Nikolai Cherkasov, actor: biography, personal life, films, work in the theater

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

Nikolai Cherkasov, actor, People's Artist of the Soviet Union, laureate of the Lenin and Stalin Prizes, the idol of millions of admirers of his cinematic talent, spent more than half of his life in the troupe of the Academic Theater. Pushkin.

Childhood and youth of the great artist

Cherkasov Nikolai Konstantinovich was born on July 27, 1903 in the northern capital of Russia, in a working-class family of railway station employees Konstantin Alexandrovich and Anna Andrianovna Cherkasov. The whole further life of Nikolai Konstantinovich was connected with the city on the Neva. Here he grew up, studied, met his first love and stepped on the stage of the Mariinsky Opera House for the first time.

After the replenishment of the family, the birth of his brother Kostya, the family of Nikolai Cherkasov in 1909 moved to a spacious four-room apartment on Krasnoarmeiskaya Street. From childhood, Nikolai was passionate about music. This love was passed on to him by his mother, who loved to play music in the evenings in the family circle. Even as a teenager, Cherkasov Nikolai Konstantinovich metthe work of F. I. Chaliapin, who made an unforgettable impression on the young man.

First creative steps

The first performance seen in the life of the future master of theater and cinema - "Ruslan and Lyudmila" performed by the actors of the Mariinsky Theater, it happened in 1912. Then the student of the St. Petersburg gymnasium No. 10 had not yet thought about his future profession. It all happened in the summer of 1917, when Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin performed in Pavlovsk. The image of Boris Godunov, performed by the great master of Russian opera art, was strongly imprinted in the mind of a fourteen-year-old youth. Since then, young Cherkasov has not missed a single opera premiere by Russia's great bass.

Choice of profession

After graduating from a labor school in revolutionary Petrograd, Nikolai Cherkasov submits documents to the local military medical academy, but in his heart the young man deeply doubts his choice of the future profession of a military doctor. In 1919, N. K. Cherkasov makes an important decision in his life and radically changes his future. From now on, Nikolai Cherkasov is an actor in the Mime Studio under the direction of A. Clark. The talent of the young actor was immediately noticed, and after several months of work in the studio, he was invited to the professional stage of the Petrograd Academic Opera and Ballet Theater as an extra.

Ballet dancer

Nikolai Cherkasov, actor of the Mariinsky Theatre, participates in all theatrical productions, while mastering ballroom dancing in the creativelaboratories of the Art Institute. Since 1920, N. K. Cherkasov has been playing mimic roles in classical ballet productions of the theater, which is highly noted by the capital's choreographers. Roles of Nikolai Cherkasov:

• brahmin in the play "La Bayadère";
• evil genius in the theatrical production of "Swan Lake";
• Don Quixote in the ballet of the same name by Ludwig Minkus;
• in "Doll Fairy" the actor performed a Negro dance.

However, the final recognition of the talented young actor came after the play "Twelfth Night" based on the comedy of the great William Shakespeare. Theater critics leave flattering reviews of the talent of N. K. Cherkasov. He is noticed by the entire creative elite of Petrograd.

Student of theatrical high school

In the autumn of 1923, Nikolai Cherkasov joins the student fraternity of the city on the Neva, the actor's biography is replenished with another important event. From now on, N. K. Cherkasov is a student of the drama department of the Petrograd Institute of Performing Arts. "Dance trio" - this is how the students called their parody number. The future stars of Soviet cinema - Boris Chirkov, who played the role of the silent film comedian Patashon in a trio, Nikolai Cherkasov, who played the thin and pensive melancholic Pat from the Danish comic duo Pat and Patashon, and Pyotr Berezov, who got the role of Charlie Chaplin - had a tremendous success with spectators. The student trio was invited to various events and club parties. And soon the young people "lit up" on the professional stage, playing several times a day on various theater stages. Petrograd and Moscow.

At one of these performances, Nina Weybrecht, a student of the Faculty of History, turned her attention to the lanky actor. A few days later, speaking in the city recreation garden, Nikolai Cherkasov, the actor of the Dance Trio, meets a girl. Some time later, in 1930, the young couple will get married, and a year later a daughter, Victoria, will be born in the family, who is destined to live 11 years.

Finding a creative role

The Leningrad Theater for Young Spectators (TYuZ), where Nikolai Konstantinovich was invited after graduation from the theater school, becomes the first test of professional suitability. However, the young actor passed this test with honor. It was while working at the Youth Theater that N. K. Cherkasov first got acquainted with cinema. Small episodic roles that Nikolai Cherkasov receives, films that significantly enriched him creatively, allowed the actor to make a new round in his creative career. In the spring of 1929, the eccentric actor was invited to the Moscow Music Hall Theater. The reason for this decision is material interest. In the theater of the young spectator, wages were half as much as in the Music Hall. However, the dramatic roles in the theater and cinema attracted the actor more than the material side.

In the spring of 1931, Nikolai Konstantinovich moved to the Leningrad Drama Theater, where he participated in staged plays by classical and contemporary authors. Soon the actor is invited to the troupe of the Academic Drama Theater. Pushkin, where Nikolai Cherkasovwill serve until the last days of his life.

"Captain Grant's Children" - 1936 film

After minor cinematic roles in 1935, director Vladimir Vainshtok invites Nikolai Cherkasov to star in an adventure film based on the work of Jules Verne. Professor Jacques Paganel is a new job in the cinema of a talented actor. Nikolai Cherkasov gladly accepted the offer of the eminent director, who had previously made seven films. In the future, Vladimir Petrovich Weinstock will be known as a director and screenwriter of cult films:

• Captain Grant's Children, 1936 film.
• "Treasure Island", released in 1937.
• Dead Season Detective Feature Film (1968).
• Mission in Kabul (1970), Headless Horseman (1972), collaborations with screenwriter Pavel Finn.

The shooting of the film "Children of Captain Grant" took place in various regions of the country. The Chegem Gorge, the Sueazsu gorge, the peaks and slopes of Tichtingen and Bashil, the waterfalls of the Tvibersky Pass - these are the places visited by Jacques Paganel (Nikolai Cherkasov) and which replaced the Cordillera of North and South America.

Popular popularity

The film was a huge success with the audience, after which offers from eminent directors rained down on Nikolai Cherkasov. Everyone offered the actor movie roles, and one did not resemble the other. However, the choice of the artist fell on the historical film "Peter the Great", where Nikolai Konstantinovich played the role of Tsarevich Alexei, heir to the royal throne. Following the historical and biographic althe film directed by V. M. Petrov, a new film “Deputy of the B altic” is released on the screens of the country, in which Nikolai Cherkasov, being a 35-year-old man, played the role of an elderly professor Polezhaev, the prototype of the great Russian scientist Kliment Timiryazev. The film by Alexander Zarkhi was highly appreciated by the government of the country and awarded the Stalin Prize. Not only the director of the picture receives a high award. The title of Honored Artist of Russia is also given to the lead actor Nikolai Cherkasov.

Films with the participation of the actor in the pre-war country inspired Soviet viewers to new labor exploits and instilled in them love for the Motherland. An example would be the next big role of the public's favorite, this is Alexander Nevsky. The film of the same name by Sergei Eisenstein will not only receive recognition in the country, but will also be highly appreciated in world cinematography, entering the catalog of the best films of all times and peoples as a movie that brings up patriotic feelings for their country. For the role of Alexander Nevsky and Tsarevich Alexei in the film "Peter the Great" Nikolai Cherkasov receives the Stalin Prize and the Order of Lenin. It is noteworthy that the profile on the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the highest award for the command staff of the Red Army, belongs to the protagonist of the film of the same name.

Public and political activities

The popularity of his favorite actor among millions of admirers of his talent allowed him to be repeatedly elected a deputy of the Supreme Council. According to eyewitnesses, Nikolai Cherkasov treated his deputy duties not as a formalist, but asa person who really wanted to help people. Many years later, the People's Artist of the USSR calculated that he received more than 2,500 people in his deputy chair. And Georgy Tovstonogov characterized the deputy N. K.

War years

The news of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War caught N. K. Cherkasov on a creative trip to the Far East. Upon returning to his native Leningrad, he and the entire troupe of the academic theater were evacuated to Novosibirsk. The theater's concert brigade, founded in 1941 and headed by N. K.

In April 1943, in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan), Sergei Eisenstein begins a new film project, where Nikolai Cherkasov is to play the main role. "Ivan the Terrible" is a Soviet historical film, the shooting of which was personally supervised by the head of state, Joseph Stalin. Initially it was assumed that the film will be released in three series. However, the deadlines set by the Cinematography Committee did not allow the director to fully reveal the entire artistic and historical meaning of the picture. On October 28, 1944, the premiere screening of the film took place in the Kremlin. After watching the feature film, Iosif Vissarionovich was satisfied with the work done. Later, in 1947, for the role of Ivan the Terrible, N. K. Cherkasov will receive the title of People's Artist of the Soviet Union, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the Stalinpremium.

Filmography of People's Artist N. K. Cherkasov

In the post-war years, the actor continues to work fruitfully in theater and cinema. Films that have become iconic in the cinematography of the Soviet Union are released one after another into the Soviet film distribution. So, in 1947, the picture “Spring” appears, where the incomparable Lyubov Orlova plays the main role, and Nikolai Cherkasov perfectly played the role of director Arkady Gromov. In the film "Academician Ivan Pavlov", which premiered in 1949, Nikolai Cherkasov was entrusted to embody the image of Maxim Gorky. In the same year, the biographical film "Alexander Popov" was released, where N. K. Cherkasov plays the Russian physicist and inventor of the radio.

However, the most famous and recognizable role of Nikolai Konstantinovich remains Don Quixote. This film directed by G. Kozintsev, based on the novel of the same name by Miguel de Cervantes, was first seen by the Soviet audience on May 23, 1957, when the premiere screening of the film took place in the USSR. For the main role in the film Don Quixote, Nikolai Konstantinovich receives an award as the best actor at the international film festivals in Vancouver and Stratford.

Nikolai Cherkasov: personal life of the people's artist

Few people know that the successful career in the theater and cinema of the People's Artist kept pace with the personal drama of the Cherkasov family. The family life of the public idol was full of tragic events. The children of Nikolai Cherkasov, born in love and harmony, had a different fate. So, the eldest daughter, born in 1931, died along with her grandfather -father-in-law of Nikolai Konstantinovich - in besieged Leningrad. The second daughter, born in 1939, died at birth. Andrey Nikolaevich (born in 1941), who still preserves the creative heritage of his father, remained the only heir to the Cherkasov family.

The last years of Don Quixote

The state of he alth of Nikolai Konstantinovich began to deteriorate in 1964, when chronic asthma worsened, which had tormented the actor since the Great Patriotic War. In addition, the People's Artist had serious heart problems. On September 14, 1966, the heart of the great artist stopped. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in the city on the Neva became his last refuge.