Frunzik Mkrtchyan is my own wife. Frunzik Mkrtchyan: the sad fate of a funny man

People's Artist of the USSR (1984)
Laureate of the State Prize of the Armenian SSR (1975, for the film "Triangle")
Winner of the first prize at the All-Union Film Festival in Yerevan (1978, for the film "The Soldier and the Elephant")
Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1978, for the film "Mimino")

Frunzik's parents were 5 years old when they got to the orphanage. They grew up in it together, got married in 1924, and when one of the largest textile mills in the Soviet Union opened in Armenia, they got a job there together. Frrunzik Mushegh's father worked at the factory as a timekeeper, and Sanam's mother worked as a dishwasher in the factory canteen. They had four children, and they named one of their sons Frunzik in honor of the civil war hero Frunze. His father really wanted Frunzik, who was a good painter, to become an artist, but at the age of ten the boy became interested in theater and began to go to a drama club. He liked to organize performances at home on the stairwell - Frunzik hung a curtain and arranged solo performances in front of the audience located on the stairs. The children sat on their parents' laps and did not hesitate to applaud the little actor. No one doubted that Frunzik was extremely gifted even then.

To feed a large family, Mushegh Mkrtchyan once stole a small piece of fabric from a factory and was sentenced to ten years, after which the children and his wife began to starve, since Sanam received only 30 rubles for her work as a dishwasher.

In 1947, Frunzik graduated from high school and went to work at a factory, but a few years later he entered the Yerevan Theater and Art Institute, and while still a second-year student at the institute, he received an invitation to the Sandukyan Theater for the role of Aesop, which he was supposed to play in tandem with his teacher . But after the very first performance, the teacher gave up the role to Frunzik. In 1956, Mkrtchyan graduated from the theater institute and was accepted into the troupe of the Sundukyan Theater. Armen Dzhigarkhanyan said: “For the first time I saw Frunzik not in the cinema, but on stage. It was already popular in the mid-1950s. The people went to the Sundukyan Theater specifically "for Frunzik." And indeed, looking at his stage existence, you understood that he is an Artist with a capital letter. There are such God-kissed natures who are immediately born as artists. The secrets of craftsmanship are in their blood.

During his studies, Mkrtchyan got married, but his first marriage was short-lived, domestic and material problems led to the fact that the couple soon broke up. Frunzik Mkrtchyan met his second wife Danara in the mid-50s, when she came to enter Leninakan at the Theater and Art Institute. Immediately after graduating from the institute, Mkrtchyan acted in films for the first time - he played in Alexander Rowe's film "The Secret of Lake Sevan" in a small episode. And his full-fledged debut on the silver screen took place in 1960 in the film by G. Malyan and G. Markaryan "Guys of the Music Team", in which he played a musician named Arsen.

But Mkrtchyan had to wait five years for the next work in the cinema, and in 1965 she became the role of Professor Berg in 1965 in the comedy "Thirty-Three" directed by Georgy Danelia. However, the film, for ideological reasons, was very quickly withdrawn from distribution.

Mkrtchyan's next film work was the role in Rolan Bykov's film Aibolit-66. Mkrtchyan got into this picture thanks to the patronage of the actor and director Frunze Dovlatyan, who suggested Bykov to try Mkrtchyan for the role of one of the robbers. The actor was approved for the role, and soon Mkrtchyan, along with Alexei Smirnov and Rolan Bykov himself in the role of Barmaley, got into a bright and eccentric trinity of robbers, which immediately won the sympathy of the audience after being released on screens in 1966. Albert Mkrtchyan said: “The father did not live to see the glory of his son. But mom did. She loved Frunzik very much. We - me and our two sisters - even took offense at her. But my mother said that we were already fighting, but Frunzik was helpless. When the brother was already very popular, he came home, got up under the shower and called his mother. She came and washed him. There was such music of mother and son.”

In the same 1966, Leonid Gaidai's sparkling comedy "Prisoner of the Caucasus" was released on the screens of the USSR, in which Mkrtchyan got the role of the uncle of the main character Dzhabrail. His real wife, actress Danara Mkrtchyan, also played in this picture.

After the release of these two films, Frunzik Mkrtchyan immediately became one of the most sought-after comedians in the country. Frunzik himself confessed his love specifically for the genre of comedy and, in particular, for Charlie Chaplin: “Chaplin for me, like Bach in music, is a teacher of humanity. Just as life is full of surprises, so Chaplin never ceased to amaze me. Once, Moscow TV made a documentary about me. It began with shots where a little boy is watching a film with Chaplin in the cinema, and he is lit up with the desire one day, just like him, to play in a movie. It was no coincidence. I became a comedian because I dreamed about it since childhood. I have a lot of respect for all the pioneers of the film grotesque. They were what Gagarin became in astronautics. Only I personally cannot put anyone on a par with Chaplin.

Mkrtchyan's life was developing successfully, soon the couple had a daughter, Nune and a son, Vazgen, and his wife Danara got a job working in the theater.

Mkrtchyan was known for often helping people close to him in trouble, and he did it quietly, without any fanfare. Albert Mkrtchyan said: “He was calm about fame and never suffered from star disease. But people reacted violently to the "live" Frunzik, which was tantamount to an invasion of personal territory. Every passer-by in Yerevan considered him a loved one. One day we went down to the Moscow metro and could only get through one stop - with applause. He did not acquire any material wealth. But he could not refuse those who asked. Here his fame helped to get apartments, cars, and medicines. He was an amazingly gentle and kind person. Even too kind. Everyone had complaints against him, but he did not have them against anyone. Frunzik was a real people's deputy, unofficial, of course. Helped thousands of people. Nobody could refuse him ... He helped relatives, friends, neighbors and complete strangers. A month after our mother's death, an exhausted woman knocked on our door. Upon learning that our Sanam (Frunzik Mkrtchyan’s mother) had died, she began to hysterically and kept repeating: “My children will die now ...” It turns out that our mother promised to talk with Frunzik about an apartment for the unfortunate. The woman lived without a husband, with five children in a rented room. I looked at Frunzik and realized that his soul was crying. He only said one word: "Good." He went to the Central Committee, where everyone respected him, and three months later Frunzik knocked out an apartment for a woman and her children. He never talked a lot, he did big things quietly, without pomp.

In the early 1970s, misfortune happened in the Mkrtchyan family. Danara fell ill with a severe mental disorder - schizophrenia, and she had to leave the theater, while Frunzik became an unusually popular actor and often traveled to the shooting. Danara's illness led to the fact that Mkrtchyan often had to refuse good roles. But, despite the fact that due to an unhappy family life, Frunzik could sometimes be an undisciplined actor, he usually prepared very diligently for work, searched for an image for a long and painful time. In the first half of the 1970s, not many films with his participation were released, however, in 1975 the actor was awarded the State Prize of the Armenian SSR - the leadership of the republic decided to celebrate his role in the film "Triangle", which was released in 1967 .

A new round of popularity for Mkrtchyan came in the second half of the 1970s. This was facilitated by the release of Georgy Danelia's comedy "Mimino" on the screens of the USSR, in which Mkrtchyan, together with Vakhtang Kikabidze, created a magnificent acting duet.

Many funny remarks, which later became winged: “I laughed so hard here”, “What are these Zhiguli thinking about?”, “I’ll tell you one smart thing ...” - and others Frunzik came up with himself. In particular, the scene of the interrogation of the witness Khachikyan in court was an improvisation of the actor.

When, together with Vakhtang Kikabidze and Georgy, Daneliya Frunzik went to the Kremlin to receive the State Prize for the film Mimino, the guards demanded that they show their documents. To which Mkrtchyan replied with a reproachful smile: “Do foreign spies go to the Kremlin without documents?”

After the release of this picture, filled with sparkling jokes, the directors again remembered Mkrtchyan. One after another, films with his participation began to come out. Mkrtchyan starred in the musical comedy "Baghdasar Divorces His Wife", the lyrical drama "The Soldier and the Elephant", the fairy tale "The Adventures of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", the comedy "Vanity of Vanities" and other films.

Frunzik Mkrtchyan preferred not to communicate with his friends and colleagues about his difficult family life. In public, he always remained a cheerful, cheerful person, a great inventor and master of practical jokes. He could easily climb up the drainpipe at night under a friend's window and sing a serenade with a barbecue skewer in his hand. A friend of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, actor and director Khoren Abrahamyan, recalled: “From creative skits, which often dragged on in the theater until the morning, we went out into the street and did this. I remember, having drunk well, we rolled out one day at 5 in the morning to the central square, where there was a huge monument to Lenin and a tribune, and staged our own parade. There was always a policeman on duty there, but this did not bother Frunzik, it was impossible to refuse him. He climbed onto the podium and began to distribute the roles to everyone. One of us was the General Secretary, another was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the third was a member of the Politburo. Frunzik most often portrayed the people. At our slogans from the rostrum, he shouted all sorts of curses from the crowd. When a policeman grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, he indignantly shouted to the whole square: "It wasn't me who was shouting, it was one of the demonstrators." Frunzik could stop the late tram with screams and cries. Climbing onto the roof, he portrayed Lenin on an armored car ... "

Mkrtchyan was loved by both the audience and work colleagues. Georgy Danelia, who directed him in three of his films, once remarked: “It was very easy to work with him. He always came up with interesting moves, and the director only had to select the right one, ”and Rolan Bykov, thanks to Dovlatyan for the proposed candidacy of Mkrtchyan for the role of the robber in the film Aibolit-66, admitted:“ You gave me the sun.

Meanwhile, the illness of Frunzik's wife Danara progressed, and in the early 1980s, Mkrtchyan had to place her in a psychiatric hospital, left alone with two children. After this difficult decision, he had to be torn between work and family - Mkrtchyan continued to work actively in theater and cinema. Including, in the pictures of his brother, who said: “All roles are expensive for an actor, because a part of his soul remains in each, after filming the actor simply ages. And his most dramatic role was the role of the postman in my film Song of the Past. This is largely an autobiographical film. During the war, a disabled person lived in our yard, who returned from the front to Leninakan and worked as a postman. Once we boys were given a funeral. We rejoiced and shouted “Hurrah!” brought an envelope to an elderly woman. We thought that this was a letter from the front ... Frunzik remembered this incident for the rest of his life. In the film, he was supposed to play a man who brings his mother a funeral for her last, fourth son ... He feels that if he does this, he will simply go crazy. And near the church, the postman begins to eat this paper envelope ... We filmed this episode in the city of our childhood, in Leninakan. Frunzik did not leave the hotel room for three days, he drank. Then he came out, unshaven, with bruises under his eyes, and said: "I'm ready to star in this episode." With the role he played like a cat with a mouse - for three days he turned into an old man with a disability.

In the mid-80s, Mkrtchyan decided on a third marriage. His new wife was the daughter of the chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia Hrachya Hovhannisyan Tamara. Immediately after the wedding, the newlyweds moved to a new four-room apartment in the center of Yerevan, but this marriage of Mkrtchyan was unsuccessful, and a few years later he divorced.

From the mid-1980s, Mkrtchyan practically stopped acting in films. Offers continued to come to him, but he refused them, jokingly declaring: “Do they play movies at my age?” And in the early 1990s, Mkrtchyan left the Sundukyan Theater. He was prompted to leave by the decision of the team to elect Khoren Abrahamyan as the main director. Mkrtchyan, who devoted 35 years to the theater, himself applied for this position, and the decision of his colleagues offended him. After leaving the Sundukyan Theater, Frunzik Mkrtchyan decided to create his own theater, but Frunzik did not have a chance to lead it for long.

Mkrtchyan's health was undermined - doctors diagnosed the actor with problems with the heart, liver and stomach. By that time, his daughter Nune had married and left with her husband for Argentina, and the meaning of Frunzik's life was his son Vazgen. And then the already weak health was undermined by a new tragedy. It turned out that Vazgen inherited his mother's illness. In 1993, Mkrtchan took him to France for treatment, where it turned out that his son's illness was incurable - he inherited his mother's mental illness. They say that when Vazgen was placed for some time in the same French clinic where Danara was, they did not even recognize each other. A friend of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, actor and director Khoren Abrahamyan recalled: “Frunzik was very unhappy in the family. He didn't have the comforts of home. And he drank so terribly, I think, because he lacked warm relations in the family.

Mkrtchyan returned to Yerevan, deprived of light and heat due to hostilities with Azerbaijan, and here a new blow awaited him - his close friend, People's Artist of Armenia Azat Sherents, died. Mkrtchyan himself went to the hospital, where he had a clinical death, but the doctors saved the life of the artist. Albert Mkrtchyan said: “When the doctors made a tragic diagnosis to his beloved wife, and then to his son, Frunzik fought to the end. He worked hard to provide them with decent treatment. And also - a terrible earthquake in Leninakan in 1988. Nothing remains of our home. Many acquaintances and friends died. And in Yerevan, life in the early nineties was very difficult. In the winter of 1993, there was practically no lighting and heating. And Frunzik was very fond of Albinoni's Adagio. My friends and I adapted a car battery to his tape recorder, and he could listen to his favorite tune.

In recent months, Frunzik Mkrtchan lived at home, where his younger brother Albert took care of him, who later said: “On December 28, 1993, I spent the whole day at his house. We sat and talked about art. Frunzik was only interested in this. I remember that once again he put on a cassette with Albioni's Adagio, which he was going to use in his next performance. Then I put him to bed and went home for a few hours. It was five o'clock. Having reached the house, I immediately began to call Frunzik - I had some kind of bad feeling. Although he understood that this was impossible - Frunzik's phone was faulty, and it was only possible to make calls from it, and not receive calls. And at seven in the evening they called me and said that Frunzik was no more. He became ill, and the ambulance could no longer do anything. Heart attack. He was 63 years old ... Was Frunzik's life tragic? And what great artist does not have a tragic life? This is probably a payment for the talent that the Lord has awarded them. His main tragedy was the mental illness of his son, transmitted to him from his mother. Vazgen died last year. The daughter died five years after the death of Frunzik. She had a uterine tumor, she had a successful operation. Nune was sitting in her room with her husband, and a blood clot broke off from her. Brother, of course, understood what kind of actor he was. But he never showed it. Because he was a Man with a capital letter, as Gorky, whom he adored, wrote. Who is left after him? The people who love him. I stayed, our younger sister, our grandchildren. So the Mkrtchyan family continues. One of them will definitely be as talented as Frunzik."

A huge number of Yerevan residents gathered for the funeral of Frunzik Mkrtchyan. Farewell to the beloved artist dragged on, and Frunzik's funeral took place at dusk. The headlights of the cars standing on the side of the road illuminated the dark pavements, and thousands of people walked along the streets with lit candles, while the coffin with the body of the artist was carried along a living multi-kilometer illuminated corridor ...

After the death of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, journalist Iosif Verdiyan wrote: “A couple of weeks after Frunzik’s funeral, I invited his brother, the famous film director Albert Mkrtchyan, to my place, and we talked for several hours in the kitchen about his great brother. I remember: “Frunz wished for death, he yearned for it, he dreamed of it, cruelly extinguishing life instincts in himself. It was not time that killed him, and not addiction to wine and tobacco ... No, he deliberately went to his death, not having the strength to survive the illness of his son and wife - a huge family grief.

Frunzik Mkrtchyan is buried in the Pantheon of Heroes of the Armenian Spirit in Yerevan.

A monument to the great Artist was erected in his homeland in Gyumri.

Leonid Filatov prepared a program about Frunzik Mkrtchyan from the cycle “To Remember”.

Used materials:

Site materials www.peoples.ru In search of an addressee (1955)

July 4, 1930 - December 29, 1993

The films "Prisoner of the Caucasus" and "Mimino" brought Frunzik Mkrtchyan simply crazy love of the audience. In his native Yerevan, he is still considered a national hero, his portraits hang on the streets. During his lifetime, the actor had everything - fame, money, honor. But all this was not to his joy because of the tragedies in his personal life. On July 4, he would have turned 81 years old.

Tragedies in Mkrtchyan's personal life began at student age. He fell in love with a girl named Juliet, whose parents were against their marriage. The struggle for the beloved lasted several years and ended in complete failure. Perhaps, out of annoyance, Frunzik married his classmate Knara, whose marriage lasted only a year. Frunzik met his second wife within the walls of the same theater institute. The beautiful Donara Pilosyan was the star of the course, many followed her, but when Frunzik decided to marry her, her friends were very surprised.

“We tried to dissuade him from this step for a very long time,” recalls Frunzik’s friend film director Neress Oganesyan. – Donara was a talented actress, but everyone in her was alarmed by her impulsive nature. Either laughter, or tears, or run away somewhere ... Apparently, even then the disease began to manifest itself.

At first everything was fine, the young daughter Nune was born. By that time, Frunzik had already starred in the films "Thirty-three" and "Prisoner of the Caucasus", wealth appeared in the family, they moved from the province to Yerevan, bought a car. Donara, in general, also counted on a career as an actress and was not going to sit at home. Every time her husband took an audition, she insisted that he drag her into the tape too. It was thanks to him that she received an episodic role in the film "Prisoner of the Caucasus", playing the screen wife of Mkrtchyan.

“At first, Frunzik thought that his wife was jealous of his success, which, in general, was the case,” recalls Mkrtchyan’s brother Albert. “But then things went completely inexplicable. She gave him terrible tantrums right in the theater. Frunzik could not even say hello to another woman - immediately jealousy. At home she beat the dishes, climbed into a fight, shouted ... Behavior became inadequate. Her brother hoped that the birth of her second child would calm her down. But it got worse...

Donara did not want to deal with her children. When it was already difficult not to notice her unhealthy condition, her daughter was 12 years old, while her son was only two years old. Coming home, Mkrtchyan found the children hungry and dirty, and his wife depressed. Friends advised him to take Donar to the doctor. It turned out that she had schizophrenia. Frunzik spared no expense and sent his wife to a good clinic in France for treatment. True, the actor did not stay alone for a long time. Realizing that Donara would not recover, he received the right to marry again and used this chance. On this basis, he had disagreements with his daughter, who thought that it was impossible to marry with a living mother. Be that as it may, Nune decided to emigrate and, having married, went to Argentina. Frunzik's only joy was his son Vazgen, whose behavior was also alarming. The examination showed that the mother's mental illness was inherited by the boy. From this news, Mkrtchyan wilted greatly. He sent Vazgen to be treated in the same clinic where his wife was. They say that in the hope of enlightenment, the doctors arranged a "face-to-face confrontation" with them. But mother and son did not recognize each other ...

Despite problems in the family, Mkrtchyan continued to act a lot, the directors knew that he would always bring success to the film. That is why Georgy Danelia took him to the role of Khachikyan's driver, despite the fact that by that time Frunzik was drinking heavily. Several times, because of his spree, they even stopped filming and the director was, as they say, on the verge. At the end of each shooting day, Mkrtchyan found himself in a restaurant with many friends. Somehow in his hearts he threw a phrase about his daughter, saying that she is no longer there. These words were changed, and as a result, the news spread throughout the country: Mkrtchyan's daughter died! Like, that's why he got drunk. Even Danelia thought so and, feeling sorry for the actor, did not remove him from the role, although he intended to. In fact, Nune, who had a road accident, survived, but many still believe that she died tragically.
After the release of the film "Mimino", Mkrtchyan's national fame reached its highest limit. At the airport, he went through passport control without documents, every person he met on the street called him into the house.

“Frunzik was a very enthusiastic person,” recalls the actor’s brother. - He wanted, for example, to go to Sochi, he got up and went. Came from there, and all the money is intact. It turned out that he was allowed everywhere for free - both on the plane and in the restaurant.

At the same time, Mkrtchyan, coming to Armenia, was absolutely accessible and did not boast of his position. And his mother did not hide him from other children, that Frunzik loves most of all. Even when he became a grown man, she washed him in the bath, out of old habit. But she could not influence her son's addiction to alcohol. Frunzik did not even know that he was in a pre-infarction state. The attack happened in a dream. In December 1993, he went to bed and did not wake up. Mkrtchyan's brother adopted his nephew Vazgen, but he did not long outlive his father. In 1998, the actor's daughter was diagnosed with a tumor of the uterus, the doctors performed a successful operation. But during the recovery period, a blood clot broke off in the patient, she died instantly ...

“I am sure that the cause of my brother’s early death is self-destruction,” says Albert Mkrtchyan. - He deliberately did all this, because he could not survive the illness of his wife and son.

As for Donara, fate measured her long life. For more than twenty years she has been kept in the Sevan psychiatric hospital in Armenia. She has no hope of a cure.

Throughout his life, Frunzik Mkrtchyan recorded his thoughts on a tape recorder - before his death, he asked to transfer the recording to his only heiress.

The granddaughter of the famous Soviet actor Irena Terteryan deciphered a unique audio recording with a message from her beloved grandfather. The revelations of the "clown with autumn in his heart" will be published in book form.

Granddaughter Irena Terteryan, the only descendant of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, returned to her homeland in Yerevan only 13 years later to honor the memory of her famous grandfather.

She came from distant Argentina, where she emigrated as a child. Irena returned the "testament" of the great actor to the Motherland.

“My mother, the daughter of Frunzik Mkrtchyan Nune, told me about the mysterious audio recording,” Irena says in an interview with Life. - She said that grandfather wanted to write a book and therefore wrote down his thoughts. Mom dreamed of publishing grandfather's records, but the disease knocked her down ...

Mkrtchyan adored his son Vazgen and suffered so much because of his illness

After an unsuccessful operation, Frunzik's daughter Nune died. Irene was then 13 years old.

“Years later, I realized the importance of the mission entrusted to me,” says Irena. - I am the only descendant of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, and in my hands is his soul, everything that he wanted to pass on to his descendants. And then I decided to complete the work of my grandfather and my mother and publish a book ...

Today the Yerevan publishing house is already working on the cover of the book. Two hundred pages of revelations of the great actor in Armenian are planned to be released by the end of July.

“I remember how my grandfather taught me to draw,” Irena recalls. - He said that art can be subject to a person: if the corners of the lips of a drawn little man are raised up, then he will smile, down - cry. Each person is also a drawing, only he is an image of his fate, and while she waves her brush, he lives ...

Fate

The share of the most comical actor with an imprint of indelible sadness on the face of Frunzik Mkrtchyan is unenviable. It is not surprising that having experienced clinical death in his declining years, Frunzik did not want to return. “Why did you bring me back, it’s so good there!” - Frunzik Mushegovich said to the doctors, who did not even imagine that the actor would survive.

“I was there at that moment,” the actor’s brother, director Albert Mkrtchyan, tells Life. - Frunzik, waking up, told me: "Everything is silver there, so calm."

The personal life of the actor did not work out. Illness of the first wife, unhealthy son, distant relationship with the second family. Relatives say that by the time Mkrtchyan was overtaken by the disease, he was a deeply tired person. Endless shooting. He lived on planes, ate on planes - his whole life was filled with work. But she saved him from heavy thoughts about his not very happy fate ...

Spouses Donara and Frunzik played themselves in the comedy "Prisoner of the Caucasus"

“Frunzik was my heart,” the actor’s brother admits to Life. “I was ready to do anything for him. But I don't like it when people talk about him as an unfortunate person. God gave him such a talent, so Frunzik never took offense at fate ... He truly loved life. But she didn't reciprocate. The actor died at 63. His heart refused to work.

A family

Frunzik Mkrtchyan's personal life was complex and therefore especially secretive. They got along with their first wife Donara thanks to their profession. The beautiful girl was also from Frunzik's native city of Leninakan. Before entering the theater school, Donara turned to the famous fellow countryman for help. And after a while they got married. The audience remembered the actress Donara Mkrtchyan as the wife of comrade Dzhabrailov (the hero of Frunzik Mkrtchyan) in the film "Prisoner of the Caucasus".

“They lived together for a long time,” says Albert Mkrtchyan to “Life”, “they had two children, Nune and Vazgen. Donara was very jealous of her husband. Because of this, there were frequent scandals in the house, and later real misfortunes fell on our family ...

Donara became inadequate - she interpreted the frequent absence of her husband as treason and betrayal. Relatives began to notice that a woman's behavior is sometimes simply unpredictable. The doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia. Soon Donara stopped recognizing even her own children. The actor’s misfortunes did not end there, the same symptoms began to appear in Vazgen’s son - the unfortunate Frunzik was simply lost ...

– Donara was already under constant treatment at the clinic then, – says Albert. - In recent years, the actor and his son lived together. And later Vazgen was also placed in the hospital.

The happiness of Tamar and Frunzik was short

After the death of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, the existence of Donara was simply forgotten. There were publications in the press about her death. But as it turned out, the first wife of the actor is still alive.

“My grandmother lives in a boarding house near Yerevan,” Irena Terteryan tells Life. - Last year, we met for the first time after 13 years of separation. She feels well, she even recognized me. True, she said that I was her daughter - Nune ... She still thinks that her children are alive. But Uncle Vazgen died a few years after the death of his grandfather, he was 33 years old. Granny Donara still lives in memories. When I went to say goodbye to her before leaving, we had to get acquainted again - this time she did not recognize me ...

Love

“Frunzik was adored by women,” smiles Albert Mkrtchyan, “despite his huge nose, he had so much charm that not everyone could resist. I remember such a case. We rode with Frunzik in a car around Yerevan. He then decided to twist the “pyataks”. Even the police reacted calmly to his amusements. Then the brother saw a woman of extraordinary beauty. We got closer. Frunzik opened the car door and invited him to sit down. The woman was confused, but answered with dignity: “I would love to, dear Frunzik, but He is in the city.” My brother and I often recalled this incident and laughed ...

The actor managed to win the hearts of only two women - Donara and Tamar.

The second wife of Frunzik, a woman of extraordinary beauty and a talented actress, Tamar Hovhannisyan worked in the same theater. G. Sundukyan, as Mkrtchyan himself.

“They lived together for about four years,” recalls Albert. - Nothing good came of it, besides, they had a big age difference - 15 years ...

“They had a rather complicated relationship,” says Tamar Zhanna, an acquaintance. - Two strong, talented people - they could not sometimes find a common language. In creativity, they surprisingly complemented each other. But in life, something went wrong. They lived in different apartments, but were officially registered as spouses. They got married, got divorced and got back together. Many accused Tamar of Frunzik's death, believing that she brought the actor to a heart attack with her wayward character. Tamar was very worried that she did not give birth to a child from Frunzik ...

Tamar Hovhannisyan has been living in America for 13 years now. Today, even relatives do not know how her fate turned out.

“There she got a job in the Armenian theater,” says brother Tamar. Lost contact over the years. I don't know anything about how she lives today...

Irena

After burying her father, Frunzik's daughter Nune left Armenia. Granddaughter Irena was then only nine years old.

“She is the same granddaughter to me as Frunzika,” Albert Mkrtchyan emphasizes jealously. We lost all contact for a while. She grew up in Argentina, we can say that her father was involved in her upbringing. After all, Frunzik's daughter Nune passed away when her Irenochka was still a teenager. This happened five years after the death of Frunzik ...

Communication with the only heiress of Frunzik was established by his brother. Director Albert Mkrtchyan once came to Argentina to demonstrate his film.

“I knew that Irena lived there, I tried to find her,” says Albert. – But we met later in Yerevan…

Irena's radiant smile is surprisingly similar to the smile of her beloved grandfather

Irena and her great-uncle Albert Mkrtchyan saw each other for only a few hours.

- We hardly know each other, I remember her very little, and now she has become such a beauty, there is something in her from her mother Nune ...

Today, 23-year-old Irena dreams of connecting her life with literature.

“From childhood, she was an amazingly gifted girl,” says Irena’s grandmother on her father’s side, Irina Terteryan. – She could be a wonderful actress, like her grandfather Frunzik, and find her place in music, like her grandfather Avet Terteryan, a famous Armenian composer. But where fate will lead her is still unknown.

Marina Russian

Almost all the films in which the nationally beloved actor played have become classics of Soviet cinema. For his talent, he received the title of People's Artist of the USSR, became a laureate of the State Prize. However, Frunzik Mkrtchyan's personal life did not develop as smoothly as his career, and, perhaps, domestic troubles brought his end closer - the cause of the actor's death was a heart attack that occurred on the eve of the new 1993.

Brief biography of Frunzik Mkrtchan

He was born on July 4, 1930 in Leninakan in a family where, besides him, there were three more children. Frunzik's parents worked at a textile mill, and in order to feed his family, his father committed a crime - he stole a five-meter piece of fabric. For this, Mushegh Mkrtchyan was sent to camps for ten years, and his mother tried to feed four children on her meager salary.

As a child, Frunzik showed a talent for drawing, and his father wanted him to study as an artist, but his love for drawing turned out to be less than the passion for theater that arose in Mkrtchyan's soul when he began to study at the school drama club at the age of ten.

Before entering the Theater and Art Institute, Frunzik Mushegovich worked for several years as an assistant projectionist in a club, worked in a studio at the drama theater in his native Leninakan.

From the very beginning, teachers considered Mkrtchyan an outstanding talent, and already in his second year he began to play on the stage of the Yerevan Theater. Sundukyan. He quickly gained popularity, and the audience went to the theater to watch the performance of Frunze Mkrtchyan.

A cinematic biography of Frunzik Mkrtchyan began with a small role in the film "The Secret of Lake Sevan", then, in 1960, he starred in the film "Guys of the Musical Team".

After a five-year break, Mkrtchyan was invited to the comedy "Thirty-three", but the film comedy "Prisoner of the Caucasus", which opened a talented actor for the entire Soviet Union, became a real breakthrough in the artist's career.

Actor's personal life

For the first time, Frunzik tied the knot while still studying - his classmate Knara became the chosen one of Mkrtchyan. However, the student family could not stand the test of lack of money and the difficulties of life, and soon broke up. The second wife of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, Donara Pinosyan, was eleven years younger than him.

They met when Donara came to enter a theater university, and Frunzik himself was already working in the theater. They got married, a daughter, Nune, was born in the family, and thirteen years later, a son, Vazgen.

Frunzik Mkrtchyan's personal life in the first years of marriage was successful - he and his wife worked in the theater, their children were growing up, and then it turned out that Donara was seriously ill - she inherited a severe mental illness, which she could not be cured - even the best specialists , to whom the actor showed his wife, were powerless.

Family life for Mkrtchyan turned into a real hell - his wife became pathologically jealous, did not let her husband go a single step, made terrible scandals. This influenced the actor's career - for a long time he did not go on the stage and did not act in films.

Donara was placed in a psychiatric clinic, where she spent the last twenty-five years of her life. Meanwhile, Frunzik was left alone with his daughter and son, who, as it turned out later, was sick with the same hereditary disease as his mother, and this was another blow for Mkrtchyan.

In the early eighties, Frunzik met Tamara Oganesyan, the daughter of the chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia, who was twenty-five years younger than him. For the sake of Mkrtchyan, she left her husband, but the marriage with Frunzik turned out to be short-lived - after a few years they parted, and the actor was left alone again.

In recent years, the actor refused invitations to star in a particular film, and gave all his strength to creating his own theater, but did not have time to fully enjoy the fruits of his labor.

Ֆրունզիկ (Մհեր) Մուշեղի Մկրտչյան; July 4, 1930, Leninakan - December 29, 1993, Yerevan) - a famous Soviet theater and film actor, theater director. People's Artist of the USSR (1984)." />

Frunze (Frunzik, Mher) Mushegovich Mkrtchyan(hy Ֆրունզիկ (Մհեր) Մուշեղի Մկրտչյան; July 4, 1930, Leninakan - December 29, 1993, Yerevan) - a famous Soviet theater and film actor, theater director. People's Artist of the USSR (1984). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1978).

Biography

• Since 1945 - assistant projectionist in the club of the textile factory in the city of Leninakan, in his spare time attends rehearsals of the amateur theater.
• Since 1947 - Leninakan Theater named after. Mravyan.
• 1951-1956 - studying at the Yerevan Theater and Art Institute.
• 1956 - accepted into the troupe of the Sundukyan Academic Theater in Yerevan. In parallel with his studies, he began acting in films. The first film with his participation ("In Search of the Addressee") was released in 1955.

A family

• Father - Mushegh Mkrtchyan (1910-1961) timekeeper.
• Mother - Sanam Mkrtchyan (1911-1970) was a dishwasher in the factory canteen.
• Brother - Albert (born 1937) director, screenwriter.
• Sisters - Ruzanna Mkrtchyan (b. 1943), Clara (1934-2003).
• First love - Juliet, whom he never married, as her family opposed, and she was married off to another.
• First wife - Donara (1941-2011), mother of his children, known in Russia for her role as a wife Dzhabrailova in "Prisoner of the Caucasus". Theater actress. Sundukyan. She suffered from a severe mental illness. She was hospitalized in France. She was also in a psychiatric hospital in the city of Yerevan. She spent the last 25 years of her life in the Sevan Psychiatric Hospital.
  • Son - Vazgen (also called Vaag) suffered from a hereditary mental illness, which was transmitted to him from his mother, died after the death of his father, in 2003, at the age of 33.
  • Daughter - Nune (Nina) died in a car accident in Argentina in 1988 (she was 39 years old). (according to other sources, in particular, brother Frunzik, she died in the postoperative period (cervical cancer) from clogging with a blood clot. Source - http://akter.kulichki.net/se/mkrtchan.htm)
• The second wife is Tamara, an actress, daughter of the chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia Hrachya Oganesyan.
• Granddaughter (from daughter) - Gayane, lives in Argentina.

Personal life

Mkrtchyan's first wife, Donara Pilosyan, suffered from mental illness and was placed in a psychiatric hospital. Mkrtchyan became a single father with two young children. His son inherited his mother's mental illness, which led Mkrtchyan to depression and alcohol abuse later on. In 1993, he died in his apartment in Yerevan. Thousands of people came to the funeral, the funeral column with the body of Mkrtchyan passed along the main street of the city. He was buried in the Pantheon of Heroes of the Armenian Spirit in Yerevan.