Evgeny Samoilov is a hero for all time

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

His first appearance on the big screen was in the musical melodrama Chance Encounter. He played Igor Savchenko. It was 1936. Then there were many other interesting and varied roles. Grisha in Chance Encounter and Lebedev in Bright Path, Almagama in Sinegoria and Nikolai in Court of Honor, Khokhlov in To the Black Sea and Alexander Petrovich in Enchanted Desna. In his acting biography there were more than fifty films and series in which he not only embodied the characters, but lived their lives. That's all he is, Evgeny Samoilov, one of the most talented actors of the Soviet cinema of the twentieth century.

Childhood

The future People's Artist of the USSR was born in St. Petersburg on April 16, 1912 in a working class family. His father - Valerian Savvich - worked all his life at the Putilov factory, having come there as a very young boy and having gone a long way from a laborer to a cannon shop foreman. His mother, Anna Pavlovna, ran the household. My father made good money, so he managed to buy a three-roomapartment in a house on the Moscow-Narva outpost. It was here that little Zhenya spent his childhood.

Unfortunately, his parents died of starvation during the long blockade of Leningrad.

Happy time

The house of the Samoilov family was not far from Ekateringof. Zhenya really liked to walk in this park. He was delighted with the palace and ponds of the era of Peter I.

Yevgeny Samoilov always remembered his childhood years as the happiest and most wonderful time in his life. Parents loved each other and their children, they were very caring and kind. And in their home they managed to create an ideal atmosphere of mutual understanding and trust of one family member to the rest. Although Samoilov Sr. was a simple worker, he was fond of art and literature. Very often he arranged home gatherings at a table under a lampshade and read to Zhenya and his brother Gogol, Pushkin, Turgenev and other classics of Russian literature.

Leisure

It was the parents who created the happy years of childhood and youth for the children. Dad was a fairly principled person, but not at all strict. Mom was very kind and loving. Every day she was the guardian angel of a friendly family. Parents raised their children in such a way that spiritual interests were always higher for them than material prosperity. Interesting leisure was always invented by dad, who was a man of various hobbies. It was thanks to him that Evgeny Samoilov grew up to be a very well-read person, well versed in art. Very often Zhenya visited the Alexandrinsky Theater andBDT. But he was much more interested in painting. This, apparently, manifested parental genes. Yevgeny Samoilov spent almost all his free time in the halls of the Hermitage and the Russian Museum. His biography is full of such facts: he preferred Wanderers to all other artists and cherished the dream of entering the Academy of Arts.

The beginning of the theatrical journey

His comrade, who dreamed of the stage, somehow persuaded Samoilov to go to an audition at an art studio on Liteiny, so that he would be the so-called support group. Not expecting this, Eugene found his name on the list of those accepted. Now in the evenings he went to classes at the acting studio.

After graduating from the Polytechnic in 1930, he was accepted into the troupe of the Theater of Acting in Leningrad under the direction of Leonid Vivian.

In the same period, a young man meets a girl who became the meaning of his whole life. So, the wife of Evgeny Samoilov is Zinaida Levina. A couple of years after the wedding, in 1934, the couple had a daughter, Tatyana (the future famous actress, Veronika in the film The Cranes Are Flying), and in 1945, their son Alexei was born, who devoted himself to the stage of Sovremennik and the Maly Theater. Spouses in love, harmony and understanding have lived together for 62 years.

Thanks to Zinaida Samoilov gets to see Vsevolod Meyerhold, who accepted him into the GomTim troupe. In this theater, where he worked until 1938, Evgeny played a lot of interesting roles: Grishka Otrepiev, Ernani, Chatsky …

Hismovie masterpieces

Thanks to the same Meyerhold, Samoilov's film career began. The debut film was "Chance meeting", in which Evgeny Samoilov played the main role of Grigory Rybin. The hero meets a girl who has excellent athletic abilities, he trains her, they start a family. But when he finds out about the pregnancy, he turns from a loving husband into a scoundrel, to whom sports achievements are more precious than a baby.

In the same years, Evgeny Samoilov starred in the film "Tom Sawyer". The actor plays two roles of twin brothers in it.

After the release of the film "Chapaev", Alexander Dovzhenko was given the task of creating his Ukrainian version - about Shchors. Evgeniy Valerianovich turned out to be the only candidate, suitable at the right time. Despite the external dissimilarity, he managed to create the role of a fiery revolutionary, an experienced red commander with great faith in a good future. Thanks to these shootings, the actor learned to ride a horse and learned the Ukrainian language pretty well.

After this film, offers just rained down on Samoilov. He played Kirill Zhdarkin, Alexei Lebedev. And just before the war, the last chord was heard in the filming of the musical comedy "Hearts of Four". It was a picture of hilarious vaudeville misunderstandings. Evgeny Samoilov, whose biography has now begun to replenish with new and interesting roles at an unimaginable pace, embodied the character of Pyotr Kolchin on the screen. It appeared on the screens only 4 years later, in 1945. The audience received it with great sympathy.

He also had a unique picture - "At six o'clock in the evening after the war", where Samoilov played the role of Vasya Kudryashov. It was filmed in 1944, but the director Ivan Pyriev knew with some sixth sense that the Victory Day, which the main characters were going to meet, would be in May, in the spring. And again it was a success!

Practically all the heroes of Samoilov had a strong, open character. He often played officers with patriotism, bravery, daring, high intelligence. Although he had several roles that were opposite to those already familiar, for example, university teacher Konstantin Khokhlov from the comedy To the Black Sea.

A little later there were other interesting characters - Colonel Alexander Petrovich, French General Pierre Cambron.

He did not forget the theater either. From 1968 until the end of his life, Samoilov worked at the Maly Theater, where he was also not offended by interesting roles: Tit Vatutin, scientist Bramin, Major Vasin, Ignat Gordeev and others. Some performances have been filmed. And he practically stopped acting in films.

The great actor completed his earthly journey on February 17, 2006.