Nikolay Cherkasov, actor: biography, personal life, films, work in the theater

Nikolay Cherkasov, actor, People's Artist of the Soviet Union, winner of the Lenin and Stalin Prizes, the idol of millions of admirers of his cinematic talent, spent more than half of his life as a member of the Academic Theater Company. Pushkin.

Childhood and adolescence of the great artist

Nikolai Konstantinovich Cherkasov was born on July 27, 1903 in the Northern capital of Russia, in the working family of employees of the railway station Konstantin Alexandrovich and Anna Andrianovna Cherkasov. All the further life of Nikolai Konstantinovich was connected with the city on the Neva. Here he grew up, studied, met his first love and first stepped onto the theatrical stage of the Mariinsky Opera House.

After replenishing the family, the birth of his brother Kostya, the family of Nikolai Cherkasov moved to a spacious four-room apartment in Krasnoarmeiskaya street in 1909. Since childhood, Nikolai has been carried away by music. This love was passed to him by his mother, who loved to play music in the evening in the family circle. Even in his teens, Cherkasov Nikolai Konstantinovich got acquainted with the work of FI Shalyapin, who made an unforgettable impression on a young man.

First creative steps

The first seen performance in the life of the future theater and cinema master - Ruslan and Lyudmila performed by the actors of the Mariinsky Theater, happened in 1912. Then the pupil of the St. Petersburg Gymnasium No. 10 did not even think about the future profession. Everything happened in the summer of 1917, when Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin performed in Pavlovsk. The image of Boris Godunov in the performance of the great master of Russian opera art was strongly imprinted in the consciousness of a fourteen-year-old boy. Since then, the young Cherkasov has not missed a single opera premiere of Russia's great bass.

Choice of profession

After graduating from the labor school in revolutionary Petrograd, Nikolai Cherkasov submits documents to the local military medical academy, but at heart the young man deeply doubts his choice of the future profession of a military doctor. In 1919 NK Cherkasov adopted an important decision in his life and radically changed his future. From now on, Nikolai Cherkasov is an actor of the studio of mimists directed by A. Clark. The talent of the young actor was immediately noticed, and after several months of work in the studio he was invited to the professional stage of the Petrograd Academic Opera and Ballet Theater as an extra.

Ballet dancer

Nikolai Cherkasov, an actor of the Mariinsky Theater, participates in all theatrical productions while simultaneously mastering ballroom dance in the creative laboratory of the Institute of Arts. Since 1920 NK Cherkasov has played mimic roles in the classical ballet productions of the theater, which is highly noted by the Moscow choreographers. The roles of Nikolai Cherkasov:

• Brahmin in the play "La Bayadere";
• An evil genius in the theatrical production "Swan Lake";
• Don Quixote in the same ballet by Ludwig Minkus;
• In the "Fairy Dolls" the actor performed a Negro dance.

However, the final recognition of the talented young actor came after the play "Twelfth Night" based on the comedy of the great William Shakespeare. Theater critics leave flattering comments about the talent of N. K. Cherkasov. He noticed the whole creative elite of Petrograd.

The student of theatrical high school

In the autumn of 1923 Nikolai Cherkasov joins the student brotherhood of the city on the Neva, the biography of the actor is supplemented with another important event. From now on, N. K. Cherkasov is a student of the dramatic department of the Petrograd Institute of Performing Arts. "Dance Trio" - so the students called their parody number. The future stars of Soviet cinema - Boris Chirkov, who played the role of the silent film comedian Patashon in the trio, Nikolai Cherkasov, who played the bad and pensive melancholy of Pata from the Danish comic duet Pat and Patashon, and Peter Berezov, who won the role of Charlie Chaplin - Viewers. The student trio was invited to various events and club parties. And soon the young people "lit up" and on the professional stage, playing several times a day on various theatrical stages of Petrograd and Moscow.

On one of these performances, the student of the historical faculty Nina Weibrecht turned her attention to the lanky actor. A few days later, speaking in the city recreation garden, Nikolai Cherkasov, an actor of the "Dance Trio", meets a girl. Some time later, in 1930, the young couple will get married, and a year later a daughter will be born in the family - Victoria, who is destined to live 11 years.

Search for creative roles

The Leningrad Theater of the Young Spectator (TYUZ), where Nikolai Konstantinovich was invited after the theater academy, becomes the first test for professional fitness. However, the young actor withstood this test with honor. It was during the work in the Theater for Young Spectators that N. Cherkasov got acquainted with cinema for the first time. The small episodic roles that Nikolai Cherkasov receives, the films that significantly enriched him creatively, allowed the actor to make a new turn in his creative career. In the spring of 1929, an actor-eccentric was invited to the Moscow theater "Music Hall". The reason for this decision is material interest. In the theater of the young spectator, the salary was half as much as in the Music Hall. However, dramatic roles in the theater and actor's cinema attracted more than the material side.

In the spring of 1931, Nikolai Konstantinovich moved to the Leningrad Drama Theater, where he took part in staging plays by classical and contemporary authors. Soon the actor is invited to the troupe of the Academic Drama Theater. Pushkin, where Nikolay Cherkasov will serve until the last days of his life.

"Children of Captain Grant" - a film in 1936

After minor cinematic roles in 1935, director Vladimir Vainshtok invited Nikolai Cherkasov to star in an adventure movie based on the work of Jules Verne. Professor Jacques Paganel is a new work in the movie of a talented actor. Nikolay Cherkasov gladly accepted the offer of the eminent director, who previously filmed seven films. In the future Vladimir Petrovich Vainshtok will be known as the director and scriptwriter of cult films:

• "Children of Captain Grant", a film in 1936.
• "Treasure Island", released on screens in 1937.
• Detective feature film "The Dead Season" (1968).
• "Mission in Kabul" (1970), "The Horseman without a Head" (1972), collaborative work with screenwriter Pavel Finn.

Filming of the movie "Captain Grant's Children" took place in various regions of the country. Chegem gorge, Sueazsu gorge, peaks and slopes of Tichtingen and Bashil, waterfalls of the Twyber Pass are the places visited by Jacques Paganel (Nikolai Cherkasov) and which replaced the Cordilleras of the North and South America.

Popular popularity

The film had a tremendous success with the audience, after which Nikolai Cherkasov received proposals from eminent directors. Everyone offered the actor a role in the movie, and one was not like the other. However, the choice of the artist fell on the historical film "Peter the First," where Nicholas Roerich played the role of Tsarevich Alexei, heir to the throne. Following the historical and biographical film directed by V.M. Petrov, a new film "The Deputy of the Baltic" appears on the screens of the country, in which Nikolai Cherkasov, being a 35-year-old man, played the role of elderly professor Polezhaev, the prototype of the great Russian scientist Kliment Timiryazev. The film of Alexander Zarkhi was highly appreciated by the government of the country and awarded the Stalin Prize. Not only the director of the picture receives a high award. The title of Honored Artist of Russia receives and the performer of the main role Nikolai Cherkasov.

Films with the participation of an actor in the pre-war country inspired Soviet spectators to new labor exploits and brought up love for their country in them. An example will be the next big role of the public's favorite, this is Alexander Nevsky. The eponymous film by Sergei Eisenstein will not only receive recognition in the country, but will also be highly appreciated in the world cinema, having entered the catalog of the best films of all times and peoples as a movie that brings patriotic feelings to his country. For the role of Alexander Nevsky and Tsarevich Alexei in the film "Peter the First," Nikolai Cherkasov receives the Stalin Prize and the Order of Lenin. It is noteworthy that the profile on the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the highest award for the command staff of the Red Army, belongs to the main character of the film of the same name.

Public and political activities

The popularity of the beloved actor among millions of admirers of his talent allowed him to be elected repeatedly as a deputy of the Supreme Council. According to eyewitnesses, Nikolai Cherkasov did not regard his duties as a formalist, but as a person who really wanted to help people. After many years, the People's Artist of the USSR estimated that he had accepted more than 2500 people in his deputy's chair. And Georgi Tovstonogov described Deputy N.K. Cherkasov as follows: "If you collect all the people who helped Kolya Cherkasov, you would have to rent a football stadium."

Military years

The news of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War overtook NK Cherkasov on a creative trip to the Far East. Upon his return to his native Leningrad, he and the whole troupe of the academic theater were evacuated to Novosibirsk. The concert brigade of the theater, created in 1941 and headed by NK Cherkasov, traveled the entire Baltic fleet, inspiring its viewers to new feats in the fight against the fascist invaders.

In April 1943 in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan) Sergei Eisenstein begins a new cinematic project, where the main role should play Nikolai Cherkasov. Ivan the Terrible is a Soviet historical film, the shooting of which was personally supervised by the head of state, Joseph Stalin. Initially, it was assumed that the film will be released in three series. However, the deadline set by the Cinematography Committee did not allow the director to reveal the entire artistic and historical meaning of the picture. October 28, 1944 was the premiere of the film in the Kremlin. After watching the feature film, Joseph Vissarionovich was pleased with the work done. Later, in 1947, for the role of Ivan the Terrible NK Cherkasov will receive the title of People's Artist of the Soviet Union, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the Stalin Prize.

Filmography of People's Artist NK Cherkasov

In the postwar years, the actor continues to work fruitfully in the theater and cinema. In Soviet film distribution, one after the other, there are films that have become iconic in the Soviet cinema art. So, in 1947 the picture "Spring" appears, where the incomparable Love Orlova plays the main role, and the role of the director Arkady Gromov was beautifully performed by Nikolai Cherkasov. In the film "Academician Ivan Pavlov," which premiered in 1949, Nikolai Cherkasov was entrusted with the image of Maxim Gorky. In the same year, a biopic "Alexander Popov", where the Russian physicist and inventor of the radio is played by NK Cherkasov, is published.

However, the most famous and recognizable role of Nikolai Konstantinovich remains Don Quixote. This film directed by G. Kozintsev based on the novel of the same name by Miguel de Cervantes, the Soviet audience first saw May 23, 1957, when the premiere screening of the film in the USSR took place. For the main role in the film "Don Quixote" Nikolai Konstantinovich at international film festivals in Vancouver and Stratford receives the award as the best actor.

Nikolai Cherkasov: the personal life of a national artist

Few people know that a successful career in the theater and the cinema of the People's Artist kept pace with the personal drama of the Cherkasov family. The family life of the idol of the audience was full of tragic events. The children of Nikolai Cherkasov, born in love and accord, had different destinies. Thus, the eldest daughter, born in 1931, died with her grandfather - the father-in-law of Nikolai Konstantinovich - in besieged Leningrad. The second daughter, born in 1939, died at birth. The only heir to the Cherkasov family was Andrei Nikolayevich (born in 1941), who still keeps his father's creative heritage.

The last years of Don Quixote

The state of health of Nikolai Konstantinovich began to deteriorate in 1964, when chronic asthma, tormented by an actor from the time of the Great Patriotic War, escalated. In addition, the People's Artist appeared serious problems with the heart. September 14, 1966 the heart of the great artist stopped. The Alexander Nevsky Lavra in the city on the Neva became its last refuge.