain Boris Volchek, he was a famous director at that time, as well as a cameraman. Mother, Vera Maimina, was a film screenwriter. And as you might guess, Galina had no choice; she would have had to follow in her parents’ footsteps anyway. The most important thing is that even my grandfather was closely connected with cinema.
Children for Volchyok are the flowers of life. She loves her son Denis very much. He became like his mother famous person. Works as a film director and producer. Lives with his beloved Ekaterina.
Son of Galina Volchek - Denis
Galina Volchek’s son, Denis, like his mother, followed in the footsteps of his parents. The young man was born on October 29, 1961. From an early age I dreamed of becoming known as my mother. And in 1983, he graduated educational institution, operator by profession. Immediately after this, he takes part in the filming of the film. After a short period of time, he was awarded the USSR State Prize. Throughout his career, he has taken part in many projects, including starring in some films. Was engaged twice. Now he often visits his mother, due to her deteriorating health.
Galina Volchek's ex-husband - Evgeny Evstigneev
Ex-husband Galina Volchek - Evgeny Evstigneev, is People's Artist of the USSR. He was born back in 1926 on an autumn day. The parents were not connected with the stage. Initially, little Zhenya did not dream of a theater; he had to work at a factory. But the only difference from his peers was that he knew how to play many musical instruments. In 1946, he went to study at drama school.
He met our heroine on stage, after which he proposed “his hand and his heart” to her. After the wedding, the actress gave birth to his son. But the marriage broke up 9 years later. Unfortunately, the man died in 1992.
Galina Volchek's ex-husband - Mark Abeleyev
Galina Volchek's ex-husband is Mark Abeleyev, a successful Soviet professor. Born February 26, 1935. Since his father was a famous scientist, the boy wanted to follow in his parents’ footsteps since childhood. During his life he worked on many monographs. Received, in 1966, the State Prize of the USSR. Now he works as director at the Center for Innovative Sciences.
The marriage between Galina and Mark did not last long; they soon separated. The couple never had children. And now Mark has no relationship with anyone.
At the memorial service for Nina Doroshina, artistic director of the Sovremennik Theater Galina Volchek was brought in a wheelchair. Black glasses and mourning scarf added sorrow to the actress and director who was already far from flourishing. She seemed exhausted and sick.
Galina Borisovna will celebrate her 85th birthday this year. She is older than all the leading artists of Sovremennik - Liya Akhedzhakova, Valentin Gaft, Marina Neelova. And she outlived everyone with whom she began to build Sovremennik - Nina Doroshina, Oleg Tabakov, Oleg Efremov. But over the years it becomes more and more difficult for her to lead, stage performances, stay in line...
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At Galina Volchek's big problems with health. Many, seeing her for the first time in a wheelchair, even whispered that the famous director was paralyzed. In fact, she has serious problems with the spine - intervertebral hernia. Volchek is a lady with curves, so the weight of her body puts pressure on the intervertebral discs, creating unbearable pain and making it difficult to move without support.
Moreover, since 2014, the disease, as they say in the theater, has been progressing.
