Alexandra Zavyalova: "Greta Garbo" of Soviet cinema

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

Alexandra Zavyalova is an actress whose name was widely known in the 60s. This beautiful woman was photographed with pleasure by photographers of both Soviet and foreign magazines. The directors offered Zavyalova exclusively the main roles. And then everything ended in one day and the artist disappeared from the screens forever. Why?

Alexandra Zavyalova: biography. Early years

Alexandra was born in February 1936 in the Tambov region. Almost nothing is known about her childhood, about the hobbies of the future actress. It is only known that Alexandra Zavyalova graduated from the Leningrad Theater Institute in 1958 and moved to Brest to work in the local theater. However, a young actress with an exotic appearance showed herself very well at the graduation performance "Marriage" and she regularly began to receive offers for filming in films.

Alexandra refused for a long time, because she wanted to focus only on her work in the theater. But in 1959, the actress could not resist and for the first time gave herconsent to filming.

1959 Movies

Alexandra Zavyalova made her debut in the film "The Song of Koltsov", where she immediately got the main role.

At the center of the plot of the picture is the biography of the famous Russian poet Alexei Koltsov, or rather, a segment of life that fits in the 30s. XIX century. Koltsov's biography is notable for the fact that the poet devoted almost his entire life to entrepreneurship, continuing the family business (which is not typical for writers). The only outlet for Alexei was poetry and love for a serf girl, who was played by Alexandra Zavyalova. But fate separated the main characters, Koltsov soon married an unloved woman, and after a while he died at the age of 33.

Immediately after the role of Dunya, the fatal beauty with jet-black hair was offered another major role - in the drama "People on the Bridge". The heroine of Zavyalova is the bomber Lena. The woman is brave, beautiful, with a certain past (the heroine has an illegitimate child). She attracts the attention of the young son (Oleg Tabakov) of the bridge construction manager (Vasily Merkuriev). This connection becomes the talk of the town. The heroine Zavyalova turns into an evil genius for the intelligent Bulygin family. At the end of the picture, Lena dies saving the lives of other people.

I must say that after the role of the temperamental Lena, the role of a "troubled" woman was assigned to the actress. And all her subsequent heroines were no less strong, attractive, but in a sense dangerous.

1960s Movies

Alexandra Zavyalova inThe 60s was very popular. Largely due to the role of Zinka from the melodrama "Aleshkin's Love". Then the actress's partner on the set was Leonid Bykov ("Only old men go into battle"). He played the same Alyoshka, who was crazy about the switchman Zinaida. Zavyalova, in one of her few interviews, recalled that the actor's wife was very jealous of her and was constantly present on the set.

Still not jealous: photos of Alexandra Zavyalova flaunted not only on the covers of the "Soviet screen", but even in the American magazine "Life". American journalists called the actress the Soviet Greta Garbo, and Russian directors offered the actress only the main roles.

In the 60s, such films as “Wait for Letters” by Y. Karasik, “Bread and Roses” by F. Filippov, “Fro” by R. Esadze and many other films appeared on the screens with the participation of Zavyalova. The actress was invited to dinner parties at the US Embassy and was entrusted with the honorable mission of meeting foreign guests arriving at Soviet cultural events.

The latest film projects in the career of an actress

However, it was the close communication of the artist with foreigners, as well as the interest shown in her by foreign media, that played a fatal role in the fate of Alexandra.

In the 65s, the KGB began to regularly call Zavyalova for interrogation. A little later, the secret services forbade the director of Lenfilm to shoot the actress in his films. But Alexandra Zavyalova did not despair and continued to cooperate with other film companies.

In the 70s. the artist played her last film role - Pistimeya Morozova. This image has become one of the most colorful in Soviet cinema. The real name of Pistimea is Serafima Klychkova. She is the heiress of a we althy family, who is forced to hide under a false name in the Siberian taiga.

In the film, the heroine of Zavyalova is demonized, because in Soviet times they spoke about aristocrats either in no way or badly. The artist threw more "wood on the fire", masterfully doing her job, and the embodiment of evil appeared on the screen before the viewer. Given the label of "unreliability" that already dominated Alexandra, nothing good could be expected. The worst fears came true: after the role of Pistimeya Zavyalova, the entrance to any Soviet cinema was blocked.

Alexandra Zavyalova: personal life

The only official husband of the actress is artist Dmitry Buchkin. From him, Zavyalova had a daughter, Tatyana.

Alexandra Zavyalova is an actress with an unforgettable appearance. And it was beauty that played a cruel joke on a woman. In 1964, in Odessa, she met an American billionaire and accepted his courtship. Subsequently, the American was accused of espionage and expelled from the country, Zavyalova was forced to divorce Buchkin and was interrogated by the KGB for the first time.

After the path to the cinema for the actress was blocked, she gave birth to her second child and began to lead a secluded life. Since then, little is known about Alexander.