idol for an hour. Why didn’t the film career “Ivan Brovkin”
1979 Leonid Kharitonov gets out of the car, fans screech enthusiastically when he appears. True, it was just a scene from the film. At the end of 1979, the screen, which later became a cult one, was released by Vladimir Menshov’s melodrama “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears”. And Leonid Kharitonov performed a tiny cameo here. The artist himself has long lost its former popularity, the bright years of acting biography are left behind. Even the young viewers of the 80s could no longer understand all the enthusiasm in this scene. Although at one time everyone knew Kharitonov, he was a frantic success, but it lasted only about 5 years.
Leonid Kharitonov was born in Leningrad on May 19, 1930, in a simple, non-artistic family. There, in Leningrad, he, a very young man, was overtaken by the war. He had to go through several months of terrible blockade, but fortunately, together with his father, they managed to evacuate to the "mainland". But the tests of hunger did not pass without a trace: then he earned himself an ulcer, which then tormented him all his life. And the consequences of a hungry childhood will still affect his stellar years.
Study
At first, Leonid entered the Leningrad State University at the law faculty (the same one that Putin later graduated from). But the young Kharitonov was not interested in either a legal career or a political one. After the first year of Leningrad State University, he decided to drastically change his fate, fulfilling a childhood dream. To do this, he leaves the university and leaves for Moscow, where he enters the Moscow Art Theater School. In 1954, Leonid graduated from college and remained at the Moscow Art Theater until the end of his life: with this theater he would survive his triumph and difficult years for himself. Only the split of the theater he could not survive.
Years of fame
The filmmakers noticed a handsome, blue-eyed, angular guy while still at school. Young directors Vladimir Basov and Mstislav Korchagin undertook to film A. Gaidar’s novel “School” called “School of Courage”. It was their directorial debut, but they were not afraid to invite the same debutant, Leonid Kharitonov, to the main role (unfortunately, this work was the last for Korchagin, shortly after the shooting he died in a car accident). However, in theater schools then there was a ban on the participation of students in filming. It happened that disobedient students were expelled from an educational institution. So, for example, at the same time, the famous Tatyana Samoilova suffered - she was expelled from the Shchukin school due to filming in the Mexican.
Leonid Kharitonov did not want to risk student ID, so he refused to shoot. But the filmmakers did not back down: they influenced the leadership of the educational institution through the Komsomol Central Committee, and the teachers were officially forced, as an exception, to allow their student to go to the shooting. His shooting partner was Mark Bernes himself. In addition to Kharitonov, this role also became a debut for Rolan Bykov and Vladimir Basov (the director played a small role). “School of courage” was approved by both the authorities and won the love of the audience. And a new star appeared in Soviet cinema - Leonid Kharitonov.
Then the actor played the role of a pioneer leader in a dilogy about Vaska Trubachev. But another dilogy brought him fame - about Ivan Brovkin. In 1955, “Soldier Ivan Brovkin” was released. The story of the bad guy that the army corrected is still loved by the people.
Well, the sequel to “The Soldier of Ivan Brovkin” closes the gold filmography of Leonid Kharitonov, as it is customary to say now, the sequel “Ivan Brovkin on the virgin lands”. The audience liked the story of the brave soldier so much that they demanded a continuation. And the filmmakers went forward, moving the scene of the picture, in the spirit of the time, to the virgin lands. Fortunately, the picture came out alive, not a propagandist. The audience received warmly and this film.
Decline in popularity
But after the second “Brovkin” Kharitonov’s film career went downhill. He was still invited to shoot, but less and less for secondary roles.
After 20 years, they completely forgot about him. But just then, Vladimir Menshov invited him to his Oscar-winning ribbon. The director himself later recalled that he was not sure that the artist would agree: nevertheless, not everyone is pleased, being in oblivion, to recall his heyday of popularity again. But Kharitonov did not refuse and relived on the set those moments of glory that were once abundant in his youth.
June 20, 1987, the great actor passed away. It is symbolic that on the same day there was an actual section of the Moscow Art Theater.
The actor was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. The ceremony was attended by representatives of 2 theaters, led by Efremov and Doronina. After the funeral at the actor’s grave, they found a wreath with the inscription “From mother”, although everyone knew that Kharitonov’s mother had long been dead. It turned out that it was a wreath from the “mother of Ivan Brovkin” Tatyana Peltzer. Having no children, our wonderful actress spent her whole life treating Kharitonov as a son.