Nikolai Batalov died. Natalya Bondarchuk: “Inna Makarova does not know that Alexey Batalov died

Russian actor Alexei Batalov died at the age of 88. The actor died in his sleep in one of the Moscow clinics. Five months before his death, the actor underwent surgery and was undergoing treatment.

Biography of Alexey Batalov

Alexey Batalov is a famous Soviet actor, film director and screenwriter, also engaged in social and teaching activities. In 1976 he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR, and in 1989 he became a Hero of Socialist Labor.

Alexey Vladimirovich Batalov was born on November 20, 1928 in the city of Vladimir near the Moscow region. At the age of 5, the boy’s parents separated and Lesha’s mother, Nina Olyshevskaya, married a second time and moved with her son to Moscow to her new husband, the famous Soviet satirist Viktor Ardov.

Alexey Batalov played quite a few roles during his life. He has more than 30 film roles to his credit, but Batalov is best known for his role as Gosha in the famous film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.”

Alexey Vladimirovich made his film debut in 1944, receiving a role in Leo Arnstam’s film Zoya. Alexey received his next role only 10 years later: the aspiring film actor played the main character in the film “Big Family” directed by Joseph Kheifits.

Later, Joseph invites Alexey to appear in his other films: Alexey also starred in the films “The Rumyantsev Case” in 1955 and “Day of Happiness” in 1964. Kheifitz’s film “The Lady with the Dog,” in which Batalov played Gurov, was awarded many awards, not only domestic ones, but also international.

In 1956, the actor received a role in the film adaptation of the work “Mother” by Maxim Gorky. Participation in the film “The Cranes Are Flying,” which later became legendary, became truly significant for the artist. The audience really liked Batalov in the role of a soldier who did not return from the war.

The film “Nine Days of One Year” brought the artist the State Prize of the RSFSR in 1966. In subsequent years, the artist became interested in directing and dubbing, so he did not act in films. Only in the 70s did the actor return to the screens again.

Then Alexey Vladimirovich starred in the films “Running” in 1970, “No Return” in 1973, “Star of Captivating Happiness” and “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, filmed in 1975.

Alexey managed to make the public fall in love with him again in 1980, when the cult film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” was released, in which the artist played locksmith Gosha. In 1981, this film won the Oscar for “Best Foreign Language Film” and the USSR State Prize.

Later, the actor can be seen in the works “Speed”, “Rest Time from Saturday to Monday”, “Stalin’s Funeral”, “Poltergeist-90”. In 2006, the actor played himself in the musical film “Carnival Night 2, or 50 Years Later,” dedicated to the anniversary of the cult film “Carnival Night.”

Personal life of Alexey Batalov

The personal life and first wife, as well as the biography of Alexei Batalov, are of interest to the general public. The actor's marriage happened at the age of 16. Such an early marriage was the reason for the fragility of the marriage. The hero’s bride was the daughter of the painter Konstantin Rotov, who had known Batalov since childhood. Alexey Vladimirovich believes that the reason for the marriage was not love, but childhood affection and friendship, tested over the years. In addition, the actor, endowed with natural shyness, rarely communicated with the opposite sex. Irina was an exception. This is how a wife appeared in the personal life of actor Alexei Batalov at such a young age.

Irina Rotova - the first wife of Alexei Batalov

Alexei Batalov and Irina Rotova had a daughter, Nadezhda. The growing popularity and rapid career growth did not allow the husband and father to spend enough time at home. As a result, after 3 years a completely predictable divorce took place. Alexey Batalov and his daughter do not communicate, which is clear from the biography, descriptions of his personal life and his photo in the public domain. The artist himself openly admits that he considers himself a terrible father for Nadezhda, which was the reason for his cool relationship with his former family. Several years ago, publications appeared that the actor bequeathed all his property to his wife and youngest daughter. Alexey Vladimirovich responded to the indignant remarks by saying that Nadezhda has her own life and that he does not participate in it. Meetings with the eldest daughter are rare; they occur no more than once a year.

Batalov's second wife was a circus rider from the age of 4. Gitana Leontenko amazed the actor with her masterly performance of the number. After a long period of fleeting meetings, the lovers decided to get married, which happened in 1963. Thus, more children appeared in the biography and personal life of Alexei Batalov.

The appearance of the baby did not bring the expected happiness: little Masha had cerebral palsy. As the girl's relatives suggest, the cause of the terrible disease was a medical error.

Gitana ended her career and completely devoted herself to caring for the child. Soon the father himself reduced his social circle and tried to spend all his free time with his family.

Gitana Leontenko - the second wife of Alexei Batalov

Increased care for the youngest daughter brought results. She was able to become a full-fledged member of society. Alexey Batalov himself is an honorary member of the board of an organization that helps disabled people with cerebral palsy. Maria Alekseevna actively participates in the lives of disabled children, which has become an important fact in the personal life and biography of Alexei Batalov. Because this indicates that all his efforts were not in vain. Maria studied at VGIK to be a screenwriter, wrote a book, and created a script based on which the film was made. After which she became a member of the Writers' Union.

Batalov's funeral

It also became known that Alexey Batalov asked to be buried next to his mother at the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery. The funeral and farewell are organized by Nikita Mikhalkov. Farewell to the actor will take place on June 19.

Having completed his acting career, he began teaching at VGIK, passing on all his knowledge to the new generation.

Childhood of Alexey Batalov

In the 30s, Alexei's parents divorced. For the second time, his mother married the writer Viktor Ardov. Already as an adult, Batalov always spoke with warmth and respect about his stepfather, because Ardov took care of his stepson as his own son, trying to raise him to be a highly moral person. By the way, the famous comedian Anna Ardova is his niece.

It was not easy for the new family at first, since they lived next to Victor’s first wife. But a few years later they bought a new apartment and settled in the house of writers. Soviet cinema stars and great creators often visited the Ardovs: Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Osip Mandelstam. Undoubtedly, they influenced the development of the personality of the future actor.

In 1941, Alexei’s childhood ended abruptly - war came... Mother and son were evacuated to Bugulma (Tataria). And even there the woman did not change her profession, independently organizing a small theater. 14-year-old Alexey helped his mother, and gradually took on small roles.

Education of Alexey Batalov

With the end of the war, the family returned to Moscow, where Alexei graduated from school and entered the Moscow Art Theater. After graduating in 1950, he spent the next three years working in the Soviet Army Theater.

Professional development of Alexey Batalov

In 1957, Alexey Batalov and Tatyana Samoilova appeared in the leading roles in the military melodrama “The Cranes Are Flying.” The surprisingly emotional film made a splash even at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the main award - the Palme d'Or.

Subsequently, Batalov played a variety of roles - ordinary students, workers, soldiers. However, all his heroes had a common feature - intelligence and fortitude. The only thing worth mentioning is the main role in the film “The Lady with the Dog,” based on the story of the same name by Anton Chekhov. The film deservedly won many awards, but it was not easy for the actor to cope with the image of Gurov.

The versatility of Alexey Batalov’s talents: career development

Alexey Batalov about the film “Three Fat Men”

Radio shows occupied an important place in Batalov’s life. Thanks to the actor’s new hobby, well-known radio plays appeared: “A Hero of Our Time” by Mikhail Lermontov, “Cossacks” by Leo Tolstoy, “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare and many others.

Since 1974, the actor began dubbing cartoons. Viewers could hear his voice in the most famous Soviet cartoons: “Hedgehog in the Fog”, “Frog Traveler”, “Keys to Time”. Since 1975, Batalov taught at VGIK, and in 1980 he received a professorship and headed one of the departments.

Thus, we can safely say that Alexey Batalov for a long time was perhaps the most prominent figure in Russian cinema. So it may seem strange to someone that in 1979 the brilliant actor decided to play in a seemingly completely ordinary melodrama by Vladimir Menshov. However, the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” was eventually dissected into quotes and became an adornment of Russian cinema.

The director carefully selected the actor for the role of Gosha, but only Alexey turned out to be convincing. And who could more naturally play the role of a simple mechanic, casually meeting a woman on public transport, strictly raising the younger generation, sometimes drinking, but at the same time being able to make women all over the country fall in love with him? A different actor, a different manner, or even a different look could turn this sincere character into an ordinary boor. The charming Vera Alentova, Menshov’s wife, who played the main female role in the film, the “iron lady” Ekaterina Tikhomirova, also aroused admiration.

In 1981, “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” was awarded the American Film Academy Award. The Oscar in the category “Best Foreign Film” was a confirmation of the genius of the film. With this film, Batalov practically ended his acting career, devoting his time to teaching and dubbing for animated films. Among his latest acting works: “Speed”, “The Bridal Umbrella”, “The File of the Man in the Mercedes”, “Poltergeist 90”. Alexey Batalov also appeared with a cameo in the remake of Eldar Ryazanov’s film “Carnival Night: 50 Years Later.”

Personal life of Alexey Batalov

Batalov’s second chosen one was circus artist Gitana Leontenko. She worked in the circus from the age of 4 and masterfully performed deadly acts. The actor saw her during a circus performance and fell madly in love. For many years they met sporadically, without mutual obligations, until they got married in 1963.

This union turned out to be strong; happiness was overshadowed only by the illness of daughter Masha (born in 1968), who suffered from cerebral palsy. The parents believed that the girl received a terrible illness due to a medical error during childbirth. Gitana was forced to leave her job and devote herself to the child. And the actor himself gradually isolated himself from other people and even close relatives. He devoted his whole life to caring for his wife and daughter. His efforts brought worthy results. Maria Alekseevna has many achievements - she is involved in charity work, is a member of the Writers' Union, writes scripts; one of them was filmed (“The House on the Promenade des Anglais”).

"Alexey Batalov. I don't bargain with fate"

Death of Alexei Batalov

Reports sometimes appeared in the press about Batalov's rather limited financial capabilities. The actor worked all his life not so much for money as for the love of art, and therefore did not accumulate huge capital. But he didn’t worry about himself and didn’t complain, because he lived a bright, interesting and worthy life.

He spent the last six months of his life in a hospital bed in one of the Moscow clinics, recovering from surgery (in January 2017 he was diagnosed with a femoral neck fracture). The actor’s death became known on the morning of June 15, 2017. At 6:00 Moscow time his heart stopped. As relatives reported, Alexey Batalov died in his sleep: he fell asleep in the evening and never woke up. He was 88 years old.

Remembering the roles of Alexei Batalov, it is impossible not to recall the 1958 film by Joseph Kheifits “My Dear Man,” in which the actor played Dr. Ustimenko. Immediately after the film was released, viewers “married” the actor to Inna Makarova, who played the role of the hero’s beloved Varya Stepanova. But it's in vain. Each of them at that time had their own personal life. Inna Makarova’s daughter Natalya Bondarchuk shared her memories of the artist and suggested what could have undermined Alexei Vladimirovich’s health.

I have known Alexey Batalov since my childhood. So it was like I had lost a relative. It's very difficult for us now. But now we need to think about something else, about his legacy. Alexey Batalov left great roles. What they did with my mother Inna Vladimirovna Makarova in the film “My Dear Man” is forever. I treated him that way all my life - as a dear person. Through his work he brought to the fore the intellectual, our contemporary. He showed what a simple Soviet person could be.

- He often got the roles of workers, but he was from a completely different family - metropolitan actors, intellectuals.

He even has noble roots. But at the same time, no matter what roles he played, he personified the best that was in our people. And it doesn’t matter whether he is Tibul in “Three Fat Men”, Boris in “The Cranes Are Flying”, Gosha in “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”, all the images are amazing. Batalov is part of the people's soul, our heritage.

- How did your mother Inna Makarova cope with the news of the death of Alexei Batalov?

But she couldn't cope. We don't tell her about this.

- Why?

Mom is already in that state of mind when everyone is alive for her. Both my dad and my grandmother. I support her in this feeling, let her think that there is no death. We even talked to very famous specialists, and they believe that this will be better for her. Because when this army, which just recently surrounded you, thins out, it’s terrible. And every time a loved one leaves, there is a feeling that “the turn is behind me,” as the poet said. So we turned off all the phones and hope she doesn't find out anything.

- Do you think he won’t hear it on TV?

She doesn't feel well, and I asked the nurse not to turn on the TV. I take great care of her. You know, it seems to me that she won’t really understand what happened. But we won’t talk about this with her. We’d rather sing the romances that she loves so much. She still remembers many poems and reads them perfectly.

Just the other day, this lawsuit between the family of Alexei Batalov and their neighbor in their summer cottage, who built a bathhouse on the actor’s land, ended.

These terrible trials, of course, shortened the life of Alexei Vladimirovich. He defended the rights of his daughter, because the plot belongs to Masha Batalova. For Alexey, she is a difficult, special child; she has cerebral palsy. And who, besides him, could protect his daughter. But it turned out that he himself needed help. I was invited several times to various TV shows, where caring people tried as best they could to support Alexey and, in any way possible, help, advise, and find experts.

When I sat in the same studio with the person who started a lawsuit with the actor’s family and shouted: “For you he is Alexey Batalov, but for me he is an ordinary person. And why should he use the land that he assigned to me,” it just turned me over. This is cool ignorance. Yes, there are ordinary people, there are many of them, they can be very good and very bad. But there are great ones - scientists, writers, artists, poets, actors. So Alexey Batalov belongs to this category. He is a great artist who has deeply penetrated the soul of each of us, even, I’m not afraid to say, an entire nation. Now in many cities, towns, villages people are crying and praying for him. I don't even doubt it.

- With his regalia, popular love, he could never hit the table and solve his problems.

Come on, he couldn’t do anything, especially in recent years. He was practically blind. Moreover, he was an intelligent person from the same family, which included many famous people. Alexey was friends with Anna Andreevna Akhmatova. And he couldn’t stand any trials. And when he had to face them, these courts stole several years of his life. I think so.

- What do you think will happen to Alexei Vladimirovich’s daughter Masha now?

Thank God, Gitana, Alexei’s wife, is alive. She is her main defender. Children with a diagnosis like Masha’s are special children; they experience the passing of a loved one very hard. Children with cerebral palsy mostly move in a wheelchair. And imagine, the person who carries this stroller leaves - and that’s it. And then the hopelessness of the so-called state guardianship. I really want Gitana to find a guardian for her daughter. Good health to her and Masha. As scary as it may be, she will have to do this. Because one daughter cannot do it without help.

You know, I am now thinking about creating some kind of community settlements that would agree with each other about the care of their special children. So as not to leave them without help, without relying only on the state. This needs to be done with priests and those who themselves find themselves in this situation.

Alexey Batalov, using the example of his family, showed many that special children are not sent to orphanages, that they can and should be cared for. After all, Masha received a good education. Writes children's books.

Masha is a unique girl. She graduated from VGIK, screenwriting department. She writes scripts and recently published books of stories for children. But to achieve such results, you also need the help of specialists.

When Masha was little, she was taken for treatment to the Military Clinical Children's Sanatorium in Yevpatoria. I studied this problem and the specifics of children with cerebral palsy. I learned that even wheelchair users need to try to get up and walk. At least start developing this skill. I wanted to make a film about these children and about the sanatorium, but the Ministry of Culture rejected my application. It seems to me that people should know more about the problems of such children, and perhaps someone will be able to help.

Alexey Batalov was born on November 20, 1928. Anna Akhmatova stayed for a long time in the apartment on Bolshaya Ordynka, where the future actor lived with his mother and stepfather. Poets Osip Mandelstam, Boris Pasternak, writers Mikhail Zoshchenko, Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov also often visited them.

This death summed up an era when movie characters were debated in newspapers, universities, at work and at home. When cinema in Russia was more than cinema, it was not only considered, but was also one of the important landmarks in life.

Still from the film "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears." Photo: kinopoisk.ru

Batalov was lucky to express this era, and we were lucky with Batalov: his big-faced, curly-haired, stubborn and principled hero accompanied the fate of many generations and undoubtedly shaped it.

“A lot of spiritual depth is needed in order to illuminate a picture taken from a despicable life and elevate it to the pearl of creation,” Gogol wrote in his poem. This is an eternal rule for art: there is personality - there is art. Batalov was a personality. His spiritual qualities, his conviction and life principles were magically communicated to his characters, giving them scale, energy and his unique, Batalian charm. Vladimir Menshov, the author of the Oscar-winning film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” recalled how the choice of this particular actor turned the entire concept of the role upside down and how Gosha from “a boorish man who said barbs and nasty things to everyone” turned into a “working intellectual”, into an “aristocrat” golden hands”, capable of establishing his own rules in the heroine’s life - as a man. Feminists are scandalized when they see the picture, and still are, but they cannot help but recognize the attractiveness of the hero, his inner strength and purity.

Alexey Batalov made a revolution in our cinema with his appearance. Not alone, of course: during the “Thaw” era, characters cast in bronze were replaced by living and thinking heroes. But now it is difficult to imagine the explosion in the mentality of society that Batalov’s first roles produced: a working guy in the film “Big Family” and a simple chauffeur in “The Rumyantsev Case.” The proletarian simplicity of the characters who do not know how to doubt - “their guy” Boris Chirkov or the monumental Boris Andreev - was replaced by a reflective person. And it turned out that it is possible and necessary to doubt and resist, that time is now in demand for a person with an independent life position.

Batalov returned the great literary tradition to our cinema

Quiet, lyrical, chamber “Lady with a Dog” - a picture where there was more silence than dialogue - surprisingly, it also carried within itself an explosive feeling of unusual freedom. This time - freedom of feelings, human rights to freedom of personal life. The heroes resisted the mossy nature of social institutions and thereby “revolutionized” mentalities. A simple human story and its interpretation by actors Iya Savvina and Alexei Batalov were perceived as a breath from another world. More relaxed, open, natural.

The time had come for debate films that fit perfectly into the Thaw world of poetry evenings at the Polytechnic, disputes between “physicists and lyricists,” the Sovremennik theater, and fundamentally new young heroes. Alexey Batalov and Innokenty Smoktunovsky became symbols of the times in the film “Nine Days of One Year” - nuclear physicists, romantics and pragmatists, going towards dangers as the gates to new eras. Cinema no longer broadcast official guidelines to the masses, but spoke with fellow citizens on equal terms - thinking with them, doubting and arguing. Batalov embodied this powerful leap into the future, free from prejudice and replacing faith with knowledge.

He was more than a movie star. If in those same years all of America was doing makeup like Marilyn Monroe, viewers of the Soviet Union compared their hearts, thoughts, and lives to Batalov. The difference is fundamental. “Nine Days...” was watched in cinemas by about 25 million people; according to polls by the magazine “Soviet Screen”, Batalov was recognized as actor of the year.

In fact, he was lucky to embody that elusive thing called the national idea. In world cinema there are also few such characters: in France there was Gerard Philip, in Italy - Anna Magnani, in the USA - John Wayne. Batalov, with his “folk” charm, but the leaven of a true intellectual, then returned to our cinema the great literary tradition, which made the world assume that Russians had a special character and complexity of mental organization. A tradition most fully expressed by Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bunin, and then adapted to Soviet realities and, in essence, destroyed. Batalov’s heroes seemed to connect the past, drowned in Lethe, with the future into which his Gusev from “Nine Days...” walked, risking himself. They argued: the social system may break down, but the national character is indestructible.

And here we need to remember where this human leaven came from. Nephew of the famous actor Nikolai Batalov, son of the Moscow Art Theater artists Vladimir Batalov and Nina Olshevskaya, who grew up in the house of the writer Viktor Ardov in the circle of people such as Bulgakov, Shostakovich, Olesha, Mandelstam, Svetlov, Ranevskaya, Zoshchenko, from his youth he became friends with Anna Akhmatova and even wrote her portrait, Alexei Batalov could not help but become an actor at the Art Theater School-Studio. And he first appeared on the silver screen at the age of 16 - in the film “Zoya”. The movie camera immediately fell in love with him: there is something to observe here and something to reveal through the hero’s gaze and subtle changes in his facial expressions. When the hero on the screen suddenly becomes you, sitting in the hall, and you are ready to go through it with him - ours! - the path of trials and doubts. Only such an actor can become a national hero and symbol instead of a performer. And enlarge any of your roles to the main one.

This phenomenon occurred, for example, in the war drama “The Cranes Are Flying” - our first and so far only film crowned with the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Batalov's hero Boris appears in the initial episode of the film, then goes to the front and dies. But these few shots of his face accompany us throughout the entire picture, and then throughout our entire subsequent lives. Such important characters for all of us were the images he created in the films “My Dear Man”, “Day of Happiness”, the embodiment of the heightened conscience of Protasov in “The Living Corpse”, Pavel Vlasov in Gorky’s “Mother”, where he entered into a risky competition with his famous relative Nikolai Batalov.

He played his last real role in the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” more than 35 years ago. He probably understood that with the rapidly changing times, his hero was also passing away; striving forward was being replaced by a masochistic delving into one’s own ulcers, and faith in the as yet unknown was again replaced by faith in the incomprehensible. An irrational era of indifference was approaching, with which he could not, did not want to find a common language. Because until the end of his life he remained faithful to such concepts as service to the ideal, dignity and professional honor. Few people can remember what Alexey Batalov was for the people and the country and for what new, freer and smarter generations should be grateful to him. His films now belong to film clubs and film archives, they are shown less and less on television - probably because the language of hope with which they spoke to us is becoming less and less understandable and relevant.

But hope and the impulse towards light will return according to the same laws according to which frost is replaced by thaw. And the searching gaze of Alexei Batalov will again examine our souls and warm them.

Actor Alexei Batalov died at the age of 89 in a Moscow hospital. This was reported by Komsomolskaya Pravda with reference to Vladimir Ivanov, a close friend of the actor. Ivanov also confirmed this information to Interfax.

According to Ivanov, Batalov will most likely be buried at the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery in Moscow. Also, a friend of the actor’s family clarified that he died in one of the boarding houses in the Moscow region.

Komsomolskaya Pravda notes that Batalov has been undergoing treatment over the past five months. He broke his hip in January and had surgery in February. Komsomolskaya Pravda writes that Batalov died “quietly in his sleep.” “I went to bed in the evening and didn’t wake up in the morning,” the publication reports.
Director Nikita Mikhalkov will organize a civil memorial service for Alexei Batalov, the Moscow agency reports, citing Ivanov.

“Nikita Sergeevich will give orders and do something, because he loved Alexei Vladimirovich,” he said.

Batalov’s most memorable film role was the role of locksmith Georgy Ivanovich (Goshi) in the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.” His work in the films “The Cranes Are Flying”, “Nine Days of One Year”, “Star of Captivating Happiness”, “Running” is also known. In total, Batalov has more than 30 film roles, as well as work in dubbing cartoons and documentaries. The actor began his film career in 1944.

From 2007 to 2013, Batalov headed the Russian Academy of Cinematographic Arts “Nika”. Since 1975, Batalov taught theater at VGIK.
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The popularly beloved artist Alexey Batalov died on Thursday morning in a Moscow hospital.

“Alexey Vladimirovich died quietly in his sleep. “I went to bed in the evening, but didn’t wake up in the morning,” Vladimir Ivanov, a close friend of the actor, told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Alexey Batalov was hospitalized in January after he broke his hip. In May he was transferred to a rehabilitation center.

Alexey Batalov was born on November 20, 1928 in Vladimir. In 1950 he graduated from the Moscow Art Theater, after which he worked for three years in the Soviet Army Theater.

He played in dozens of domestic films - “Nine Days of One Year”, “The Cranes Are Flying”, “The Lady with the Dog”, “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”.

The actor was the owner of many awards and orders; he was awarded the title People's Artist of the USSR.

Unfortunately, recent years have been overshadowed by a lawsuit with a neighbor in the dacha, who seized part of Batalov’s land plot in Peredelkino. Just two days ago - on June 13 - the Moscow court put an end to this matter by returning the land to the Batalov family.