During her career, Natalya Fateeva brought to life more than 70 images in various films and undoubtedly became one of the most memorable stars of Soviet cinema. Let's find out from the continuation of the post about her difficult life and what Natalya Fateeva is doing these days. Let's read.
Natalya Fateeva was born on December 23, 1934 in Kharkov. Her mother, Ekaterina Vasilievna, worked in the light industry - as the director of a fashion studio. Father - Nikolai Demyanovich was a military man. Although no one in the Fateev family was ever professionally involved with art, many relatives were artistic and musical people. So Natalya’s father could easily pick out any melody on the piano, and his sisters sang in the church choir.
Natalya was also naturally endowed with both hearing and voice. From an early age she dreamed of becoming an actress. The girl literally did not leave the opera house, having watched and listened to all the performances more than once. She knew some of the arias by heart. Her parents did not really welcome their daughter’s passion for the stage, considering acting an activity of little use for life. They constantly reminded her that the main thing was to study well. However, Natalia did not have any special problems with her studies, but she was not accepted into the school drama club because she was too tall.
Seeing their daughter's inclination towards music, her parents sent Natalya to a music school. Her father even traded a piano for her for two pairs of boots. But at the music school, according to Natalya herself, she was unlucky with the teachers... But in sports, young Fateeva achieved considerable success. She was easily accepted into the athletics section at the Dynamo stadium, and soon she became the city champion in high jump, long jump and even shot put. And yet, in the soul of the multi-talented girl there was only one dream - the stage.
In 1952, Natalya Fateeva, against the will of her parents and the dissuasions of her friends, decided to enter the Kharkov Theater Institute. She succeeded in this from the very first try: she was the only one of all applicants who had excellent grades in all exams. Initially, everything turned out great for Natalya. For her excellent studies, she began to receive a personal scholarship. She was married to actor Leonid Tarabarinov (1928-2008), and had a daughter, who, after her parents’ divorce, remained to live with her father.
Soon Natalya Fateeva, as one of the most beautiful and talented students, was invited to work as an announcer on local television. And then, as often happens, there were envious people who could not ignore the successes of the aspiring actress. Some unpleasant incident happened, as a result of which Fateeva was expelled from the institute, and she, in order not to see or hear her enemies, went to Moscow to enroll in VGIK. The year was 1953.
As one would expect, Natalya passed the exams at VGIK brilliantly and was enrolled as a first-year student in the workshop of S. Gerasimov and T. Makarova. Moreover, she was immediately enrolled in the 4th year, which has never happened in the entire history of the institute. 1956 brought luck to Natalya Fateeva. She made her debut at the Dovzhenko Film Studio, playing Tanya Olenina in the film “There is such a guy.”
At the same time, Natalya Fateeva met the aspiring director Vladimir Basov. In 1957, he invited her to play one of the roles in his film “Incident at Mine Eight.” They soon got married, and in 1959 a boy was born, who was named Vladimir. However, this marriage lasted only a few years.
The actress recalls: “I loved this man very much. I brought a thermos to him for filming. I admired his obsession. When a man loves his job and gives his best, you are not jealous of this business... But here he is... He was jealous of my appearance, reacted nervously to timid successes in cinema and theater. You won’t believe it, but he loved to say gloomily: “When you grow old, when you are finally thirty years old...”
For a very long time I did not dare to part with Basov, he tied my soul to himself, but he tormented me so much lately that I reluctantly agreed to it... Even after the divorce, he did not calm down, he ran around the film studio, trying to get me they didn’t film anymore... And at the same time I didn’t see my son for ten whole years, although we lived on the same street...”
Natalya Fateeva’s workload at the cinema and the need to raise her son led to the impossibility of working at Yermolova’s theater, and in 1961 the actress returned to the Film Actor’s Studio Theater, where she subsequently worked for many years. Meanwhile, the directors paid attention to the young actress, and offers began to pour in.
True, Fateeva was invited to traditional Soviet films, as they say - repertoire films, which were distinguished by their overall average level. The directors simply covered up the weakness of the dramaturgy with the beauty and talent of Natalya Fateeva. The actress understood all this perfectly well, but was forced to film, refusing only in cases where the material seemed unacceptable to her for ethical reasons.
Meanwhile, the failure did not discourage Fateeva. “The main thing in our profession is to wait!” - she repeated to herself and waited for a better role. And she waited. In 1962, director Genrikh Oganesyan invited her to play one of the main roles - Zoya - in the film “Three Plus Two”. The duet of the two most beautiful actresses of Soviet cinema (both Natasha) - Fateeva and Kustinskaya - in this film was opposed by a trio of charming men - G. Nilov, E. Zharikov and A. Mironov. During the filming of the film, a romance broke out between Natalya Fateeva and Andrei Mironov.
The actress admitted: “Andrey and I became very good friends. He was just a good friend, there was a long and warm relationship, after a difficult break with Basov, he warmed my soul a lot. Here Andryusha, although he did not have such wealth and spiritual experience at that time, it was very good with him, he is a real intellectual, a wonderful son of his parents, I am grateful to him for a lot...”
And here’s what Andrei’s mother, actress Maria Mironova, said: “When they broke up, he suffered. The epistolary genre has almost disappeared these days - and Andrey also mostly called me. But sometimes I wrote. Almost all of his letters refer to the period of love and separation from Natasha. He wrote about his feelings for her. And as I wrote... I still treat this woman with great tenderness..."
After the release of the film, all its characters became instantly popular. The audience especially loved two beauties, two Natashas - Fateeva and Kustinskaya. It seemed to everyone that they were friends in the film and were friends in life. In fact, they maintained friendly relations for some time, but this did not last long. The reason was a man...
Natalya Fateeva never lacked the attention of men. In the mid-60s, when films with her participation were released one after another, she was especially popular. In her own words: “It used to be that at a festival you dance with the deputy minister, and he whispers in your ear: “I’ll do anything for you, I’ll buy you everything, you won’t need anything...” And I pretend to be deaf...” Refusing numerous fans, Natalya suddenly became carried away herself. Her chosen one was the pilot-cosmonaut, 30-year-old Boris Egorov.
In October 1964, he flew into space on the Voskhod spacecraft and received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for this. Fateeva met Egorov by chance at a friend’s party. Handsome, smart, a real hero of that time, he immediately turned Natalya’s head. The fact that Egorov was already married did not become an obstacle for her. Soon Boris divorced and married Fateeva. And in 1969, they had a daughter, who was named Natasha.
This marriage turned out to be as fragile as the previous ones. The spouses turned out to be completely different people, strangers to each other. Fateeva recalls: “...We had different aspirations, we even read books differently. His favorite topic of conversation was cars and their horsepower, he could talk about it for hours...”
The marriage showed its first crack in 1969, when Fateeva went to Romania to film the musical film “Songs of the Sea.” In it she starred in the title role along with the popular Romanian singer Dan Spataru. Captivated by the beauty of the Soviet actress, the singer, who was always considered a Don Juan, decided to hit on her. In the words of Natalya Fateeva herself: “Spataru is a brilliant actor, a completely unique person, where all the most interesting things are left behind the scenes...”
Of course, there were “well-wishers” who told Egorov everything. Relations became increasingly cold. In order to revive old feelings, Fateeva decided to invite Natalya Kustinskaya and her husband Oleg to the next New Year celebration. It seemed to her that two married couples would have more fun at the festive table.
She didn't yet know how it would all end. Then Boris Egorov first drew attention to Natalya Kustinskaya, but did not show it at all. And six months later he confessed his love to her. Their other halves were away then. Having broken with their families, Kustinskaya and Egorov began life together, living together for two decades...
Over the years, another facet of the actress’s talent has emerged - her versatility. Fateeva proved that she can play in a comedy, in a melodrama, in a film with a “production” theme, in a musical, in a historical film, and even in a detective story. She played teachers and economists, engineers and athletes, collective farmers and princesses
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Natalya Fateeva has been dubbing foreign films extensively and successfully. There are more than two hundred of them in her biography. Sophia Loren, Lea Massari, Beata Tyshkevich, Nevena Kokanova, Barbara Brylska and many others spoke in her voice.
The actress’s personal life never worked out: she married two more times, and both times unsuccessfully. Why? She herself answers this question this way: “All my marriages were of approximately the same duration. I love you for three years, I endure for two years. Five-year plan, everything is Soviet. In marriages, I was an ordinary wife. I washed my socks and cooked, just like everyone else.
Soviet life is torture. And in my profession it’s doubly so: I need to make sure that my hands are not scary, that my face doesn’t age... The whole country loved me, but the one I needed was not there. You sometimes walk and think: “Lord, what is this: many people adore me, but where is the only one who will love me more than himself?”
At the turn of the 80s and 90s, Fateeva, like many of her fellow artists who did not want to act in “chernukha,” was thrown out of the cinema. In one of her interviews in March 1992, she admitted: “I’m very scared. How to live, how to play? At the Film Actor's Theater there is discord, quarrels and a lack of spectators. In the cinema - it is unknown when and what will happen...
I don’t fit into the new times, everything here is foreign. For the first time in my life, I began to experience depression. I live a very difficult life now and try to be alone more. I read somewhere: life must be experienced, not suffered. You can’t get hung up on suffering, let yourself go... And I’m holding on...”
When perestroika began, Natalya Fateeva found herself in the forefront of public figures who actively supported transformations in the country and advocated for a new life in a free Russia. A genuine civic act was her denunciatory statement against V.V. Zhirinovsky and the LDPR during the celebration of the so-called “new political year” in the Kremlin in December 1993.
At one time, Fateeva’s relationship with her children did not go very well. Volodya grew up without a father and was left to his own devices from childhood. From the 5th grade he began to smoke secretly, from the 8th grade - openly. Seeing all this, in 1972 the mother got her son involved in the cinema - he starred in the science-fiction film “Moscow-Cassiopeia”. A year later in its continuation - “Youths in the Universe”. At the age of 18, he decided to marry the daughter of a diplomat and brought her to his parents’ house. The mother did not approve of this step of her son and soon asked the young couple to live separately.
For some time they wandered around rented apartments. However, they passed this test and, most importantly, did not break up. In 1992, V. Basov Jr. shot his first full-length film entitled “The Abyss. Circle seven." Scary, mystical story. V. Basov Jr. has a son, Ivan. Daughter Natasha entered college three times, wanted to become a journalist, but failed the exams all three times. In the end, she got a job at a foreign company, and together with her husband they built a house outside the city, where they live well.
Among filmmakers, Fateeva has always been considered a great lover of animals. When she appears at the Bolshevsky rest house for filmmakers, the staff already knows that she will definitely bring unfortunate animals to her room and care for them. Once, six stray dogs lived in her room at once!
The main distinguishing feature of this woman has always been her beauty. Even now, when she is far from a girl, she looks great. How does she manage to achieve this? She herself explains this as follows: “The secrets are very simple: I take care of myself all my life. I don’t eat meat, I practically don’t drink alcohol (an occasional glass of red wine doesn’t count), I don’t smoke...
In her youth she was involved in athletics, ran, swam, and skied for many years. Now I go to the pool and do yoga exercises in the morning. In addition, I take care of my face: I massage regularly, use good creams - not those sold in stores, but specially selected formulations. They are made for me by people who know a lot about this.
Another secret: despite all the troubles in life, I have always professed the philosophy of effective goodness and optimism. Oddly enough, this also has a beneficial effect on appearance...
I really like to live a disciplined life. What I am, I have suffered through my life. I think I lived with dignity. I'm not ashamed of my life...
...Now I am what I should be, and nothing and no one annoys me. Of course, there are no absolutely free people. But I feel like I have freed myself from a lot of things that kept forcing me to compromise. I'm so tired of these monstrous compromises that have been crushing me all my life. I can afford not to work, not to communicate with those with whom I do not want. I am constantly involved in some kind of charity work.
affairs, and people trust me.
Doing something for others is always much more pleasant and convenient than doing something for yourself. I can’t do anything for myself, but for others it works, and I really like it. I do this with ease and I know that I have such a gift from God. Those books that are needed at the moment always come into my hands. In general, life always brings what you need, you just need to be able to see it and accept it with gratitude.”
...Perhaps the most hidden side of the actress’s life is her relationship with her children. No one except Fateeva and her loved ones actually knows the truth. But revelations from various people regularly appear in the press, who confidently declare that Natalya also has an eldest daughter - as if the actress left her in Kharkov, to her first husband. And it is as if her common daughter with Yegorov gave birth to a son at an early age... and abandoned him at the insistence of her mother. Allegedly, the boy was raised by the parents of a young father who served in the army - as if they were their son... But Fateeva herself does not comment on this information, repeating: “In my life there have been such unexpected plot twists that almost anyone in my place would not have been able to stand it and given up. But believe me: everyone gets what they deserve. I am not ashamed of the life I have lived, I have suffered a lot. And she has always professed a philosophy of goodness and effective optimism. By the way, this has a very beneficial effect on one’s appearance!” It’s hard to argue with this: Fateeva looks great!
