Yuri Bogatyryov (1947-1989) - Soviet actor who starred in many good films, such as “One Among Strangers, Stranger Among One's Own” as Chekist Yegor Shilov, “Two Captains” as Mikhail Romashov, “Kinship” as Stasik, Maria Konovalova's son-in-law, and even in the children's movie magazine “Yeralash” - those who like to watch its old episodes may remember the plot with the writer Mikhail Mikhailovich, who learned a lot about his “Tale of First Love”.
Photo by Yuri Bogatyryov.
Perhaps not among his work, truly iconic and super-popular, but he did not star in Gaidai or in popular comedies Ryazanov, preferring dramas, historical films, melodramas and detectives. And the directors did not see him as a comedy actor, rather a man with an inner fracture, experiencing a certain drama and it really was, and in his personal life.
The matter here is not an unhappy love for some pretty girl or married woman, as is usually the case with most men, but in a non-standard orientation. And here in fact everything is complicated - Bogatyryov lived in the Soviet Union, where for it was imprisoned. About the creative path, difficult fate, internal contradictions and unusual personal life of the actor, we will talk in this article.
Summer. Self-portrait. 1983.
Bogatyryov came from Riga, where his father, a naval officer, served. Six years after Yura's birth, the family moved to Moscow. Life was going well - yet it was much more promising to live and work in Moscow at that time than in Riga, which resembled a piece of Europe on minimum wages with Soviet management. By the way, Mikhail Zadornov said in his memoirs that in Latvia people wanted to leave the Soviet Union in the early 90's because they were too keen on the exact fulfillment of all Soviet instructions and the construction of communism, which frankly interfered with life.
And since childhood, Yura himself was already somewhat different from his peers - he was quiet, vulnerable, played with dolls, sewed clothes for them, and even sleepwalked at night. That is, if the boys found out about his oddities and habits, it would be impossible to avoid ridicule and outright contempt, you need to be like everyone else - this lesson Yura learned from a very early age.
Recollection of F. Fellini's movie “Amarcord”
Finally, his father decided to make him a proper defender of the Motherland and told him to enroll in the Nakhimov College. But stayed there Yura not long - the barracks environment for him was unbearable, and peers openly mocked shy and strange for them young man. The usual thing - in such collectives is often chosen a “scapegoat” on which all the ridicule falls, and Yura was ideally suited for this role. There were versions that it was there that he was subjected to violence, and not only the usual physical. They even stole all his warm clothes, so he had to get home without them, despite the cold. So it is not surprising that it was not the best way to his mental state, and perhaps there was a certain breakdown.
However, the craving for creativity was visible even then, because Yura and attended art school. When Yura grew up, he briefly thought he entered the Art School named after Kalinin. Kalinin. He worked part-time there, on vacations drawing finds of archaeologists who conducted excavations. He did not forget his childhood love for puppets - he began to participate in performances of the puppet theater under the direction of Vladimir Shtein. Some performances were even shown on television.
Leonid Filatov.
And then from the first time easily and effortlessly entered the Shchukinsky school on the same course, where Natalia Varley and Konstantin Raikin studied.
In the late 1960s Bogatyryov met Nikita Mikhalkov and soon starred in his first movie - his graduation artwork “A Quiet Day at the End of the War”.
In the early 1970s Bogatyryov began working at the Sovremennik Theater, but for a long time was on the second role - to the leading artists of this theater it was difficult to refer to him, although he played in performances staged by such famous directors as Galina Volchek, Oleg Efremov and Vladimir Naumov. With Efremov actor buddied and therefore when he offered him in 1977 to move to the Moscow Art Theater, he happily agreed. There he played in timeless classics: the plays “Days of the Turbins”, “Tartuffe”, “The Living Corpse” and “The Seagull”.
Memories of Andrei Mironov's concert
Acted in Mikhalkov's films, in particular, the famous movie “Among Strangers, Strangers Among Their Own”. For the filming of this movie had to learn jigging and sit on a strict diet to bring himself to the proper form, but it was worth it - Bogatyrev began to talk about Bogatyrev as a promising actor, there were offers to shoot other films, you could finally move out of the tiny room, received as a foreign actor from the Moscow Art Theater.
Yuri Bogatyryov in the movie “A stranger among strangers, a stranger among his own”.
Acting career went uphill, every year from 1974-1989, he starred in several films, perhaps not always in leading roles, but he did not have and frankly passable artwork, about which artists try not to remember, and if too meticulous correspondent will still ask, they give arguments about the difficult financial situation and unsuccessful work of the director.
Bogatyryov often played a decent family man - and other positive Soviet heroes could not be. However, with women Yuri could only be friends, but a serious relationship could not and did not want to. Although if everything were different, probably in the statuesque tall handsome actor fell in love with a lot of ladies who could count on reciprocity.
Elena Solovey
In Bogatyryov's house, when he worked at the Moscow Art Theater, lived an employee of the theater Vasily Roslyakov, and surely they were connected not only friendly relations. However, Bogatyryov was not easy to realize his true orientation - well, it was not accepted in the Soviet Union, you could even go to jail. He drank, deeply worried, but suffering and drinking artist - a common thing, but here is the reason why Bogatyryov worried, really uncommon. About his orientation, colleagues and friends knew or guessed, perhaps some of them strongly advised him to marry some girl to take away rumors harmful to the career of the actor. Bogatyryov married the actress Nadezhda Sera. That divorced her first husband, and was in a very difficult situation - with a child and without housing. Takto such a marriage was more like a desire to help the woman from the actor.
Nadezhda Seraya in the movie Citizen Lyoshka
They began to live together, but slept in different rooms - Bogatyryov physically did not want close relationships with women, for him it was as unnatural as for a straight man with a man. However, Nadezhda sincerely cared for him, for her he was something like a brother, a little unlucky, with his complexes, but at the same time talented and loved.
Stas Sadalsky.
Bogatyryov died of a heart attack caused by psychological problems and alcohol abuse. Perhaps, looking at the suffering of this extraordinary artist, it is worth thinking - is everything so bad in the Western tolerance, which we do not accept so much? There were and are many people whose only achievement in life is to have the right orientation. So, maybe we should look not only at who a person sleeps with, but also at his or her deeds, actions and achievements, and labeling and defining is the easiest thing to do.
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