Alexander Ovchinnikov: biography and career

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

Actors of the Soviet cinema… Famous and talented personalities of a bygone era, each with their own path of life, accompanied by love and appreciation of the audience.

Alexander Ovchinnikov is an Honored Artist of Russia, a prominent representative of the theatrical scene and Soviet cinema, famous for the films "Vanyushin's Children", "Cliff", "Guilty Without Guilt".

Biography of Ovchinnikov

Alexander Yurievich Ovchinnikov was born in Moscow on June 7, 1947. Being in search of his place in life, he studied at the Energy Institute, worked, then served in the army.

At one point I decided to try myself in the theater field and applied to the Shchepkin College, where by that time the entrance exams had ended. The selection committee went to meet yesterday's soldier, giving him an attempt to show himself as a promising actor. Ovchinnikov, having adequately passed the test, was enrolled in the course of the famous teacher and director V. I. Tsygankov.

The beginning of the acting path

During his studies, together with the rest of the Shchepkinites, he took part in mass episodes of stage productions at the Maly Theater. As a student, he played 4 roles on the famous stage, amongwhich Janus from "Criminal Tango", participated in the premiere of "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich". After graduating from the theater school in 1973, he was invited to work in the troupe of the Maly Theater, where he played dozens of roles. Among them were large and small, and each was distinguished by thoughtfulness and a correct understanding of the specifics of dramaturgy.

Professionalism of Alexander Ovchinnikov

Alexander often had to duplicate actors, to enter the finished performance. Usually, most of the input is planned in advance, but often in stage practice there is a force majeure, when an actor in a matter of hours, after just a couple of rehearsals, must be in "combat" readiness to go out in a given image. That is how Ovchinnikov appeared in the role of Prince Shakhovsky in Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. He also appeared in the play "Humiliated and Insulted" in the role of Alyosha. These two works fully showed the professionalism of the young artist, who managed to reveal the full complexity of the character played, while highlighting all the main things in it.

The role of Egmont in the production of G. Hauptmann's "Before Sunset", prepared by Ovchinnikov on his own, was so successful that the actor began to play it with the first performer on an equal footing.

Alexander Ovchinnikov is authentic and organic, playing the roles of a modern character. In the image of George in the play Overbright water”V. Belova, the actor is convincing in a deep understanding of the inner world of a person of our time. Seriously peering into the nature of his character, Alexander does not try to smooth out the contradictions coming from life itself.

Filmography of Alexander Ovchinnikov

• "Dog's Happiness" (1991) - a children's film about the search for an adorable poodle named Baby.
• "A Bedtime Story" (1991) is a psychological drama about twin brothers: a military attaché and a criminal investigation officer. Alexander played the role of chief Margarita.
• “The Coming of the Moon” (1987) is the story of a touching and complex relationship between the singing teacher Pyotr Fedorovich Kaloshin (Ovchinnikov in the title role) and the gymnast Katya Prokhorova.
• "Five thousand for the head of Mevlud" - a historical film about a detachment of highlanders who made daring attacks on estates and gave the loot to the poor Georgian people. The action takes place at the beginning of the twentieth century. Mevlud Diasamidze is monitoring the correct distribution of booty, for whose head five thousand gold has been promised.
• "Guilty Without Guilt" (1985) - a film-performance based on the play by A. N. Ostrovsky. Ovchinnikov as Grigory Neznamov.
• "Summer walks" (1982) - a film-performance based on the play of the same name by A. Salynsky about a young student Boris Kulikov, who tried to prove the value and innovation of the ideas of his father, an architect. Alexander Ovchinnikov is an actor who played the role of a guy with a guitar in this production.
• "Children of Vanyushin" (1982) is a family drama, one of the most significant works of dramaturgy, which has been on the stage for more than a century. Alexander Ovchinnikov played the role of Alexei.

• “Here is the Window Again” (1982) – three short stories in one film, interconnected by the song “Here is the Window Again” (verses by M. Tsvetaeva, music by S. Pozhlakov). Ovchinnikov played the role of Alyosha in the third short story, who arrived at the apartment of his future bride Tanya and her mother Anna Kirillovna.
• "Through the Gobi and Khingan" (1981) - a war film about the events of World War II at its final stage. A Japanese laboratory created a bacteriological weapon, the effect of which was tested on prisoners of war. The secret of this laboratory was instructed to unravel the epidemiologist Dmitry Sokolov. He completed the task, but at the cost of his own life. Alexey Ovchinnikov played the main role in this film.
• “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” (1981) is the second part of A. K. Tolstoy’s trilogy, which tells about Russian tsars. Ovchinnikov as Prince Grigory Shakhovsky.
• "Coast" (1980) - a film-performance about the novel of the writer Vadim Nikitin and the young German woman Emma, which happened during the war years and found its continuation after forty years.
• "Russian people" (1979) - a film about the courage and heroism of the Russian people during the Great Patriotic War. The action of the picture takes place in a small town occupied by the Nazis.
• "Scapin's Rogues" (1979) is a film-performance about the temperamental actor Scapin, who is able to turn any banal life situation into a cheerful and noisy theatrical performance. Actor Alexander Ovchinnikov managed to find the right colors for Moliere's Leander, exactlycorresponding to the style of the play and the general structure of the production.
• “The Makropulos Remedy” (1978) is a film-performance about the elixir of longevity, which every hero of the play dreams of possessing. Alexander Ovchinnikov played the role of Janek.
• "Last year's quadrille" (1978) - a melodrama in which Ovchinnikov played the main role - Yurka Kwiatkovsky. The film tells about the students who bet on the love of a pretty girl Tony.
• "Dust Under the Sun" (1977). War film about the suppression of the 1918 rebellion in Simbirsk. Alexander Ovchinnikov played the role of the commander of the 1st Army of the Eastern Front of the Red Army - Mikhail Tukhachevsky.

• "Humiliated and Insulted" (1976) is a film adaptation based on the novel of the same name by F. M. Dostoevsky. About a love triangle, the participants of which are the dreamy writer Ivan Petrovich, the girl Natasha Ikhmeneva and the spineless handsome man Alyosha Valkovsky (Alexander Ovchinnikov).
• The Doctor Was Called (1974) is a film about a young girl Katya Luzina, who graduated from the institute and strives to become a good doctor. Actor Ovchinnikov played the role of a young surgeon Sergei Petrovich.
• "Cliff" (1972) - a film-performance based on the novel by Ivan Goncharov. Ovchinnikov as Nikolai Andreevich Vikentiev.

Ovchinnikov's personal life

In family life, Alexander Ovchinnikov was happily married to the actress of the Maly Theater Alena Doronina, the daughter of Constance Roek and Vitaly Doronin. The married couple raised two wonderful children - Igor and Nastya.

Actors of Soviet cinemaleave one by one, giving way to the younger generation of a new era. Alexander Yuryevich Ovchinnikov died on October 24, 1997 after a long and painful illness. He was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery.