What happened to the life of “Petruha” from the legendary film “The White Sun of the Desert”
Nikolai Godovikov - an actor who became famous thanks to the role of Petruha in “The White Sun of the Desert”, lived a hectic life. Already in his early youth, fate gave him a chance to build a successful film career, but the adventurous character took Nikolai in a completely different direction: he was in prison three times, was homeless, but then he managed to “tie up” with the criminal environment.
Nikolai Lvovich Godovikov was born on May 6, 1950, in Leningrad in an ordinary working family. Since childhood, the boy dreamed of a movie and was going to go to the theater institute after leaving school, but his mother insisted on technical school: she did not take the acting profession seriously. A year later, Kolya was safely expelled from there - he did not have the ability to technical sciences. Having not received education, Godovikov got a job as a fitter's apprentice at the factory closest to the house.
How did Godovikov's movie career begin?
One day, Kolya heard on the radio about a set of teenagers for filming a movie at the Lenfilm studio. He did not hesitate for a minute. Having overcome a huge competition, the boy received a cameo role of a homeless child in the film directed by Nikolai Poloka “Republic of SKID”. Despite the insignificance of the role, he often flickered in the frame (in one scene he even performed in two faces - a street child and a student). The social drama about difficult teenagers was released in 1966 and was a great success.
The charming Kolya was remembered by the audience, and Poloka recommended the beginning actor to the director Vladimir Motyl, who at that time began work on the painting “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha” (1967).
In this melodrama, Nikolai got a small role as a Red Army soldier. He had several vivid episodes, but during the final editing of the picture, most of them were cut out - there was not enough screen time. Comforting Nikolai (who decided to end the movie because of resentment), Vladimir Motyl promised that he would definitely call him into his next film. And he kept his word: in 69, he invited Godovikov to the role of Petruha in the Western “White Sun of the Desert”. The test of Nicholas was rated as the best.
How Godovikov starred in the famous film
Filming began in Makhachkala. The heat was crazy, but Godovikov found the strength to run into a conflict with the local Caucasian. In a fight, he broke his nose and scratched his face. When the director saw what Petruha had turned into, he was horrified, but not at a loss - he added an episode in the script in which Petruha was beaten. So Kolya remained until the end of filming: as soon as the sores on his face began to heal, they were reproduced with the help of makeup.
For the rest, everything turned out not bad for the young actor: almost all the doubles were obtained from him the first time, which was especially appreciated by the director due to the lack of film.
Acting in the picture, Godovikov made friends with actor Pavel Luspekaev, who played the role of customs officer Vereshchagin.
They knew each other before - they worked together in the film “The Republic of SKID”. Pavel Borisovich was very ill - both feet were removed, so the actor was accompanied everywhere by his wife, actress Inna Kirillova. When she had to leave on business, she asked Kolya to stay in her husband’s room in case he needed help. Godovikov happily agreed. During their conversations, Luspekaev often told his younger colleague about the basics of the profession and taught him a lot.
But with Anatoly Kuznetsov (Comrade Sukhov), Kolya did not have a relationship.
He looked down on the inexperienced Godovikov and often made caustic remarks about him. But in Gulchatay, which Tatyana Denisova began to play, the young actor fell in love quite real. But the girl did not answer his feelings and left the shoot after 4 months: Tatyana graduated from the circus school, which was more important to her than anything else. Motyl took on the role of Gulchatay statistician Tatyana Fedotova.
Recent years, cause of death
In 2015, his wife Lyudmila died with diabetes, with whom the actor lived for more than 20 happy years. Nikolai was left alone in a small one-room apartment with his old dog Charoy. The wife's daughter Valery and her family (husband Sasha and two sons - Marat and Tema) were for him the closest people. Godovikov did not regret that he had lived such a winding life and always emphasized that he himself was the author of all the good and bad that happened in it (in my opinion, a very correct position). In the last 5 years, he was no longer invited to the cinema, but quite unexpectedly, the actor became interested in painting.
Recently, Nikolai Lvovich was seriously ill. Oncology progressed, about which his relatives knew, but the actor himself did not know.
As often happens, the disease was revealed at a late stage, when nothing could be changed. Nikolai Godovikov died on November 23, 2017, in his apartment in the 68th year of his life. The urn with its ashes was buried in the South cemetery of St. Petersburg near the grave of his wife Lyudmila. Native children did not attend the funeral ...