Tiger tamer Nazarova Margarita Petrovna: biography, films

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

Becoming a circus legend is not easy. But Nazarova Margarita, even in the most difficult moments in her life, went only forward. That is why she achieved her desired goal and thundered throughout the Soviet Union not only as a beautiful woman, but also as the owner of a very dangerous profession - a tiger trainer. What ups and downs was the artist's life filled with and how did she pass away?

Childhood

Nazarova Margarita was born near Leningrad in 1926. The girl's father was a forester, so she spent all her childhood in nature. In addition to Rita, there were two more girls in the family - Galya and Vera.

It is noteworthy that Margarita's friendship with wild animals began from an early age. When she was just a child, her father brought a little bear cub to them in the lodge, whose mother had died. So Rita taught him to dance three months before the young animal was sent to the zoo. An unusual hobby for a girl … It was then that the future trainer received her first injury due to the fault of a wild beast - the bear slashed herhand.

Nazarova always spoke warmly about that period of her life. A little later, already a schoolgirl, Margarita became interested in ballet. She studied at the House of Pioneers and dreamed of dancing on the big stage. But the war broke out.

Life in Germany

At the age of 15, very young Rita witnessed one of the bloodiest wars in the world - the Second World War. Her father was drafted, and her mother moved to the small town of Pavlovsk. There, the family, like millions of other Russian people, was starving.

The circumstances were such that on the day when the massive German offensive was announced, Margarita Nazarova, among other teenagers, ended up in a neighboring village. Everyone was evacuated, including Rita's family, and the girl was captured by the Germans. Soon she was sent to Germany.

Thanks to her external data, Nazarova first got a servant in the house of rich Germans, and then she was identified as a dancer in a cabaret. Undoubtedly, such a life was not without humiliation. But Margarita Petrovna never talked about what happened to her in Germany.

Liberation came in 1945, when Russian troops came to Germany. That day usually began for the young dancer, but the performance never took place: Soviet soldiers burst into the cabaret and Nazarova breathed a sigh of relief.

First steps in the circus

So Nazarova Margarita returned home. She was lucky to find her family, but her father remained missing.

By the fall of the 45ththe girl independently prepared an acrobatic number and ensured that she was enrolled in the circus on stage troupe. Soon she had a partner, with whom she made a number filled with tricks, as well as containing elements of animal training. Horses and dogs were the first to cooperate.

However, Nazarova had a bright temperament and always wanted more from life - numbers with dogs no longer suited her. Just at that moment, a funny story happened that told the girl her future fate.

Nazarova accompanied her future husband, trainer Konstantinovsky, on the set of the film "A Case in the Taiga". The situation got out of control, and the trained she-bear suddenly rushed at Konstantin Aleksandrovich. Margarita Petrovna reacted instantly: she lured the bear with a can of condensed milk into a cage, and the clubfoot hugged her new friend in retaliation and did not let go for a long time. After that, Konstantinovsky realized that he would not find a better assistant than Margarita.

Working with tigers

The trainer Margarita Nazarova became such largely thanks to her husband - it was he who taught her the basics of training. A married couple spent days next to their predatory pupils. Konstantinovsky did not give up on his wife, because he knew that every time you encounter a tiger, your life is at stake, so you need to be tough and adamant.

Margarita justified the trust of her teacher. Soon Konstantinovsky had no doubtsthat his wife can work independently. Margarita got her own pupils: the tigers Pursh, Rada, Achilles and Baikalochka. In 1954, this friendly company went to the set of the film "Dangerous Paths".

Nazarova first attended the shooting as a trainer. By the way, she once again had the opportunity to help her husband out. One of the tigers decided to disobey orders and attacked Konstantinovsky. Nazarova stopped the beast in time by dousing it with ice-cold water from a hose.

The creators of the picture appreciated the abilities of the novice trainer and offered her a job as an understudy in "Dangerous Paths". So Nazarova and her husband ended up in a cage with four Ussuri tigers and contributed to the filming of perhaps the most exciting shots in Soviet cinema. And after the release of the picture on the screens, the press spoke about the artist for the first time.

Film shooting

In the same 1954, Nazarova was again on the set.

This time she dubbed the actress Lyudmila Kasatkina, who, according to the plot, was a tamer in the circus. Margarita managed to prove her professionalism by teaching her tigers not to be afraid of fire in record time. Only thanks to this, it was possible to shoot spectacular episodes when predators jump through a fiery ring. After that, all the newspapers wrote that Nazarova was amazing and at the same time the only woman in the USSR who was able to enter a cage with live tigers. After filming the movie, the tiger tamer Margarita finally got her long-awaitedplace in the circus.

Then there were shootings in the famous comedy "Striped Flight". Margarita Nazarova this time rejoiced: she got the main role, which she undoubtedly deserved. She coped with it remarkably, however, the professional actress Galina Korotkevich had to voice her character Marianne. After this film, Nazarova turned into a circus legend. It was difficult to find a more famous circus artist in the entire USSR.

Injured

Margarita Nazarova, whose films were watched by the entire Union, whose dexterity the audience admired, could only afford to put on a smile on stage and carelessly show trick after trick. In fact, a titanic work was hidden behind this lightness. And of course, serious injuries.

In 1955, one of the tigers made a jump over the head of the artist, the pedestal under him staggered, and the beast fell right on Margarita. The woman lost her scalp. The artist was barely saved. It seemed that she would leave her profession, but the first thing Nazarova did after her recovery was to come to her tigers.

After many years on tour in Germany, the tigers got out of control and tore Nazarova's arms and legs, but the trainer recovered each time and returned to the arena again and again.

Private life

Margarita Nazarova, whose biography is worthy of becoming a script for a fascinating film, fell in love for the first time at the age of 19. When she returned from Germany, she went to Riga to her relatives. Young womandreamed of a stage, but she was not taken to the ballerina. But the Daugavpils Theater agreed to hire Nazarova in the corps de ballet. It was there that the future trainer fell in love with one of the directors - Konstantin Konstantinovsky.

Konstantinovsky was an extraordinary person: they say that during the war he trained kamikaze dogs that blew up German tanks. But German soldiers are also not simpletons, over time they learned to bypass dogs. And then one day one of the pupils of Konstantinovsky returned to her master safe and sound, and then there was an explosion. As a result, the director had practically no soft tissues left on his right hand, and the bone was exposed.

This couple was considered one of the most spectacular in the Union. Nazarova probably loved her husband too much, which ruined her. When Konstantinovsky died of brain cancer in 1970, Nazarova left the circus, closed herself in her apartment, and since then her life has changed dramatically.

Last days

Actress Margarita Nazarova first changed her character when her pet, Pursh, died of diabetes. The artist considered herself guilty of his illness.

The tiger of Margarita Nazarova did not even have time to get to the doctor, he died on the way. But the problem was not even that: Nazarova always knew that Pursh was a reliable partner, that he could protect her in difficult times. And now, without her striped protector, the trainer began to be afraid to enter the cage.

After some time, Margarita's husband died right on the operating table,who was diagnosed with brain cancer. Although they did not get along lately, the artist loved Konstantinovsky, the father of her only son, comrade and mentor. When Konstantin passed away, the woman had a nervous breakdown, and she ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

Nazarova didn't enter the cage with the tigers anymore. For more than 20 years she lived as a recluse in Nizhny Novgorod and saw only her son Alexei, as well as several stage colleagues. In 2005, the artist died at the age of 79.

The image of Margarita Nazarova on television and in movies

Shortly after the artist's death, a documentary about Margarita Nazarova was released on the Rossiya TV channel. The film featured unique footage from the home archive of the Nazarova-Konstantinovsky family. Also, her son and colleagues told several stories about the great tamer.

And in 2015 a series about the life of Margarita Petrovna - "Nazarov" will be released. The main role in the film went to actress Olga Pogodina. Supporting roles will be performed by Andrey Chernyshev, Nikolay Dobrynin and Alexey Peskov.