He's Gosha, he's Goga... What is the real Alexey Batalov like? Whose blood flowed in his veins.

On the night of June 14-15, People's Artist of the USSR Alexei Batalov passed away; he was 88 years old. He was loved by audiences for his roles in the films “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” “Three Fat Men” and “The Cranes Are Flying.” “360” recalls the main stages of life famous actor, which became a symbol of Soviet cinema.

Alexey Vladimirovich Batalov was born on November 20, 1928 in Vladimir. The love of art was instilled in him since childhood - his parents served in the Moscow Art Theater. His father was a director, and his mother worked as an actress.

Photo: RIA Novosti / Ilya Pitalev

A few years after the birth of Alexei Vladimirovich, his parents divorced. Mother, Olga Olshevskaya, married a second time - her chosen one was the famous writer Viktor Ardov. Frequent guests of their house were Bulgakov, Mandelstam, Ranevskaya, Akhmatova and other representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, with whom Alexei Vladimirovich had many memories. He spoke about this in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda in 2002.

When Akhmatova came to Moscow, my room was cleared for her. In this six-meter room, when I went to bed, I would touch the opposite wall with my feet, and Anna Andreevna looked like a queen in the nook. I wrote in detail about Akhmatova in my book “Fate and Craft”. But you know, I can tell you something interesting: I was the first to take her to the destroyed Tsarskoye Selo after the war. It was such an incredible day! She wandered there silently, and I walked nearby, trying not to interfere. It was an incredible sight! When I returned from the army, Akhmatova, although she was not rich herself, gave me money so that I could dress up. And I used all the money to buy my first car - a Moskvich...
Alexey Batalov.

In 1941, due to the outbreak of war, Alexei’s family had to leave Moscow and move to Tataria. But immediately after returning, he entered the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio, and in 1950 he began playing at the Central Theater Soviet army.

Personal life

Batalov first married very early - at the age of 16. His wife was Irina Rotova, the daughter of a famous artist, with whom he had been friends since childhood. In 1955, a joyful event happened in their family - their daughter Nadezhda was born. That same year he received his first main role in the film “The Rumyantsev Case,” which marked the start of his career.

The filming of the film became fateful for his personal life - during it he fell in love with the 19-year-old circus rider Gitana. In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, he recalled the first years of their romance:

We had lunch and dinner together... Yes, then I still formally had my first family. But I kept going back and forth... We met with Gitana. She went on her tour, I went on mine. When it became clear to us that we didn’t want to part, five years passed.
- Alexey Batalov.

In 1963 they got married and their daughter Maria was born. Because of medical error During childbirth, the girl received a terrible illness - cerebral palsy.

Gitana had to end her circus career in order to devote herself to raising the girl, and Batalov had to give up many roles in order to spend more time with his family. However, thanks to the love and efforts of her parents, Maria was able to get on her feet and realize herself as a screenwriter and music critic. In one of his last interviews, the actor shared his daughter’s achievements.

If a person comes home who doesn’t even know that I have a sick daughter, I don’t explain. Her achievements - books, scripts, articles - speak for themselves. It must also be said that Masha has been interested in music since childhood. And now she is invited to the theater not as a spectator, but as a music critic; professionals value her reviews. It was through her work that her daughter proved what she is capable of, because she works day and night. This is what saved her
Alexey Batalov.

Career

Alexei Batalov received his first film role while still a schoolboy - in 1944 he played in the film “Zoya”. In 1957, Alexey Vladimirovich starred in the leading roles of the military melodrama “The Cranes Are Flying.” The film received not only recognition in the Soviet Union, but also the main award at the Cannes Film Festival - the Palme d'Or.

Frame: the film “The Cranes Are Flying”

In 1979, he starred in Vladimir Menshov’s melodrama “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” in the role of Gosha. Director for a long time was selecting an actor for this role, but remained confident that only Batalov could be the best candidate. The main task that faced Alexei was to convey the image of a modest, sometimes drinking worker, without making him a boor. And it happened - Gosha fell in love with women all over the country, and the film was nominated for an Oscar as the best foreign film. In an interview with the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, he said that he considers the success of the film to be the merit of the director.

Menshov explained to me how we could make the role of Gosha. This is purely his merit, and I am forever grateful to him
Alexey Batalov.

Batalov was never shy about playing a variety of roles, from workers to students and soldiers. But there was something uniting all his characters - they all personified masculinity, kindness and sincerity.

Only one role, according to Alexei Vladimirovich himself, was given to him with great difficulty - Gurova from “The Lady with the Dog.” At the same time, the film won many awards and audience recognition.

Parallel to his acting career, Batalov realized himself as a director. In 1966, his film “Three Fat Men” was released, which many critics rate as his most successful work. It is worth noting that there he acted not only as an actor, but also as a director. He also captivated the audience by performing many stunts without insurance, including walking on a tightrope. Under his leadership, two more equally famous films were shot: “The Overcoat” and “The Player.”

Alexey Batalov was also involved in radio shows. His main works are “A Hero of Our Time” and “Romeo and Juliet”. And in 1974, he found a new hobby and began dubbing cartoons. The heroes of “The Hedgehog in the Fog”, “Keys in Time” and “The Frog Traveler” spoke in his voices.

RIA Novosti / Boris Kaufman

Since 1975, he began teaching at VGIK in the acting department, passing on his talent to the younger generation. Since 1989, he worked as the head of the department and managed to graduate seven acting workshops as a scientific director.

Alexey Vladimirovich was the winner of many awards. The actor was a laureate of the State Prize of the RSFSR named after the Vasiliev brothers (1966), State Prizes of the USSR (1981) and the Russian Federation (2005).

In January 2017, Batalov was admitted to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a femoral neck fracture. After a serious operation, Alexey Vladimirovich was under the supervision of doctors for a long time in the hospital of one of the Moscow clinics. On June 14, a priest came to him and gave the actor communion, KP wrote. On the morning of June 15, the great actor’s heart stopped.

Of course everyone remembers him ideal man Gosha from the Oscar-winning “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.” But it would be unfair to talk only about this role. Sasha Rumyantsev from the film “The Rumyantsev Case”, and Boris Borozdin from “The Cranes Are Flying”, and the tightrope walker Tibul in “Three Fat Men”, which he also directed, were brilliant.

Alexey was born in Vladimir in famous family actors of the Moscow Art Theater. The fact that Vladimir became the city of his birth was an accident. They lived with their parents, of course, in Moscow. When the boy was five, his father and mother divorced.

Soon my mother married famous writer, playwright and screenwriter Viktor Ardov. Batalov remembers his stepfather with warmth. He says that Viktor Efimovich was a noble man and thanks to him, their family began to include famous writers and poets of that time.

For example, Alexei Vladimirovich’s mother was close friends with Anna Akhmatova, who in her old age lived in a small room in their house and was very friendly with young Alexei. When he returned from the army, Anna Andreevna gave the guy money for a new suit. And he bought a used Muscovite with them. “I think this is wonderful!” - the poetess praised him.

The future actor did extremely poorly at school - after all, the first years of his education were spent in evacuation during the war.

There, few of the children were sitting at their textbooks; everyone was doing something else. Batalov, for example, together with his mother organized the first drama theater in evacuation Bugulma.

Subsequently, it will be rebuilt and named after the actor, although, according to Batalov, he was then a boy and only played a textbook footman, whose text was limited to the words: “Food is served.”

Batalov, who grew up literally behind the scenes, became ill with the theatre. early childhood. Of course, the boy dreamed of continuing the dynasty, like his parents, of becoming an actor. But until the last moment I doubted: did he have talent? Because, the actor believed, going on stage without special talent is nonsense.

Twist of fate

Batalov returned to post-war Moscow with the idea of entering the Moscow Art Theater School, where he quickly and effortlessly entered. At the same time, although the guy was only 16, Alexey Vladimirovich decided to marry his daughter close friend family of the artist Konstantin Rotov, Irina.

He had known her since the cradle, and by the age of 16, and at this age post-war children already felt like adults and accomplished, he decided to propose to her.

The actor says that in those days no one was afraid that there would be nowhere and nothing to live on.

They huddled wherever they had to: in the same small room that Akhmatova later occupied with Batalov’s parents; in an equally small one - in the Rotovs' house... After some time, little Nadyusha was born to the lovers, and the young father began to work a lot and pay very little attention to the family.

Today Alexey Vladimirovich complains that he first got married very young and could not maintain any warm relations with his first wife, nor friendly with his daughter. Subsequently, she studied and became a translator, but she never really knew her father.

Actor

Nine Days of One Year (1961)

Alexei Batalov's film debut took place back in school years and not at all under the protection of parents. Their entire class then ended up in film set film about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya “Zoya”. Batalov even got a line.

But the first truly stellar role of Sasha Rumyantsev was played by him only in the mid-50s. The actor recalls how deftly his Sasha drives a car, and says that he had a real passion for cars since his time in the army - where he learned to drive.

Another star-studded film, “The Cranes Are Flying,” won the most prestigious film awards. Subtly and soulfully, Batalov played opposite Tatyana Samoilova in this famous drama. The image of Boris Borozdin sunk into the hearts of millions of viewers.

Talented in everything

Batalov has many professional victories, they are not limited to films. For example, Soyuzmultfilm played a significant role in his life - we hear the voice of Alexei Vladimirovich in “The Frog Traveler”, “Keys to Time”. And, of course, Norshtein’s cult “Hedgehog in the Fog” is voiced by Batalov.

Thanks to his characteristic pleasant baritone, Alexei Vladimirovich was often called to work on radio plays, which he did with pleasure, giving the Soviet audience a whole galaxy of wonderful radio productions.

Another bright hobby of Batalov is directing. In his own words, he escaped from acting into this profession. He shot only three films - “The Overcoat”, “The Player” and “Three Fat Men”. The last one turned out to be the brightest.

Firstly, the director treated the original source with care and put the famous work on the screen very accurately. Secondly, he himself starred in the role of Tibul, performing many difficult stunts on his own.

“Moscow doesn’t believe in tears”

Moscow doesn't believe in tears (1979)

And in the mid-seventies, he again made an attempt to escape - this time he began teaching acting at VGIK. Batalov no longer planned to act, but in 1979 his friend and excellent director Vladimir Menshov conceived his own “ordinary melodrama.”

“Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” appealed to Alexei Vladimirovich because of some special charisma, and the hero Gosha, for the role of which Menshov called him, fit right into the intelligent and charming Batalov’s own features. And he agreed.

Later, the actor admits: if he had not played in the film, which became an Oscar-winning film, he probably would not have had the right to bear the title of artist. After “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” Batalov did not act in films. He left at the peak, having so accurately and vividly played one of his most memorable roles.

A year later he was already a professor at VGIK and headed one of the departments there.

Love

Lady with a Dog (1960)

One more line in life famous artist- his romantic story with the gypsy Gitana Leontenko. He first saw her in the circus arena, where the girl performed her legendary act on a horse. He fell madly in love at first sight and claims that he will never forget this moment.

There were all sorts of rumors about the mysterious grotesque rider. Allegedly, Gitana’s mother is a real camp gypsy, and the girl herself began working in the circus thanks to an affair with Nikulin himself. But the artist only laughs: it is not known at all whether Gitana’s ordinary Soviet mother was a gypsy. And she got into the circus only thanks to her iron will and many years of training.

Batalov proposed to his beloved only ten years after they met, when he was convinced that they were truly close people. The couple was born common daughter, who was diagnosed with a terrible diagnosis - cerebral palsy.

Having learned about Mashenka’s illness, Batalov went to work so that his family would not need anything. Gitana, who by that time was already retired, also had to enter the arena. Through common efforts loving parents We were able to improve our daughter’s health. She subsequently received good education- graduated from the screenwriting department of VGIK, became a writer and screenwriter.

Batalov taught until a very old age, until in the winter of 2017 he was hospitalized with a hip fracture. It took him a long time to rehabilitate himself after the fracture. In May, doctors decided to transfer the actor to a rehabilitation center. It was there, early in the morning of June 15, quietly, in a dream, that the people's artist left this world.

The only thing that darkened the life of the famous classic was his meager financial situation, which he got into after retiring. Everyone knows: the great genius of cinema worked conscientiously and for art, but was never able to accumulate capital.

However, he never complained about this state of affairs. The only thing Alexey Vladimirovich regretted was that he did not save good relations with eldest daughter, who has now raised his granddaughter Katya.

Large family (1954)

No Return (1973)

My Dear Man (1958)

Star of Captivating Happiness (1975)

Carnival night-2, or 50 years later (2006)

About another wonderful colleague who recently passed away, it was said: “There are no irreplaceables - there are unique ones.” Batalov is also unique, he said: “What helps a person preserve himself? My favorite thing and my own conscience.”

Whose blood flowed in his veins?

U Bulat Okudzhava there are lines: “Conscience, nobility and dignity - this is it, our holy army.” They were quoted specifically in connection with Batalov. In his youth, he recalled: “I smoked makhorka secretly, but with dignity.” “Honor and dignity” - he had this award. Nobility? If we are talking about origin, he himself called himself “a Muscovite, born in Vladimir.” Father, Vladimir Batalov, - peasant blood, from a village in the Yaroslavl province. Vladimir is the hometown of the artist’s mother Nina Olshevskaya(I went there from the capital to give birth). Here in her veins is the blood of Polish nobles (the actor himself received “hereditary nobility” in 2003 from the Russian Imperial House). She hated her city, because it was from here that her relatives were taken, ruined by the system in the 30s. XX century Among them are her father and mother, grandfather and grandmother Batalov.

His own father and mother were actors Art Theater, studied with Stanislavsky. Several other relatives served in the theater. Batalov was fully a child of the theater, a child of the stage and backstage.

The geniuses of that era were guests for Alexei Vladimirovich from childhood - already in the “writer’s house” of his mother’s second husband, a writer Viktor Ardov, on B. Ordynka. With stepson Bulgakov he played Zoshchenko“lulled” him to sleep at night with his stories, Anna Akhmatova She often lived for a long time in the apartment of Ardov and Olshevskaya and settled down on Alexei’s sofa. She taught him to love poetry, Russian classics and, in general, words in art.

Batalov never played scoundrels and scoundrels - they wouldn’t have believed him anyway, so powerful were the artist’s charm and human content. Its characters, starting with working guys from the 50s - Alexey Zhurbin (“Big Family”) and driver Sasha (“Rumyantsev Case”), Boris (“The Cranes Are Flying”), Doctor Vladimir Ustimenko (“My Dear Man”), physicist Gusev (“Nine Days of One Year”) - honesty, dignity, conscience and some kind of higher truth invariably lived. And romanticism.

What could he become?

Batalov wrote that he could become “only an actor or...”. He could continue jokingly - as a driver or auto designer. The car was his second passion, he had a professional license, and even drove a MAZ. Didn't do well at school, but was good at drawing (he studied with Roberta Falk). And so he was an ordinary boy growing up in an unusual environment. The war turned his life, like the life of the entire country, upside down. Evacuation with mom and stepbrother to Bugulma. Hunger, cold, torn shoes, poor clothes... But there was a Theater! Mother organized it in Bugulma (now the theater bears the name of Batalov).

The scenery was made from boards from boxes, from boxes, and spectator seats were made from broken chairs. The teenager Batalov then learned all the theatrical crafts: he painted posters, was in charge of the curtain, made props and scenery, heated stoves, rang a rusty bell, inviting into the hall coughing, tired, hungry, cold, often wounded, in bandages and plaster, on crutches spectators to performances. They also performed in hospitals. Alexey Vladimirovich himself believed that with the war and evacuation his “childhood ended abruptly and precisely, but it was they who determined his subsequent life.” But in this huge misfortune, grief, which he fully shared with the country, there was also great happiness: the first appearance on stage, an episode in the cinema (in the film “Zoya” 1944), the first pay and meal ticket"stage worker", first applause. And most importantly, he then, “choking with joy,” “tasted all the sweetness of the craft,” experienced “the joyful thing in life - holy service to the soldiers of Russia.” “Nowhere and never have I felt like such an adult and necessary person.”

Alexey Batalov's first role was in the film “Zoya”, 1944. Alexey, schoolboy. Photo: Still from the film

When did fame come?

Batalov served the theater for only a short time. Graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School (his diploma was signed by Olga Knipper-Chekhova). While serving in the army, he played at the Soviet Army Theater, then was accepted into the Moscow Art Theater. But he did not gain fame. In the 1950s he began acting - and here success came quickly. Five films Joseph Kheifitz, filming at Mikhail Kalatozov, Mikhail Romm, “The Palme d’Or” in Cannes for the film “The Cranes Are Flying,” which has become a legend. Batalov himself became a legend, an artist, adored by the public. But he also played a little in films - about 40 roles with episodes. However, he was able to become a symbol of the post-war generation of young people - both workers and intellectuals. His classical repertoire in cinema is annoyingly small: Golubkov in Bulgakov’s “Run”, Prince Trubetskoy in “The Star of Captivating Happiness”, a few more images. Intellectuals, “blue blood”.

And, of course, Gosha! Auditioned for this role Oleg Efremov, Vitaly Solomin, he categorically did not want to play (persuaded Menshov with extraordinary tenacity), and during the filming no one expected such success in the future, Batalov - the USSR State Prize and even more so the Oscar. In the film "Kinfolk" the heroine Mordyukova says: “There’s Batalov without a mustache, and the women are drooling over him!” After Gosha, people literally went crazy about Batalov, who had already turned 50: a real man, man! Hope and support. Critics wrote that all the women in the country would go to Siberia for his Prince Trubetskoy. They would marry his Gosha. He has golden working hands and the intelligence of a scientist. Such a boor with a face like this will go and drink if necessary if necessary (he’s a living person!), but “he will always decide everything himself.” However, Batalov himself spoke unexpectedly harshly about the hero: “Lonely soviet women it was not examined properly. He glorified me, and I am, of course, grateful to him. But is he ideal? I wouldn’t be surprised if three days after the wedding he hits his beloved on the head with a bottle. Why not?

Batalov cannot be called an on-screen handsome man. Perhaps the main thing in his charm was his unique voice. Yuri Norshtein said that this voice should be “prescribed to people for therapeutic purposes.” As a director, Batalov made three films - “The Overcoat” by Gogol, “The Gambler” by Dostoevsky and “Three Fat Men” by Olesha, where he himself played the circus performer Tibul, for which, at the age of 37, he learned to walk on a tightrope and without an understudy, he himself walked at great heights in a very difficult scene (“In one’s right mind, this, of course, cannot be done, but I took the risk,” the actor recalled ). By that time, Batalov was already married for the second time to a circus performer. A dancer on a horse, a gypsy from a circus family. Probably, the world of the circus, with its eternal celebration and eternal risk, became part of his own world.

WITH Gitana Leontenko Batalov lived for more than 60 years raising his daughter Maria, disabled since birth, and wrote her the last lines in his life in the hospital: “My beloved, a priceless gift from God...” From an early youthful marriage there is a daughter Hope. But, remembering Batalov, I don’t want to shy away from the personal realm in favor of the current fashion. Everything that can be attributed to " sharp corners“in his life, he managed to comment on himself and mercilessly, first of all, to himself...

He was gone, he left, just as people of art, of an “early time”, of another era are leaving one after another today. Gifted, in addition to the talent for playing, are also “the ability to see, understand, feel the world around us. And this cannot be invented or replaced by a clever game - convictions, spiritual world, experience, human content.” This was written by Alexey Vladimirovich Batalov not about himself. But we understand - and about ourselves too.

// Photo: Anatoly Lomokhov/PhotoXPress.ru

Actor Alexey Batalov became famous thanks to his roles strong in spirit men who are always ready to help. His filmography includes dozens of bright reincarnations, each of which was remembered by the audience for a long time.

On June 15, 2017, the great artist passed away after a long illness. His last thoughts were connected with his beloved daughter Maria and his wife Gitana Arkadyevna, with whom he spent almost 55 years.

Today, November 20, Batalov would celebrate his 90th birthday. What was the actor really like, and what trials did he have to go through to become part of cinema history forever?

DIFFICULT CHILDHOOD

Alexey Vladimirovich was born in 1928 in acting family. His parents devoted their entire lives to the theater, so the creative spirit was literally in the blood of the future people's artist. When Batalov was still a child, his parents suddenly divorced, and after that his mother remarried the writer Viktor Ardov. It is this person who for a five-year-old boy will become the personification of courage and masculine strength for a long time.

Weekdays in new family were not easy, because next door to Ardov’s apartment was his apartment ex-wife. That is why Alexei Vladimirovich’s mother tried by all means to get new property. As a result, the future actor and his parents moved to the famous house of writers, where Mandelstam himself lived next door to them.

Well, then the harsh 40s began. Understanding full well that they were in danger in Moscow, Alexei Vladimirovich’s mother decided to move with her children to Bugulma. However, even here, the principled Nina Olshevskaya did not change her calling, organizing a small theater. It was on this stage that Batalov played his first roles, finally falling in love with the profession.

It was possible to return to the capital only in 1950, and during this period Alexey Vladimirovich had already begun to storm the stage of Lenkom. His younger brother Mikhail later recalled that Batalov, already a married man, began to feel uncomfortable in his parents’ apartment, where Soviet celebrities periodically visited.

“Our apartment was cramped, Akhmatova still came there periodically. He and his wife could not live there. In St. Petersburg they later gave him communal apartment, a small room. They did not have any other housing. I had to crowd there with my wife and daughter. A few years later he was given a separate apartment,” said the star’s brother.

Even then, Alexey Batalov was completely absorbed in his profession. He was trusted with major roles in the theater, and in cinema he was allowed to work in a variety of roles. Thanks to his own perseverance, by the mid-50s many viewers began to recognize the charming artist, who was expected to achieve incredible fame in the future.

PAINFUL DIVORCE

As Batalov himself later said, he met his first wife Irina in early childhood. Their parents rented a summer house nearby, and the boys often played together. Over time, the friendship grew into something more, and already as a 20-year-old young man, Alexey Vladimirovich decided to tie the knot.

Despite the hasty marriage, the couple were in no hurry to have children. Their daughter Nadezhda was born only in 1955, and three years later there was a divorce that was unexpected for everyone.

According to Batalov’s brother, Alexey Vladimirovich and his Irina began to move away at the very beginning of their married life.

“They were never particularly close. In principle, he is not characterized by great feelings towards his relatives. Yes, they lived together, he played with his daughter, but there was no deep spiritual connection,” Mikhail Ardov emphasized in documentary film"Alexey Batalov. He’s Gosha, he’s Goga.”

By 1958, the relationship with his wife Irina had completely exhausted itself. The artist could not be near his wife, and his thoughts had long been occupied by another woman. However, the separation turned out to be too painful: the ex-chosen one harbored a grudge against Alexei Vladimirovich, and the relationship with her daughter Nadezhda did not work out.

After Batalov admitted that he was bad father. The girl grew up in another family, and as a result, contact between them was almost completely lost. Alexey Vladimirovich invariably regretted that he could not become support and support for Nadezhda, but over the next years, two women occupied all his time - his wife Gitan and daughter Maria.

A TERRIBLE DIAGNOSIS OF A BELOVED CHILD

// Photo: Still from a documentary

Batalov first met Gitana Arkadyevna at the circus, where she performed acrobatic acts. The amazing girl instantly captured all his attention, and later the artist admitted that it was love at first sight.

However, the circus performer’s mother did not approve of her choice, because Alexey Vladimirovich was married. That is why the lovers had to separate for four long years. After such a long period of time, their feelings did not melt or dry up.

And even though those around him sometimes condemned Batalov, it was next to Gitana that he felt happy. When his daughter Masha was born in 1968, the artist was in seventh heaven.

For some time, the couple did not notice any strange behavior in the child. However, it soon became clear that the girl had health problems. After a medical examination, the doctors issued a disappointing verdict - cerebral palsy.

// Photo: Still from a documentary

The baby suffered a birth injury, and therefore Alexey Vladimirovich blamed the doctors for the diagnosis of his beloved Masha for many years. Since the child with cerebral palsy required constant care, Gitana Arkadyevna had to leave the circus.

This brave woman devoted the next decades entirely to caring for her husband and daughter. Maria Batalova herself, possessing innate stubbornness, decided not to give up on herself. The girl graduated with honors from the screenwriting department of VGIK, and now successfully writes fairy tales and other literary works.

“Mashka is the commander-in-chief in our house. Everything we have is adjusted to it. She is very stubborn and purposeful, so yes, we obey,” admitted Alexey Vladimirovich.

He repeatedly talked about how he wanted to bequeath to his daughter absolutely everything that he had acquired through backbreaking labor, because she was the main joy in his life.

SCANDALIC Cottage

In his declining years, Alexey Vladimirovich unexpectedly found himself at the epicenter loud scandal. And it wasn’t about roles or conflicts in the family, but about real estate.

The Batalovs’ neighbor at the dacha, Vadim Elgart, built a bathhouse on the people’s artist’s property. He categorically refused to demolish it, which is why a real war broke out between the two men. Gitana Arkadyevna has repeatedly admitted that she is afraid to come to the dacha with her daughter precisely because of her inadequate neighbor.

Unfortunately, Batalov was never able to resolve this conflict during his lifetime. For more than a year after his death, the star’s relatives had to literally fight for property, insisting on the demolition of the unauthorized building. Elgart himself claimed that he built the bathhouse with the verbal permission of Alexei Vladimirovich. The neighbor also assured others that People's Artist used the building for his own purposes.

“He brought women here. He had a separate gate, he passed through it together with the women. Once he even needed to take one of them to England, he asked me for a thousand dollars for this. I borrowed them and they disappeared. And then one day Gitana found out about his tricks, and for some reason I became extreme,” Elgart said in the program “Andrey Malakhov. Live broadcast."

However, Batalov's relatives categorically denied such accusations. According to everyone who was even slightly familiar with the artist, he never cheated on his beloved Gitana, next to whom he lived for almost 55 years.

As a result, the scandal with the bathhouse ended with its demolition in mid-October 2018. Now Batalov’s fans hope that Gitana Arkadyevna and Maria will find the strength to again visit the very dacha that caused them so many problems.

LONG ILLNESS AND DEATH

Batalov began having health problems several years before his death. He often complained of dizziness and vascular problems. During another exacerbation of the disease in January 2017, he fell at home and broke his femoral neck right leg. After this, the operation took place, but Alexey Vladimirovich was no longer able to leave the hospital.

IN last days During his life, next to him was his wife Gitana Arkadyevna and his beloved daughter Masha. According to relatives, Batalov died in his sleep on June 15, 2017. The actor did not suffer and managed to take communion the day before his death.

The death of Alexei Vladimirovich shocked his many fans and colleagues. Thus, the star of the series “Univer” Alexey Lemar, who studied under Batalov, thanked him for his start in life.

“I am incredibly grateful to you that back in my first year, you and my family pulled me out of the army, where I was mistakenly involved. Thank you for the fact that my first professional work on TV was together with you, on Sergei Mayorov’s project “Stories in Detail”. My deepest bow for letting me go on set and giving me wise advice, under the blue smoke of your pipe, in your office, inspiring me to learn about cinema, radio, TV, literature through practical experience, mastering various professions in these fields art. I’m incredibly grateful that they instilled in me love, wisdom, and humanity in relation to this world,” the actor noted.

Of course, the artist’s death was a heavy blow for his wife Gitana Arkadyevna. Moreover, over the next few months she had to fight for the rights to the dacha. Now that the conflict with the bathhouse has been resolved, Batalov’s wife intends to care for her daughter Masha, who has always been the main joy of her famous father.

Of course, everyone remembers him as the ideal man Gosha from the Oscar-winning “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.” But it would be unfair to talk only about this role of his. His Sasha Rumyantsev from the film “The Rumyantsev Case”, and Boris Borozdin from “The Cranes Are Flying”, and the tightrope walker Tibul in “Three Fat Men”, which he also directed, were brilliant.

Alexey was born in Vladimir into a famous family of Moscow Art Theater actors. The fact that Vladimir became the city of his birth was an accident. They lived with their parents, of course, in Moscow. When the boy was five, his father and mother divorced.

Soon my mother married the famous writer, playwright and screenwriter Viktor Ardov. Batalov remembers his stepfather with warmth. He says that Viktor Efimovich was a noble man and thanks to him, their family began to include famous writers and poets of that time.

The future actor did extremely poorly at school - after all, the first years of his education were spent in evacuation during the war. There, few of the children were sitting at their textbooks; everyone was doing something else. Batalov, for example, together with his mother organized the first drama theater in evacuation Bugulma.

Batalov, who grew up literally behind the scenes, fell ill with the theater in early childhood. Of course, the boy dreamed of continuing the dynasty, like his parents, of becoming an actor. But until the last moment I doubted: did he have talent? Because, the actor believed, going on stage without special talent is nonsense.

TURNS OF DESTINY

Batalov returned to post-war Moscow with the idea of entering the Moscow Art Theater School, where he quickly and effortlessly entered. At the same time, although the guy was only 16, Alexey Vladimirovich decided to marry the daughter of a close family friend of the artist Konstantin Rotov, Irina.

He had known her since the cradle, and by the age of 16, and at this age post-war children already felt like adults and accomplished, he decided to propose to her.

The actor says that in those days no one was afraid that there would be nowhere and nothing to live on. They huddled wherever they had to: in that very small room that Akhmatova later occupied with Batalov’s parents; in an equally small one - in the Rotovs’ house... After some time, little Nadyusha was born to the lovers, and the young father began to work a lot and pay very little attention to his family.

Today Alexey Vladimirovich complains that he first got married very young and was unable to maintain either a warm relationship with his first wife or a friendly relationship with his daughter. Subsequently, she studied and became a translator, but she never really knew her father.

ACTOR

Alexei Batalov's film debut took place during his school years and not at all under the patronage of his parents. Their entire class then ended up on the set of the film about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya “Zoya”. Batalov even got a line.

But the first truly stellar role of Sasha Rumyantsev was played by him only in the mid-50s. The actor recalls how deftly his Sasha drives a car, and says that he had a real passion for cars since his time in the army - where he learned to drive.

TALENTED IN EVERYTHING

Another bright hobby of Batalov is directing. In his own words, he escaped from acting into this profession. He shot only three films - “The Overcoat”, “The Gambler” and “Three Fat Men”. The last one turned out to be the brightest.

“MOSCOW DOESN’T BELIEVE TEARS”

“Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” appealed to Alexei Vladimirovich because of some special charisma, and the hero Gosha, for the role of which Menshov called him, fit right into the intelligent and charming Batalov’s own features. And he agreed.

Later, the actor admits: if he had not played in the film, which became an Oscar-winning film, he probably would not have had the right to bear the title of artist. After “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” Batalov did not act in film. He left at the peak, having so accurately and vividly played one of his most memorable roles.

A year later he was already a professor at VGIK and headed one of the departments there.

LOVE

Another line in the life of the famous artist is his romantic story with the gypsy Gitana Leontenko. He first saw her in the circus arena, where the girl performed her legendary act on a horse. He fell madly in love at first sight and claims that he will never forget this moment.

Batalov proposed to his beloved only ten years after they met, when he was convinced that they were truly close people. The couple had a daughter together, who was diagnosed with a terrible diagnosis - cerebral palsy.

Having learned about Mashenka’s illness, Batalov went to work so that his family would not need anything. Gitana, who by that time was already retired, also had to enter the arena. Through joint efforts, loving parents were able to improve their daughter’s health. Subsequently, she received a good education - she graduated from the screenwriting department of VGIK, and became a writer and screenwriter.

Today Batalov does not act in films or make films, but continues to teach. He is happy with what he has, although information sometimes slips into the media about the meager state of the artist’s finances. Everyone knows: the great genius of cinema worked conscientiously and for art, but was never able to accumulate capital.

However, he never complained about this state of affairs. The only thing Alexey Vladimirovich regrets is that he did not maintain a good relationship with his eldest daughter, who has now raised his granddaughter Katya. But she doesn’t communicate with her grandfather either.