Talgat Nigmatulin: biography, family and education, acting career, life in a sect, cause of death

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

Nigmatulin Talgat Kadyrovich is a famous Soviet actor. He became famous not only for his roles in popular Soviet films, but also for his death as a result of joining a sect. The controversy and conjecture surrounding his death has not subsided so far.

Place and date of birth

Talgat Nigmatulin was born on March 5, 1949. His mother was an Uzbek by nationality, and his father was a Tatar. As a child, he lived in the city of Kyzyl-Kiya, but it is still unknown whether he was born there or moved with his family from Tashkent. The actor himself insisted on the latest version.

Talgat Nigmatulin's biography was rich in difficulties at the beginning of the boy's life. His father, who worked as a miner, died early, and it was difficult for his mother to raise two sons. Talgat tried to earn money on his own. At a young age, he got a job as an assistant in factories and workshops, but despite all the efforts, the work of his mother as a school director and the boy's feasible work, he had to end up in an orphanage due to family poverty.

Growing Up

The difficult young life of Talgat Nigmatulin made the boy withdrawn and shy. Hehe was often ill, spoke Russian poorly, his appearance was reflected in the consequences of rickets suffered in early childhood. Bow-legged and weak, he did not find a common language with his peers and could not play active games, as they could result in serious injuries for him.

The turning point came when a girl refused to dance with him. Offended, tired of crying, Talgat Nigmatulin promised himself to change. He took up ballroom dancing, sports and martial arts. Changing outwardly, he did not forget about the inner world, he read a lot and mastered the Russian language. In the latter, he was helped by rewriting two volumes of "War and Peace" by hand. Thanks to his diligence, Talgat learned to speak correctly, beautifully and literary.

Admission to college

Talgat Nigmatulin's next goal was to enter the Institute of Cinematography. At the end of school, he went to enter Moscow, but at first he was forced to fail. Then he began to study at the circus school and at the same time received a category in wrestling, becoming the champion of Uzbekistan. At the USSR Championship, he took sixth place.

Athletic, agile, talented, with a memorable appearance, which can be clearly seen in the photo, Talgat Nigmatulin did not go unnoticed in the Mosfilm film concern, and at the age of 18 he got his first role in the feature film "The Ballad of the Commissar".

However, this luck did not turn out well for him. The actor played a scoundrel, and he succeeded so well that in the future he was seen only in the roles of scoundrels. This is absolutely notcorresponded to his hopes for the future, but Talgat entered VGIK and graduated in 1971.

Further creativity

The following films by Talgat Nigmatulin after "The Ballad of the Commissar" were shot by the Uzbekfilm studio. In addition to his acting career, he was also engaged in other creative activities, namely writing stories and poems. This hobby was so close to him that he spent almost all his free time writing compositions.

A talented person is talented in everything, and some of his works were published, preparations were underway for the publication of the first book of prose. His poems also found application, one of them formed the basis of the famous song "Russian Birches".

Honored Screenwriter and Professor of VGIK Odelsha Alexandrovich Agishev appreciated the talent and diligence of Talgat Nigmatulin and advised him to enter the course of screenwriters and directors, which was recruited by the legendary Soviet and Lithuanian film director and playwright Vytautas Zhalakyavichyus. The actor followed the advice and graduated from the courses in 1978. Later on, he often expressed his gratitude to the director in interviews.

Most famous roles

As Talgat gained experience in acting, his roles became more significant. He developed good relations with other workers in the film industry, and soon he got the chance to play a role in the first Soviet action film called Pirates of the 20th Century. Talgat and his friend Nikolai Eremenko gave their all on the set. They performed all the tricks on their own, without shifting them to the shoulders of understudies andstuntmen, received injuries that reminded of themselves even after a few years.

But the released picture was a huge success. For 10 years, 120 million viewers watched it, 90 million of them saw the tape in the year of hire. To get to the action movie, the audience took turns, some went to see it many times. Nigmatulin became a karate star for children.

In subsequent films, Talgat Nigmatulin played both main and secondary roles. Regardless of this, he tried to make the image of his character convincing and voluminous.

So, he reincarnated as the captain of the reconnaissance schooner "Kiyoshi", which turned out to be a participant in a spy action, in the movie "The Right to Shoot". Played Injun Joe who committed murder in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He was a wanted criminal, nicknamed Merry, in the two-part film "State Border", a Japanese suicide bomber - in the film "Order: Cross the Border". He played the lead role of an orphan in the two-episode crime drama "Wolf Pit", and was the captain of the criminal investigation department in "Confrontation".

The actor's wife

The personal life in the biography of Talgat Nigmatulin is also rich. His first novel began while studying at the institute, where he met Irina Shevchuk as a young student. Their happiness was cloudless for about two years, after which a series of partings began. Dreamy Talgat stopped finding a common language with Irina, and they finally broke up before the endstudy. Now Shevchuk is the Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR and always warmly recalls her great romance. She believes that a difficult relationship helped her play the role of Rita Osyanina in the film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" and better feel her tragic fate.

Obviously, the biography and personal life of Talgat Nigmatulin was associated with talented people like him. His first wife after graduation was the singer and music teacher Larisa Kandalova. The future spouses met in Tashkent visiting mutual friends. Actor Talgat Nigmatulin was then already quite famous for the role of Ismail in the western "The Seventh Bullet". The young man impressed Larisa, they started dating, then got married, and in 1976 their daughter Ursula was born.

However, after a while, Larisa felt that her amorous husband was not ready for marriage, and the family broke up. Nigmatulin began to live with an 18-year-old girl whom he met while still married. Khalim Khasanov's new love endured the difficult nature of her husband. She forgave his whims when, on a winter night, due to a slammed door, in order to get into the apartment, she had to climb an icy drainpipe, since Talgat was afraid to do this. It was with this woman, who loved him for his openness and goodwill, that the actor lived the longest, in 1980 their son Said was born, but after 7 years their unofficial relationship still ended. Halima considered that the parting happened at the insistence of the "spiritual brothers" from the sect, which he had already fallen into by that timeTalgat.

Meanwhile, a new woman entered Talgat Nigmatulin's personal life, film actress Venera Ibragimova, with whom they worked together on the set of "Provincial Romance". When they got married, Venera, whose real name is Cholpan, was only 19 years old, she was 14 years younger than Talgat. However, the man proposed to her beautifully and boldly, arriving for her in a Moskvich full of flowers.

The couple lived happily, although they rarely saw each other, in between filming. Venus became the mother of the youngest of the children of Talgat Nigmatulin. The couple named their daughter Linda, born in 1983, in honor of two celebrities at once - the wife of Bruce Lee, whom Talgat admired, and Linda McCartney, a member of the Wings group, whose fan was Venus.

Joining a sect

The terrible death of Talgat Nigmatulin was preceded by his entry into the sect in the early 1980s. It was founded by 30-year-old Abay Borubaev, who pretends to be a scientist, and 50-year-old healer and psychic Mirza Kymbatbaev. The latter was a very colorful character, walked the streets with a staff, was dressed in a cap and a long robe with beads, badges, bells and rings. Before meeting with Abai, he asked for alms.

It is now known that they were just swindlers and charlatans, and in the 70s pilgrims went to them, their imaginary abilities were studied in scientific books. In addition, the religious group was very popular among creative people, it included actors, journalists, writers and artists.

The direction of the sect resembled something between the school of Zen Buddhism and esotericism, its followers calledhis doctrine of the Fourth Way. Its founders deftly dodged uncomfortable questions. For example, when asked to Mirza to show the miracle of telekinesis and turn over the object with his eyes, he pushed it with his finger and laughed with the words "Isn't that right?".

There was a whole ceremony for joining a sect. The newcomers had to bathe naked in a certain font in Mirza's house. And men and women did it at the same time. Then it was necessary to undergo initiation and prove unquestioning obedience to spiritual teachers. To do this, the candidates put on sackcloth and went to beg. Everything collected was given to Mirza and Abai.

The sect had a peculiar approach to donations. They asked the adherents for money supposedly as a joke. But the threats betrayed a more serious approach to the matter. As a result, all sectarians contributed to the common cause, but this was considered voluntary contributions.

Rapprochement with Abay and Mirza

Talgat also went through all this. His relatives did not understand such a hobby, they considered him too self-sufficient for this. Perhaps the reason was the actor's craving for Eastern philosophy, one way or another, he joined a sect and became close friends with the people who were at its head.

Dreaming more of becoming a director than an actor, Talgat finally found the funds to produce the film "Echo" (another name for "Farewell"). The picture was positioned as a high-eastern psychological drama. The story told about a soldier who, after the war, was the only one who returned to his village. Learning that no one survived except him, he did not want to live in hisvillage.

Officially, the picture had a duration of only 10 minutes, although there is a version that it originally lasted at least an hour. The main roles in it were played by Borubaev and Kymbatbaev. The first was in the role of a soldier, the second played his father. Neither friends nor the film industry understood the film and received it rather coldly. Now the tape has been removed from everywhere, it is not possible to find it.

Cause of death

The sect was doing well until 1985, when some of its followers decided to renounce the teachings and leave the religious group, founding their own movement. Abay was extremely dissatisfied with this state of affairs, he decided to visit the recalcitrant and force them to get money for such a betrayal. To do this, he decided to take Nigmatulin with him, but Talgat did not want to take part in the crime, and they decided to punish him for this.

In the capital of Lithuania on the night of February 10, Nigmatulin ended up in the apartment of 33-year-old artist Kalinauskas, where five young people (most were 18-19 years old) beat him with fists and kicks so hard for 10 hours that the actor received incompatible with life injury to internal organs. Apparently, he did not resist the beating.

Talgat was still alive when his mutilated body with 119 injuries (22 of them on the head) was found in the bathroom. He died at noon on February 11 on the way to the hospital. The participants in the murder themselves called an ambulance, they tried to claim that they had found the actor beaten on the street, but fear and inconsistencies in the testimony quickly betrayed a lie.

The fate of criminals

The criminals did not escape punishment. Borubaev was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Some sources claim that at his trial, he stated that he committed the murder of a famous person in order to become famous. But many believe that even if these words were spoken, it was only under pressure. Abai was the son of powerful parents, and all roads and any career were open to him. In addition, it was alleged that he confessed to killing a man, but claimed that he did not want it. In any case, Borubaev ended up in prison and died there of tuberculosis. Although there is a version that Abai's influential parents released their son from prison and faked his death.

The second founder of the sect, Kymbatbaev, served 10 years and was released. He continued to engage in extrasensory perception and healing, again tried to lead the sect, gathering his students and recruiting new adherents, but soon died of cirrhosis of the liver.

Other vigilantes, among whom was the famous karate coach Vladimir Pestretsov, who fell into the sect after Mirza's hand eczema was cured, received prison sentences of less than 10 years. At the trial, they stated that Nigmatulin was their idol, and they raised a hand against him because they were in a state of hypnosis.

Funeral and remembrance

After the death of Talgat Nigmatulin, his body was cremated in Lithuania and buried in Uzbekistan. Many years have passed since then, but the memories of this man are still alive. Some superstitiously believe that the role in the film "Wolf Pit" predetermined the fate of Talgat Nigmatulin. Actor's gruesome deaththe hands of the leader of the sect is very reminiscent of the plot of the picture, where his character was killed by a mentor.

Some say that the actor converted to Orthodoxy shortly before his death. However, the tombstone does not depict a cross, but Muslim symbols.

In honor of the actor, one of the streets of his hometown was named after him, and almost 20 years after his death, Nikolai Glinsky made a film called "An Angel Came to You". The picture was dedicated to the personal biography of Talgat Nigmatulin and his talent. Uzbek and Russian actor Farhad Makhmudov played the main role.

In 1987, Leonid Slovin wrote a story in documents called "Obsession". It describes the murder of actor Sabir Insakov, but Talgat Nigmatulin's biography clearly emerges in the plot.

Investigative journalism

Even many years after the death of the actor, interest in his biography does not subside. There is one mystery in the circumstances of Nigmatulin's death. Many are tormented by the question of why the actor did not even try to protect his life, because he knew how to fight well. Moreover, when the police arrived in the middle of the night as a result of his screams, Talgat hid in the bathroom and sat quietly, thus not betraying the crime.

This riddle led journalists to a certain Arkady, one of the members of the sect and a direct student of Mirza. According to his version, the murder was unintentional, and only Talgat himself can be considered the culprit of death. Arkady made such conclusions after talking with the teacher and "spiritualbrothers".

From his words, the murder did not happen at all because Nigmatulin refused to participate in racketeering. In fact, the actor wanted to commit suicide and used members of the sect for this. He pissed off Abai Borubaev, misled him and literally forced him to attack himself.

Interestingly, within the framework of the teachings of the sect, beating a student by his teacher was something of a reward. After that, the person allegedly enlightened and embarked on the true path. Arkady considered that his teacher simply overdid it, raising a student. His cries of "Mom" and "Help" in the absence of resistance were taken as a joke, and the death of the actor became just an accident.

He justified not only the leaders of the sect, but also the rest of the killers. Allegedly, they perceived the whole situation as a brawl with a recognized master, and the lack of protection became for them a manifestation of the willpower of a karateka.

Consumer version

Later it turned out that there was another version of the murder, a household one. It was distributed among prosecutors. According to her, Nigmatulin was not going to refuse to participate in the attack on those who were going to break ties with the sect. What's more, in his rush to clear out, he missed his plane and had to use his movie star name to persuade airport workers to delay the flight.

Talgat had time for a brawl, it started in the apartment, but then moved to the street. At this time, the wife of one of the opponents of the sect grabbed Nigmatulin's hat and ran to distract the attackers from her husband. Since there wasFebruary, the actor wanted to pick up his thing and while running after it, the fight ended not in favor of Abai.

In the eyes of the founder of the sect, what happened looked like a betrayal. He did not believe in Nigmatulin's story, and because of the alcohol he had drunk and anger from failure, he decided to punish the student. So the order was given to beat the traitor. Talgat was shocked by what was happening and did not resist to show humility.

He was beaten with bare hands and feet, as they themselves considered it a punishment, but not a murder. Only Abay was wearing heavy boots, whose blow fell on the actor's temple, after which he could no longer resist, even if he wanted to.

Opinion of friends and relatives

Of course, the version of the members of the sect was ridiculous and even offensive to the relatives of the actor. Even if the murder was unintentional, it is difficult to consider Talgat guilty of it.

The everyday version also did not seem convincing to them, because friends could not believe that Nigmatulin could go into racketeering even under the influence of his "spiritual brothers".

Whatever the circumstances of what happened that winter night, the movie world lost a talented actor. But his memory lives on in the hearts of his loved ones, friends and viewers.