Several tragic stories, heroes of which, famous artists, challenged mysticism. Here is what the famous actress Elena Koreneva says about superstitions: “Once I refused even to audition for the main role in Averbakh's film“The Voice”, where the heroine dies of leukemia. Maybe my personal superstition is here, but I am convinced that by playing we create some kind of mystical essence, and if thought is material, then play is even more so. Therefore, I would not want to lie in a coffin either on the screen or on the stage …"
Movie actors, who at least once in their creative careers portrayed the dead, do not like to dwell on this topic: there are many examples when, having died on the screen, the performers of the roles soon passed away for real. This happened with Evgeny Urbansky, Efim Kopelyan, Anatoly Papanov, Leonid Markov … In April 1970, the popular actor Pavel Luspekaev died. It was then that his last film, The White Sun of the Desert, was released. As you know, the hero of Luspekaev customs officer Vereshchagin dies in this film.
Another participant in the same tape is actor Nikolai Godovikov, who played the role of Petrukha. In the picture, his hero was stabbed to death by Abdullah, hitting in the chest with a bayonet. Some time later, a neighbor in a communal apartment struck Godovikov in the chest with the point of a broken bottle (rose). A whole set of fatal coincidences is present in the biography of Vladimir Vysotsky.
He starred in the film "Two Comrades Served", where his hero committed suicide, and after a while he almost went into another world for real - he was overtaken by clinical death, the first. The second followed just during the filming of the film "Little Tragedies". There, Vysotsky's hero - Don Juan - dies after the Commander's handshake.
However, the sad list does not stop there. In February 1985, the popular film actor Talgat Nigmatulin died. He starred in more than 30 films and in most of them he played supermen - strong and fearless heroes who deal with their enemies, as they say, with one left. Nigmatulin did it great, which is not surprising: in real life he was the champion of Uzbekistan in karate. But for the owner of such a weighty title, he accepted death in the highest degree ridiculous - he was beaten to death by his own associates in the sect.
Nigmatulin did not even lift a finger to defend himself, since the order to beat him came from the mouth of the Teacher - the leader of the Abai sect. Meanwhile, a year and a half earlier, Nigmatulin starred in the psychological drama "Wolf's Pit", where his hero also died at the hands of his mentor, whom he loved and whom he believed infinitely.
And here is another example - the singer Igor Talkov. According to many who knew him, fatality, like a devil's mark, constantly hovered over him. And it had to happen: the singer suddenly became interested in acting, starred in a film with the meaningful title "Beyond the Last Line". Talkov in it got the role of the leader of a gang of racketeers, who in the final shots is killed with shots from a pistol in the chest. The shooting of the scene took place in Leningrad on October 6, 1990. And exactly a year later, day after day, in the same city, the singer was no longer overtaken by a fake, but by a real bullet.
From the same category - the death of an outstanding actor Yevgeny Leonov. He starred in Ivan Shchegolev's comedy American Grandfather, where it is about how his hero, a Russian emigrant, comes from America to Russia to buy a coffin and a place in the cemetery here.
Promotional video:
The film was released in 1993, and at the beginning of the next year Leonov died. Following him, two more of his colleagues who starred in the same film died: Maya Bulgakova (she died in a car accident) and Valery Nosik (died of a heart attack). Plus, three more members of the film crew died. Here's a comedy.
A bunch of mystical coincidences are present in the fate of actor Leonid Filatov. He starred in six films, and in three of them his characters are erased from life. And in the film "Forgotten Melody for Flute" he was the first Russian actor to play the role of a man who, being in a state of clinical death, rushes through the "tunnel of the dead". Then Filatov decided to prepare a program for television about actors who had gone to another world. According to him, friends dissuaded from undertaking: they say, it is dangerous - to roam the graves. However, the program went on the air, and Filatov suffered a stroke, intoxication of the whole body.
In 1994, the famous actor Oleg Borisov died. And this time it was not without oddities. The actor's son decided to go into directing and took off his father in his thesis. Moreover, according to the script, Oleg Borisov had to lie in a coffin. The film was successfully filmed, but two months later, Oleg Borisov died.
Of course, the presence of such facts is not a basis for the conclusion that any tragic role brings the death of an artist closer in real life. Dozens of actors die repeatedly on screen or on stage, but continue to live and work after that. There is a peculiarity here: after filming in such roles, most of these actors did not avoid troubles of a different kind - illness, death of loved ones, divorce, etc.
The fate of the director Dinara Asanova is no less tragic. But in her case, the tragedy was different - several actors who played the main roles in her films soon died. And since Asanova filmed mostly teenagers, young people full of vitality were leaving life. For example, a young man who played one of the main roles in the film "Non-transferable Key", for no reason at all, hung himself on his own scarf.
A few years after this tragedy, Asanova made a new film about teenagers - "The woodpecker does not have a headache." And again the trouble: the leading actor became a drug addict, and he was found killed on the street. Upon learning of this, the talented woman did not live long. In April 1985, she went to Murmansk to shoot a new film. There, one morning, colleagues came to her office to call for another shooting, and saw that Asanova, sitting in the chair, was dead: Dinara's heart could not stand it.
Another topic in the same problem is works that are fraught with danger for everyone who tries to film them. The first in the list of this kind can be safely called the story of N. Gogol "Viy". Viy became the first Soviet horror film. As you know, the actress Natalya Varley played the witch-lady in it. Immediately after filming, she fell ill with a serious illness. But this was not the last test associated with the fatal role.
Once Varley went on a sea cruise, and the organizers took with them a tape with "Viy". It was decided to show the film to the passengers, and Varley had to give a short opening speech before the start of the session. She spoke, but the film could not be shown: the calm sea suddenly raged, and the session was postponed to the next day. However, a day later, history repeated itself: as soon as the light went out in the wardroom, the sea foamed again, and most of the passengers were forced to leave. On the third day, Viy was launched again. Less than five minutes later, an incredible pitching began, and the ship began to heel.
Varley rushed into the wardroom and almost forced the projectionist to stop the session. He obeyed, and the sea immediately calmed down. This film was no longer played on the ship. Later, referring to his work in "Viy", Varley will say: "For this role I have already repented, received forgiveness in the church and firmly convinced: you can not look where mortals are not allowed."
Another "dangerous" work for filmmakers is Nikolai Leskov's novel At the Knives. At one time, the Russian intelligentsia cursed him, calling him reactionary. The novel was not published for 70 years and was circulated only in manuscripts. In the late 90s of the XX century, the director Alexander Orlov undertook to film the novel for television (he shot "The Woman Who Sings" and other films). In the process of working on it and immediately after its completion, real mysticism began.
For the film, seven grave crosses were made, which were kept in the basement of the director's country house. Soon Orlov's mother-in-law died. Then one of the workers who made these crosses died. A little later, a real pestilence began in the group: the operator, his assistant, artist, make-up artist died. But the most terrible death was taken by one of the performers of the main roles in the film, Elena Mayorova - she committed suicide: she set herself on fire.
Along with “dangerous” works, there are also “dangerous” characters, playing which the actor risks his health, and even his life. For example, Tsar Ivan the Terrible. In 1945, the famous actor N. P. Khmelev died on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater in the make-up and costume of this hero, and in 1992 the same role was the last for Evgeny Evstigneev. He played the Russian emperor in the film "Ermak", and he had to shoot in the last two episodes. However, in early March, he decided to undergo heart surgery and went to London. According to the doctors, the operation was quite ordinary. But just a few minutes before her, Evstigneev suddenly felt bad. He was immediately put on the operating table, the struggle for his life lasted four hours, but the actor could not be saved.
Three years later, another performer of the role of Ivan the Terrible, actor Alexander Mikhailov, almost said goodbye to life. He played the Tsar in the play "The Death of Ivan the Terrible" on the stage of the Maly Theater. Moreover, being a believer, Mikhailov asked the theater management to change at least the name of the play and remove the word “death” from it. But the leadership did not want to break the tradition. Mikhailov managed to play only six performances when a disaster struck: in June 1995, on the way to the dacha, his throat began to bleed …
Fedor RAZZAKOV, film historian, author of the book "How idols went".