Kakhi Kavsadze: biography, personal life, roles and films, photos

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

Soviet Georgian actors have always been distinguished from the rest by a special article, expressive appearance and hot temper. For this reason, Georgian actors invariably riveted the attention of millions of women of the vast country, and female actresses delighted the entire second half of its large population.

Childhood

The biography of the actor Kakhi Kavsadze, the future of the famous Abdullah from the movie "White Sun of the Desert", began in Tbilisi, the ancient city of sunny Georgia. It was in it, and not in the city of Tkibuli, whose name would later be mistakenly recorded by officials as the birthplace of Kakha. Our hero was born in the family of a musician and a doctor on June 5, 1935.

Both his grandfather, Sandro Kavsadze, and father David connected their lives with music. They were people quite famous in their field, in which Kakha was simply obliged to follow in their footsteps. Yes, he went at first, enrolling with his brother in a music school for gifted children. However, they were soon expelled from there - the children of the enemy of the people had no place amongprosperous society.

Grandfather Sandro

Sandro Kavsadze was known to everyone in Tbilisi and beyond. A talented musician, choirmaster and singer, he founded and directed the Folk Song and Dance Ensemble of Georgia, which still exists today. In the folklore choir, which was organized by Kakhi Kavsadze's grandfather when he was studying at the seminary, a thirteen-year-old boy named Soso, named Dzhugashvili, sang. The future leader of the whole country. Since then, Iosif Vissarionovich has been filled with unlimited respect for Sandro, considering him his teacher.

Once, in an attempt to somehow thank him and in memory of the past, Stalin even asked Sandro what he, a big man, could do for him? Awards, apartments, titles - Dzhugashvili was ready and capable of anything. To which, in response, Sandro Kavsadze asked to give the legendary pipe of the leader, which he always smoked. Smiling, Stalin handed it to him.

In the photo: the actor's grandfather, Sandro Kavsadze, with his sons - David, Kakha's father, and Giusha, uncle.

When Sandro Kavsadze fell seriously ill, one day he received a letter from Stalin, written in Georgian:

Greetings, Sandro! I found out by chance that you are in the hospital. This is bad. If you need something, tell me. I am ready to help you in any way. Live a thousand years. With regards. Your Soso. September 9, 1937.

Father

David, father of Kakha Kavsadze, graduated from the Tbilisi Conservatory, sang beautifully, was a composer, conductor and even directedfolk song choir, when grandfather Sandro died.

The fate of Kakha's father was not so enviable. When the Great Patriotic War began, he immediately went to the front. In the bloody battles near Kerch, he was wounded, captured, and later became a prisoner of a concentration camp in Germany. Surprisingly, the Parisian Georgian diaspora managed to free him from imprisonment in 1943, when she found out that David, the son of that same Sandro Kavsadze, was among the prisoners of the camp. Exactly how this was done is not known. It is only known that, having barely recovered, David decided to create a real Georgian song and dance ensemble in Paris. For these purposes, with the help of the same diaspora by which he was saved, Kavsadze obtained permission to select candidates from among the prisoners of Georgian origin in the same death camps. In this way, he managed to save a lot of people, because in fact his ultimate goal was not the ensemble at all.

Here is how Kakhi Kavsadze describes these events:

Officially, he gathered Georgian singers, but in fact he recruited people of various nationalities. As I was told, he walked along the line and spoke in Georgian: “Who is Georgian, come out!” Everyone who understood Georgian came out: Jews, Armenians, Russians, Azerbaijanis. Many didn’t even know how to sing, but he still took them out of the ranks: “Come out, come out …”

A lot of people saved…

However, after returning to Georgia in 1945, David Kavsadze was arrested, declared an enemy of the people and exiled to Siberia, where he subsequently died, not having lived just one year beforeStalin's death.

Mom

At the time of the wedding, Tamara Tsagareishvili, mother of Kakha Kavsadze, was a young graduate of a medical institute. Then she worked in her speci alty as a doctor at a tuberculosis dispensary. When the war began and her husband David went to the front, Kakha was only six years old, and his brother Imeri was four. Since then, Tamara has raised her sons alone.

After the arrest and exile of her husband, who had previously been considered a heroic death, she was no longer paid benefits, and then they began to cut her already small salary received at the dispensary. Both she and the children were not always able to eat.

Tamara raised her sons for herself and for her father, punishing for hooligan acts, of which there were a great many, both at once. For her mother's firmness of character, Kakha and Imeri jokingly called her a tiger tamer.

Kavsadze-actor

At first, Kahi, who studied at a mathematical school, did not even think about linking his fate with the profession of an actor. Providence itself intervened - when the young man was already in his senior year, he was unexpectedly invited to screen tests and approved for the role. However, soon Kahi was seriously injured in training and ended up in the hospital. Instead, another candidate was chosen. But the grain of doubt that was born in the soul of the future famous actor grew up and bore fruit. Already in the hospital, after much deliberation, he decides to become an actor.

In 1956, while studying at the Tbilisi Theater Institute Kavsadzemade his film debut, convincingly playing his role in the film "Song of Eteri". Kakhi Kavsadze, whose height was 185 centimeters, towered over his fellow students like a shark's fin. His bright and textured type was impossible not to notice. Kavsadze began to constantly appear on the screens ("Mamluk", "Fit for non-combatant" and other tapes).

The actor really became famous throughout the country in 1969, starring as the negative hero Abdullah in the film "White Sun of the Desert". The female audience went crazy for the eagle-eyed, charismatic bandit.

Then, in 1973, a successful role also followed in the popular tape "Melodies of the Verian Quarter"

Significant for Kavsadze was the performance of the main role in the drama "The Life of Don Quixote and Sancho" in 1988. The role for which the actor lost almost thirty kilograms.

All eighty films of Kakhi Kavsadze, in which he had a chance to play for more than 57 years of his creative career, found love and recognition among viewers throughout the country.

Bella

In the biography of Kakha Kavsadze, his wife, actress Bella Mirianashvili, became the only woman. The true love of his life.

Kakhi, this tall, handsome, prominent Georgian, who usually towered above the crowd, having met his chosen one at the theater institute, suddenly became small andtimid. All he could do was watch the girl from the side.

This long-distance secret love lasted so long that Bella managed to get married and have a daughter Nana during this time.

And only when the girl divorced her previous husband, Kahi overcame himself and went on the offensive. They played in the same theater, and very soon the couple became friends. Throughout his life, as the actor recalls, he never told Bella that he loved her. He was able to show her all his feelings without words - with his actions and attitude.

Family

Kakhi Kavsadze adopted Bella's one and a half year old daughter from her first marriage, Nana, as her own. God gave them a common child - the son of Heraclius.

However, misfortune awaited the young happy family - during pregnancy, Bella fell ill with the flu. She did not take any medicines, fearing to harm the child. Heraclius was born he althy. But Bella's illness gave rise to a complication, as a result of which, two years later, the girl lost the ability to walk and remained confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

Out of the 26 years that the couple were destined to spend together, only three years Kahi and Bella lived a normal human life.

Despite her illness, the wife managed to live a full life - she kept their house clean, raised children, received guests and never complained about anything. Kahi idolized and literally woreBella in her arms until her very last day, August 28, 1992. She fell asleep and never woke up again…

Despite everything, the actor Kakhi Kavsadze considers these 26 years spent together with Bella the happiest in his life. He could not forget his wife, he remained faithful to her even after her death, and every day he wears a bouquet of yellow flowers on her grave.

Children

Their children followed in the footsteps of their parents. Daughter Nana became an actress of the Rustaveli Theater, and works with her father. Son Irakli also served in the theater with his family, but then moved to the American city of Washington, where he works in the local theater.

Artist says:

Sometimes it seems that fate turns away from us. But it seems to me that she actually checks: how will you behave? And if you are not broken, act like a man, she will not leave you…

Kakhi Kavsadze sees pieces of his beloved Bella in each of his children.

She is gone, but they are. And life goes on (in the photo - Kakhi Kavsadze today).