“one hundred kilograms of a dream”
Natalya Krachkovskaya is a Soviet comedian actress that every viewer knows and loves. Her biography included a happy marriage and years of acting fame, replaced by loneliness, disappointment, and serious illness.
Natalia Leonidovna Belogortseva was born in Moscow on November 24, 1938, in a family of theater actors - Leonid Yurievich Belogortsev and Maria Zotovna Fonina. My father went to the front in 1941 and met the victory in the rank of major, but never returned home - he died, having been blown up by a mine in the German city of Weimar several months after the end of the war.
Since childhood, Natasha was equally interested in theater and history, so after graduating from school, she first submitted documents to the Historical Archival Institute. But at the last moment, the acting genes won, and she entered VGIK on the course of Vladimir Belokurov. However, the girl was not destined to get an education - in the first year, she had an accident and received a serious head injury. The vision was seriously affected, so I had to say goodbye to my studies.
Having regained her health, Natasha got a job as a laboratory assistant at the Institute of Metallurgy, but didn’t leave her dreams of cinema: since 1959 she began acting in Mosfilm in extras, then in episodic roles, the most noticeable of which was the role of Verunka in the film directed by Vladimir Basov “The Battle” on the way ”(1961).
On the set of the next film, "High Water" (1962), where the future star also played in the episode, she met a successful sound engineer Vladimir Krachkovsky. This meeting will change her fate both as a woman and as an actress.
Thanks to Krachkovsky, Natasha met with the legendary director Leonid Gaidai. He remembered the colorful fatty when he began recruiting actors in his picture “12 Chairs”. Such famous actresses as Nonna Mordyukova and Galina Volchek auditioned for the role of Madame Gritsatsueva, but the director liked the samples of Natalya (then Krachkovskaya) more. But the novice actress was outraged in the script by a description of the appearance of her future heroine - "ladies of immense size with watermelon breasts." She did not experience complexes about her weight, therefore she was terribly offended and even wanted to abandon the role, but common sense won.
Krachkovskaya became one of the best comedic actresses of Soviet cinema. And it doesn’t matter that the main roles in her filmography cannot be found - even her small works adorned any film. Natalia’s partners were the most famous actors of that time - Yuri Yakovlev, Leonid Kuravlev, Mikhail Pugovkin, George Vitsin, Leonid Bronevoy, etc. with whom she starred in such cult films as “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes the Profession” (1973), “Can't Be” (1975), “Pokrovsky Gate” (1982) and many others.
Throughout the 80s, Krachkovskaya remained a sought-after comedian.
The situation did not change for her in the 90s when domestic cinema was going through a deep crisis. Natalia still remained talented and bright, which, unfortunately, can not be said about the films in which she played in this period. In my opinion, perhaps only Leonid Gaidai’s two adventure comedies - “Private Detective, or Operation“ Cooperation ”(1989) and“ It’s nice on Deribasovskaya, or on Brighton Beach again ”(1992), are worth mentioning. but can they be compared with at least one previous work of this director? Krachkovskaya also performed in concert programs, played in entreprise performances.
Recent years, cause of death
Since 2007, Natalia Leonidovna has not acted in film anymore - her health did not allow, and they did not invite her anymore. She moved in a wheelchair: after suffering a severe stroke, the actress practically could not walk on her own. Then - diabetes mellitus, several heart attacks, heart surgery ... An elderly woman and her friend Iraida Pugacheva, who came from Vladivostok, helped to do the housework. Son Vasily and grandson Vladimir, of course, visited her, but not as often as the actress would have liked.
Shortly before her death, Krachkovskaya began to make plans for a trip to China about diabetes, she was planning to spend the summer in the country. She had no gloomy forebodings ...
On February 28, 2016, Natalya Leonidovna had another heart attack. In an extremely serious condition, she was taken to the intensive care unit of one of the Moscow hospitals, where she died without regaining consciousness on March 3, 2016, at the 78th year of her life. They buried their favorite folk artist at the Troekurovsky cemetery on March 5.