Georgy Vitsin: the modest life of a talented actor (47 photos)

The talented Soviet actor Georgy Vitsin is familiar to almost everyone, and his characters enjoyed enormous success and earned popular love. The actor tried not to take advantage of his celebrity and led a quiet, modest life, which this post will tell you about.

Georgy Vitsin was born in Petrograd on April 23, 1918. But in fact, instead of 1917, 1918 was indicated in order to send the sickly boy to a forest health school, where there was only room in the junior group.

Vitsin did not like exams all his life, and in any form. In class, he often hid behind other people's backs. As a result, I decided to overcome shyness and inhibitions and moved straight towards danger - to become an artist.

After graduating from school, Georgy Vitsin entered the Maly Theater School. But soon he was expelled with the wording “For a frivolous attitude towards the educational process.”

The next year I chose the Vakhtangov Pike. A year later he left there and found himself in the theater school at the Second Moscow Art Theater, where he was enrolled upon graduation.

His real film career began in 1951 immediately with a serious role - Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in Kozintsev’s film “Belinsky”.

Vitsin was so convincing that within a couple of months he received an invitation to play the role of Gogol again - in Grigory Alexandrov’s film “The Composer Glinka”.

Georgy Vitsin acted in various genres, but his roles in comedies brought wide fame to Georgy Vitsin. The first such role was the charming football player in Semyon Timoshenko’s film “Replacement Player” in 1954.

Vitsin always looked very young, so he often played characters much younger than himself in age. Vitsin played the role of the modest Kostya Kanareikin when he was already over thirty.

At the age of 37, he played eighteen-year-old Vasya in “Replacement Player.”

At the age of 46, he brilliantly played the role of 25-year-old Misha Balzaminov.

But there were also reverse transformations: at the age of 38 he played grandfather Musiy in the film “Maxim Perepelitsa”.

Before filming “The Substitute,” the actor trained daily at the stadium for a month to lose weight. And at a rehearsal for a boxing match, Vitsin got into character so much that he seriously attacked Pavel Kadochnikov.

Vitsin treated his health responsibly and reverently. He did not smoke, due to the fact that at the age of eight he inhaled a cigarette under the stairs and developed a lifelong aversion to tobacco.

And I didn’t drink after I decided to drink one day on New Year’s Day and realized that if you want to hang yourself the next morning, it’s better not to drink.

But in the role of a drunkard he was very convincing, although in real life he did not drink alcohol at all, ate right, and was fond of breathing exercises. Sometimes - right on the set.

Vitsin practiced yoga very seriously. He stood on his head, took the lotus position, did not eat meat, and meditated regularly.

And he was introduced to yoga by Savely Kramarov, with whom he became friends on “Gentlemen of Fortune.” Both played fools in the movies, but in life they were intelligent, educated people.

When Kramarov left for America, he gave all his photocopies on yoga (which was banned at that time) to Vitsin.

Colleagues perceived Vitsin’s lifestyle differently. For example, Nonna Mordyukova, after the episode of the merchant Belotelova’s kiss with Balzaminov, said to Vitsin: “Are you a man? You don’t drink, you don’t smoke, you don’t pester women. You’re a corpse!”

In general, at first Vitsin was predicted to have a career as a dramatic actor, but in 1961 Gaidai’s short film “Barbos the Dog and the Unusual Cross” was released, which changed the direction of his entire film career. So he became a Coward, and Smoktunovsky played Hamlet.

After the release of “Moonshiners,” people from all over the country began sending bags of letters demanding that Gaidai make a new movie about the Coward, the Dunce and the Seasoned.

The culminating moment for the trio was “Prisoner of the Caucasus” - the leader in distribution in domestic cinema from 1967 to the present day. In the year of release, the film took 1st place at the box office, attracting 76.5 million viewers.

It was on the set of “Prisoner of the Caucasus” that Vitsin was barely persuaded to drink a glass of beer. At first he flatly refused: “I won’t have beer, pour some rosehip.” One take, second, third... So I had already drunk five mugs with rosehip infusion, when someone from the film crew remarked: “It won’t work! There’s no foam!”

Nikulin suggested putting cotton wool in the mug, but Vitsin couldn’t stand it: “Yes, the sixth mug won’t fit into me. Either with or without cotton wool!”

Despite the image of a Coward, Vitsin was an amazingly brave man. For example, on the set of the film “She Loves You,” a scene with a lion was planned, and the animal had to be at a safe distance and behind bars.

But at some point something went wrong, and the predator came close to the actor. Everyone was shocked. But not Vitsin. “Don’t be afraid,” he said, “lions don’t touch brave people.” And stroked the animal...

It's hard to believe, but in real life, Coward, Goon and Experienced were not friends.

Vitsin even allowed himself unflattering statements about his colleagues. Morgunov and Nikulin also did not miss the opportunity to trick him. But all this was behind the scenes.

Vitsin played the Coward seven times. Then there was Khmyr in "Gentlemen of Fortune", a drunkard from the comedy "It Can't Be". The scenarios changed, but the image remained the same - a simpleton drinker.

The viewer thought that in life he was also a drunkard, and drunkards always pestered him and suggested: “Will you be third?” To which Vitsin replied: “No, I can only be fourth and that’s the concept.”

Vitsin voiced many cartoons. He approached dubbing no less responsibly than acting. His voice is spoken by the brownie Kuzya, the snowman-postman, many hares from various cartoons, and even Puss in Boots.

Not having the most spectacular appearance, Vitsin stole his wife from the main director of the theater. This love story shocked the entire theatrical Moscow.

The young actor Vitsin fell in love with actress Dina Topoleva, the wife of People's Artist of the USSR Nikolai Khmelev.

He was 19 years old, she was 35, but she reciprocated his feelings and left her husband. They lived together for almost 20 years, although they never officially married. However, Khmelev (pictured) forgave his wife and his student and continued to give them new roles.

When the actor was already married, and the actress was left alone and very ill, Georgy Mikhailovich looked after her. He brought food, bought medicine, paid for caregivers. Moreover, at that time his legal wife Tamara Fedorovna supported her husband in everything.

Vitsin also met his official wife at the theater. Tamara Michurina, worked there as a prop maker. Their acquaintance took place on Easter, when Vitsin entered the room where Tamara and her colleagues were with a colored egg in his hand. “Girls, I came to celebrate Christ,” he said. They kissed three times, looked into each other's eyes... and started dating.

Vitsin liked women “in body”, he said: “A plump woman is more attractive than a thin thin woman resembling a pencil.”

Georgy Vitsin had no passion for wealth. I tried to live modestly. He hid from the annoying public in his apartment or retired in nature with an easel. And he drew wonderfully. The photo shows his caricature of Yuri Nikulin.

His talent was inherited by his only daughter Natalya, who became an artist.

At the end of his life, he performed humorous concerts, and with the proceeds he bought food for stray dogs.

One day he picked up a half-dead homeless shepherd dog, went out and called him Boy. The dog loved to sleep on his owner. And when they called Vitsin, his wife answered: “He can’t come up. A boy is sleeping on him. The poor dog has suffered so much... Let him rest now.”

Georgy Vitsin played more than a hundred roles in films. The people loved him for the Coward, and he liked the role of Sir Andrew in Twelfth Night best of all.

“An article was published in England that was very pleasant for me, where it was written that I had definitely captured the English sense of humor,” the actor said in an interview.

One day they recognized him in line and began to give up his seat. “I’m not Vitsin, I’m his brother,” Vitsin tried to wriggle out. "Man, you have such a great brother that you have every right to enjoy his fame too. Move forward!"

Having given his large apartment in the center of Moscow to his daughter Natalya, Vitsin moved to a Khrushchev apartment building on Starokonyushenny Lane.

Georgy Vitsin died on October 22, 2001 (according to other sources - October 23) in one of the Moscow hospitals. The cause of the actor's death was chronic liver and heart diseases.

The actor was buried in Moscow, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. His widow and daughter, several relatives and neighbors came to say goodbye to the artist. It was not possible to raise funds for the monument and the grave fence for several years.