Georgy Vitsin was born in Petrograd on April 18, 1917. However, according to the entry in the Metric Book of the Petrograd Holy Cross Church for 1917, Vitsin was baptized on April 23, on the day of the Holy Great Martyr George, and April 5 (April 18 according to the new style) 1917 is indicated in the “birthday” column. And his mother, Maria Matveevna, corrected the year 1917 in metrics to 1918, in order to send sickly Georgy to a health-improving forest school, where there was a place only in the younger group.

When George was eight months old, his parents moved him to Moscow. Maria Matveevna alone carried all the household chores, since her husband returned from the war as a seriously ill person - he was poisoned by gas and did not live long. When Maria Matveevna, having changed many professions, went to work as an usher in Hall of Columns Houses of the Unions, she often took her son with her to work.

Georgy Vitsin was a very shy boy from childhood. To overcome his complexes, George made a firm decision to become an actor. Georgy Vitsin really became interested in theater at the age of 12, when he began to play in school amateur performances. Here is what he recalled about this: “I grew up very shy child. And in order to get rid of this complex, I decided to learn how to perform. Went to the fourth grade in the theater club. By the way, a very good remedy, even the psychologist Vladimir Levy wrote about this. I know him, he treats stutterers in this way, people with all sorts of complexes - arranges a theater at home, distributes roles, and they improvise. Here I am cured…”

IN school theater as a therapy for shyness, in one of the performances, Vitsin performed the shaman's dance so passionately and emotionally that he received advice from the teachers to seriously take up ballet. But after graduating from school, Vitsin decided to seriously engage in theater.

After leaving school, Georgy Vitsin entered the Maly Theater School. But soon he was expelled with the wording "For a frivolous attitude to the educational process." In the fall, Vitsin again decided to test his strength. He was tested in three studios at once - Alexei Diky, the Theater of the Revolution and the Moscow Art Theater-2 - and was accepted into all at once. He chose the Vakhtangov Theater School of the Moscow Art Theater Studio-2, where he studied from 1934 to 1935, where he studied with S. G. Birman, A. I. Blagonravov and V. N. Tatarinov.

In 1936, the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Postyshev, in a personal conversation with Stalin, complained that there were two Moscow Art Theaters in Moscow, and not a single one in Ukraine, and Stalin immediately "gave" the fraternal republic the Moscow Art Theater - 2 with the entire troupe. The actors were offered to pack their things and go to Kyiv, and when they refused to leave the capital, the theater was disbanded, recalling in the newspapers that it had once been organized by the "renegade emigrant" Mikhail Chekhov. Actress Serafima Birman, one of the most strict theater teachers, compared Vitsin with Mikhail Chekhov.

Vitsin since 1936 served at the Yermolova Theater and brilliantly played a sexually horny impotent old man in Fletcher's play The Taming of the Tamer. The audience poured into this production, and specifically “on Vitsin”, finding out at the box office whether he was playing, and only then buying tickets. True, they were dissatisfied. One day, an angry general appeared backstage, watching a performance with his 16-year-old daughter, and demanded that the "indecent text" be cut.

Vitsin himself always treated the theater with great reverence. Even after he finally said goodbye to the stage and went to the cinema. There is no such thing as a "film actor", he believed. There is an ACTOR, and he is born on stage, in live communication with the audience.

In his theatrical experience, Vitsin found blanks for many film roles. The sexy old man who embarrassed the general's daughter turned into Sir Andrew from Jan Fried's Twelfth Night. The British press, always jealously following any adaptations of Shakespeare, caressed this picture, but about the role of "the Russian actor Vypin, who accurately grasped the specifics English humor”, although with a mistake in the surname, they were mentioned in the BBC program.

Theater critics wrote about Vitsin with pleasure, and no one then could have imagined that an actor with such a brilliant stage career could leave the theater forever for the sake of cinema.

Georgy Vitsin's cinematic career began with episodic role Oprichnik in the film Ivan the Terrible, and continued with the role of Gogol in Kozintsev's film Belinsky in 1951.

The director's assistant, who came from Lenfilm to Moscow, selected several actors from the mass of the capital's actors at once, among whom were famous actors Vladimir Kenigson, Boris Smirnov and a number of others. However, it was in Vitsin that the assistant saw the features of Gogol's nature.

Vitsin played this role so reliably that a few months after filming this film, he was invited to work in another film, and again for the role of Gogol - in Grigory Alexandrov's film Composer Glinka.

Georgy Vitsin starred in films of various genres, but Georgy Vitsin became widely known for his roles in comedies. The first such role was the charming football player Vasya Vesnushkin in Semyon Timoshenko's film "Reserve Player", filmed in 1954. Vitsin got into this role quite by accident. The picture was shot at Lenfilm, where Vitsin was invited to audition for the role of the Gadfly in the film directed by Alexander Feintsimmer. The tests were unsuccessful, Oleg Strizhenov was approved for the role, and Vitsin was about to return to Moscow, when Semyon Timoshenko's assistant accidentally found him in one of the Lenfilm corridors. This time the test of the young actor was successful, and Vitsin was immediately approved for the role.

True, later the director was very surprised to learn that “ young actor"Not 25 years old, as it seemed to the eye, but almost 37. Vitsin's "ageless phenomenon" deserves a separate discussion. He was under 40 years old when he equally convincingly played a 70-year-old old man in the film "Maxim Perepelitsa" and a 17-year-old hero of Rozov's play "In good hour!»

Before filming "Reserve Player", Vitsin trained daily at the stadium for a month to be in shape. And at the rehearsal of a boxing match, he seriously attacked Pavel Kadochnikov, who was professionally engaged in boxing. As a result, Vitsin had a crack in the rib, but he did not leave the site, but continued shooting, tightening chest towel.

In 1956, with the participation of Vitsin, the film "She Loves You" was filmed. In the film, according to the script, a complex stunt episode on water skiing was supposed. An understudy was supposed to be filmed, but the director decided to shoot Vitsin. Together with the screenwriter, they fabricated a letter from a certain fan: “Dear Comrade Vitsin! You are my ideal, I dream to meet you! Heard you're aquaplaning tomorrow? How brave are you! I will definitely look and after the shooting I will come to you. Believe me, you will not be disappointed. Klava. The quick-witted Vitsin read the letter, agreed to shoot, worked brilliantly for the whole episode, but after shooting he said to the director: “But the name of the girl could be more interesting to come up with.”

The heroes of Vitsin invariably aroused sympathy among the audience in any films in which the actor starred - in detective, historical and lyrical. In the film "The Marriage of Balzaminov", which was planned to be put into production in 1955, the only candidate for the role of the immature Misha Balzaminov was Vitsin, a longtime friend of the director Voinov for joint work in the theater-studio Khmelev. But something did not work out, and the launch of the film was postponed. After 10 years, the director had the opportunity to return to the project, and Voinov suggested leading role Vitsin again. And Georgy Mikhailovich then turned 48 years old. He flatly refused, but Voinov insisted: “It’s 48 according to your passport, but you don’t look 30 either. We’ll remove the makeup for another five years, and then the light, etc., etc.”

This reincarnation was possible because Vitsin treated his health responsibly and reverently. He did not smoke, because at the age of eight he took a puff under the stairs and received an anti-nicotine reflex for life. And did not drink, after once in New Year I decided to drink and realized - if the next morning you want to strangle yourself, it's better not to drink. But most importantly, he did yoga when no one really knew what it was. Vitsin carried out a mandatory cleansing of the body, ate right, developing high resistance to stress, conducted daily workouts and meditations, and strictly on schedule and regardless of the circumstances. Many directors got angry when, after the command "Motor!" Vitsin looked at his watch and politely but firmly stated: “Excuse me, I need to stand on one leg for seven minutes and sit in the lotus position.” Ignoring the heated atmosphere, he stepped aside, worked out his norm and calmly returned to work.

Savely Kramarov recalled how he lived with Vitsin on one of his business trips, and he amazed him with his daily yoga classes. “If I had not practiced yoga, then many of my film roles would not have been so successful,” Georgy Mikhailovich explained. - After all, the process of filming is a very difficult dreary thing. In anticipation of being filmed, you can sit all day, moreover, get so tired that all the humor will fizzle out of you by itself. How then to play? But during the filming, despite the noise, screaming, I often fell asleep for exactly ten to fifteen minutes, thereby giving the body a rest, relaxation.

The partners treated this obsession with a healthy lifestyle differently. Some were indifferent, others were skeptical, and some were rather harsh. For example, Nonna Mordyukova, who, after the episode of the kiss of the merchant's wife Belotelova with Balzaminov, told Vitsin: “Are you a man? Don't drink, don't smoke, don't hit on women. You're dead!"

“For all this, long years work in the cinema, Georgy Mikhailovich masterfully learned to play drunks, - said Vladimir Tsukerman. - However, in real life he never learned to drink. And smoked first and last time at the age of seven. Therefore, Vitsin did not like all kinds of acting gatherings, anniversaries and creative meetings in restaurants. “The worst thing that mankind has come up with is a feast,” he said. In the cinematic environment, such a bike even went. One actor says to another: “I was at the presentation yesterday. The table was awesome. Everyone was there, everyone was drinking. Leonov, Papanov, Mironov, Nikulin, Morgunov, Vitsin ... "-" Stop, - interrupted the second, - do not lie. - “Well, everyone was there, and everyone drank. In addition to Vitsin, of course ... ".

In the 10 years that have passed between the idea and the release of Balzaminov's Marriage, a lot has happened in the fate of Vitsin. But main event took place in 1957, when Leonid Gaidai invited him to his first comedy "The Bridegroom from the Other World." The picture did not have much success, especially since the censorship dealt with the "Groom ..." quite abruptly, turning the film into a curvy short film with peripheral distribution. But the next joint work, from the very beginning focused on short films, became a cult and fateful one. In the film "Dog Mongrel and an Unusual Cross", the most famous film trinity of Soviet cinema was born - Coward, Dunce and Experienced.

First, Gaidai read a poetic feuilleton about poachers in Pravda, then he came up with three characters-masks and began to look for actors. Vitsin immediately chose Coward, Coward found Dunce, seeing Yuri Nikulin in the circus. Experienced, in the person of Yevgeny Morgunov, Gaidai was betrothed by the director of Mosfilm, Ivan Pyryev. The fourth hero - Barbosa - was portrayed by the dog Brekh, who spoiled a lot of blood for the artists, stubbornly refusing to fulfill Gaidai's ideas in the frame.

Dog Mongrel was only one of five short stories in the humorous almanac Quite Seriously, on which the Mosfilm studio did not pin much hope. But Gaidai's eccentric short film had resounding success. The viewer liked everything - tricks, music, frantic rhythm and filigree editing. New heroes instantly became characters of folklore, tales and anecdotes. Made after "Moonshiners" aggravated the situation of universal love and popularity. Bags of letters came from all over the country, in which Gaidai, in an ultimatum form, was required to make a new movie about Coward, Dunce and Experienced. Meanwhile, the trio in full force temporarily migrated to Eldar Ryazanov’s film “Give a Book of Complaints”, where she was remembered for a fight in a restaurant and Vitsin’s conceptual phrase: “You need to know the authorities by sight!”

Grigory Kozintsev, who planned to shoot Vitsin in the role of Hamlet, was shocked when he saw the artist in Gaidai's short films. No one could have imagined that a dramatic actor would turn out so brightly comedic.

The phenomenal success of Gaidai's films even influenced the inviolable laws of the Soviet planned economy. The light industry responded to potential demand and quickly launched the production of products with "triple" symbols: T-shirts, masks, toys, calendars. Coward, Dunce and Experienced reincarnated as terrible forest robbers from the cartoon "The Bremen Town Musicians".

The audience perceived them as a single being, and even came up with a name for him - ViNiMor (according to the first letters of the surnames). But what different people made up this trio. A clown from God, a holiday man Yuri Nikulin (for him, Gaidai's films became the beginning of a film career), calm, quiet, contemplatively closed Vitsin - an artist with excellent theatrical training and solid film experience, and noisy, interfering in everything, often cheeky in communication Evgeny Morgunov, who, unfortunately, did not play anything of equal value either before or after the role of Experienced.

While working on "Operation" Y ..." Gaidai planned to complete the adventures of his heroes. The director has difficult relationship with Morgunov, who was naughty back at Moonshine, and allowed a lot of things both on film set, as well as outside of it. Into your painting Business people"According to the stories of O. Henry Gaidai, he did not take Experienced, although both Nikulin and Vitsin played excellent roles there. However, a suitable scenario was soon found.

When Nikulin read the script " Caucasian captive”, then flatly refused to act in“ this nonsense. But Gaidai convinced him and the others that the script would be just the main canvas, on which everyone has the right to string as many fictions, tricks and gags as they can invent. And in order to stimulate the imagination of his “co-authors”, the director promised to give the inventor a couple of bottles of champagne for each idea.

According to the oral traditions of filmmakers, Nikulin earned 24 bottles, Morgunov - 18, and Vitsin - 1, because he did not like champagne. In fact, Georgy Mikhailovich was no less prolific than his colleagues. It is to him that we owe the cry “Beware!” Coward flying out of the door, a trick with a cucumber and a slingshot, Varley's scarf, which Coward is afraid of, and the famous scene under the motto "Stand to the death!" When the heroes build a living wall in front of a rushing car. In general, tricks were invented so spontaneously that it was then difficult to determine exactly who invented what. For example, Nikulin came up with a huge syringe that remains after an injection in the ass of Experienced, but the fact that the syringe will swing is Vitsin's find.

The actor was hardly persuaded to drink a mug of beer on the set of "Prisoner of the Caucasus". At first, he categorically refused: “I won’t beer, pour rose hips.” One take, a second, a third... I have already drunk five mugs of rosehip infusion, like someone from film crew remarked: "It won't work! There is no foam! Nikulin suggested putting cotton in a mug, but Vitsin could not stand it: “Yes, the sixth mug will not fit into me. Even with cotton wool, even without!” “As you wish, Georgy Mikhailovich,” the film director Leonid Gaidai intervened. - And you still have to shoot one more take. And with real beer. And the teetotaler Vitsin had to forcefully drain a whole mug.

Pyotr Vail wrote about "ViniMore": "The heroes of the great Gaidai troika wore talking names denoting those qualities without which there is and cannot be worthy person. According to the clownish laws of comedy, these were shifting names, which, of course, did not confuse anyone. It is clear that Experienced - Evgeny Morgunov - who always gets into a puddle - is the personification of honest insecurity: the inevitable fate of the individual in society. That Dunce - Yuri Nikulin - the embodiment of common sense. That Coward - Georgy Vitsin - courage and resilience, beyond the control of either society or the state. With these three it was possible to make life clearer and more convincing than with Pavlik Morozov and Pavka Korchagin. Their words and phrases diverged in quanta worldly wisdom no worse than quotes from Ilf and Petrov. If you think about it, the replica: “To live well, but to live well is even better,” has become a key one for the people of a vast country. It was this intelligible philosophy that led the country from a vague slogan to everyday care, brought it out of ideology and into life. All three of them had the same name in common. This name is freedom. They appeared on the screen in the early 60s, when for the first time much of what was then opened wide open a quarter of a century later opened up in the country for the first time. The eccentricity of Gaidai's cinema was reminiscent of the movements of a suddenly freed man who, once in freedom, randomly swings his arms, turns his head, jumps up and down, tries to run away. The reflex freedom of that thaw was imprinted in many ways - youth prose, the Taganka theater, intimate lyrics, and most clearly in Gaidai's comedies, where the trio Nikulin-Vitsin-Morgunov possessed something that had not been seen before: plastic free man. Dostoevsky wrote that laughter is the true test of the soul, and it is right that our freedom began with laughter.

"Prisoner of the Caucasus" - favorite domestic cinema from 1967 to the present day. In the year of release, the film took 1st place at the box office, gathering 76.5 million viewers at the screens.

Actress Natalya Varley recalled Georgy Vitsin: “I can start to remember, analyze or invent, but I didn’t have the feeling that Georgy Mikhailovich was separate, Yuri Vladimirovich was separate, Evgeny Alexandrovich was separate. For me it was a very strong actors, wonderful people. My fear of a debutante, of course, at first did not allow me to navigate even what was happening. I was scared. Scary, joyful, interesting, and then I began to observe, analyze how different tempers why Leonid Iovich connected such dissimilar, it would seem, people and created three masks from them: Coward, Experienced, Dunce. In fact, Yuri Vladimirovich, and Evgeny Alexandrovich, and Georgy Mikhailovich were intelligent, smartest people. Georgy Mikhailovich was a deeply read man, an excellent theater actor. How theater actor he is known, of course, less. They mainly know his comedic roles, but I also saw him as an actor at the Yermolova Theater, even before I started acting in The Prisoner of the Caucasus. I studied at the circus school and ran to all the performances of the Yermolovsky Theater, because my classmate's aunt worked there. And I saw Georgy Mikhailovich in his theatrical works. He was from a different generation, with different values ​​and criteria. It seems to me that it would not have occurred to Georgy Mikhailovich Vitsin to bargain over the fee for the role, especially if he liked the role, if he wanted to play this role. And today I understand that this old, intelligent acting school is sorely lacking. When today they say, “how can it be, he died alone, in poverty,” I want to object. First, not alone, he had a beloved wife, a beloved daughter, a beloved dog. Yes, he was an old man, toothless, who already refused to go out with concerts, because he listened to his own health. My heart was shaking, he is still so suspicious. It was quite enough for him to go out in his Coward suit, to say a monologue, which was accepted with a bang. But he lived some kind of his own, quiet, life. I think he lived the way he already wanted - to correspond to his age, not to get younger, not to put in his teeth, because you don’t need to eat meat anymore, you need to eat porridge. Feed cats and dogs. There was also a Smolensk grocery store and they left for stray cats and dogs trimming bones and meat. He walked around the yards and fed them. He just loved animals and was very worried about them. He was a very kind and gentle person. Despite the fact that he loved dirty jokes, I have a feeling of such a tender depth of soul. Here is such a person - with a very tender soul, very vulnerable, never, as it seems to me, never asking for anything for himself, never putting forward any demands on others in relation to himself, no wealth he had never achieved in his life. The very memory of Georgy Mikhailovich is very bright. It is sad because he is gone and sad because he cannot now give a lesson in modesty, intelligence, politeness and reverent attitude to the acting profession.

The apotheosis of the troika was its end. Gaidai came to the conclusion that it was no longer possible to exploit these types without self-repetitions. In addition, on the set of "The Captive" he had major scandal with Morgunov. Evgeny Alexandrovich appeared on the site surrounded by fans and began to make comments to the director, causing an enthusiastic reaction from the environment. Gaidai sharply ordered the director to remove all outsiders from the site, Morgunov was offended, Gaidai too, and in front of the actor tore out all the remaining episodes from the director's script.

Vitsin, Nikulin and Morgunov met only once on the screen, but not with Gaidai, but in Karelov's film Seven Old Men and One Girl.

In 1980, director Yuri Kushnerev tried to revive the legendary trio in the film "Comedy for a long time past days”, connecting it with the no less famous Gaidai deuce - Archil Gomiashvili and Sergey Filippov. Despite the fact that the authors of “Operation Y”, “Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “ diamond hand» Yakov Kostyukovsky and Maurice Slobodsky, the result was not very good. Nikulin immediately abandoned the project, and the remaining four strained with all their might, but could not make “at least something out of nothing”.

In our country, the popularity of a film artist is often determined by the number of catchphrases”, launched by him from the screen to the people. "Money in the morning - chairs in the evening!" (“12 chairs”), “There is no romanticism, there is no one to drink with” (“It can’t be”), “Well, quickly everyone in the caves!” ("Sannikov Land"), "Yes, yes ... OBKhSS!" (“Gentlemen of Fortune”) is all Vitsin. And as the apogee of popularity - an invitation to become a guest of the TV pub "13 chairs" by the poet Odysseus Tsypa.

Vitsin, along with other popular artists, often toured the country with the Comrade KINO programs and combined concerts. At one of these concerts, leaving the stage, he ran into a young singer standing backstage: “And I’m watching you, Georgy Mikhailovich, I’m learning from a professional to feel the stage and the audience,” Alla Pugacheva told the artist. In 1990, they again found themselves side by side - in " latest list" Name People's Artist USSR, which Gorbachev managed to sign in front of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

Georgy Vitsin said about himself: “I am generally very flexible, patient and non-aggressive. I will always turn the other cheek and will not fight... Just because it is a wise Christian rule. My dogs sometimes bite me, but I forgive them - after all, they are all so unfortunate, curs ... I'm not explosive. Nerves can pass, but I still try not to let it happen. My temperature is not such that passions play. Yes, I am afraid of them ... ".

Ivan Dykhovichny wrote about Vitsin: “There are people who live a very long time and when they pass away - no one remembers them anymore, such a terrible moment happens, but here the story is amazing, because fortunately, fortunately for us - viewers and people who knew him, Vitsin lived for many years, but most importantly, he managed to leave an image so loved by just people from and to a variety of tastes, which is also unique.

It is hard to imagine, but in life Georgy Mikhailovich possessed a truly magical charm, literally bewitching women. Moreover, the actor had this gift from his youth.

Georgy Mikhailovich was not a written handsome man, however, he had no shortage of admirers. Ladies wrote letters that they wanted to give birth to a child from him, confessed their love. Many actresses also tried to seduce a popular colleague. But Vitsin was never a supporter of fleeting connections. Nevertheless, in his personal biography there is a fact that is not typical for Georgy Mikhailovich. In his youth, Vitsin had an affair with actress Dina Topoleva, whom he took not from anyone, but from his teacher, People's Artist of the USSR Nikolai Khmelev. Khmelev's studio was later transformed into the Yermolova Theatre. And, strangely, the relationship between Khmelev and Vitsin did not change at all after that. Khmelev forgave his lawful wife for treason, and the actor treated his teacher and director with respect all his life. Topoleva was much older than Georgy Mikhailovich.

Vitsin and Topoleva lived in a civil marriage for almost 20 years. And then 38-year-old George met Tamara, the niece of the famous scientist Michurin. But even when Vitsin was married to Tamara, and Topoleva was left alone and very ill, Vitsin looked after her. He brought groceries and bought medicines. And Tamara Fedorovna supported her husband in this.

Moreover, Dina remained a member of his family until her death. Remembers A.Voinov, daughter close friend Vitsin directed by Konstantin Voinov: “He built an absolutely amazing system of relationships. He wanted a child, there (in the family with Dina) there was no child. Aunt Tamara's baby was born. The child is adored, he simply idolized his daughter Natasha. But he managed to arrange so that Natasha was admitted to Aunt Dinin's house. He brought her there because he kind of had two families. Because he supported Aunt Dina all his life. Both her and her sister, with housekeepers, with a dacha for the summer ... Vitsin could not leave Dina, she was older and needed guardianship.

Vitsin met his new wife at the Yermolova Theater. She worked there as a clerk. According to the stories of Tamara Fedorovna herself, their acquaintance took place on Easter. She came to the props room, where people brought Easter cakes and Easter. Vitsin entered with a painted egg in his hand. “Girls, I came to say goodbye,” he said. They kissed three times, looked into each other's eyes, and have since started dating. A few years later, the couple had a daughter, Natasha.

Vitsin did not need fame. He ran from her. He hid from the annoying public in his apartment or retired in nature with an easel. When the Museum of the Three Actors was opening, Yuri Nikulin called for Georgy Vitsin to take him to the presentation. And found a colleague lying on the couch. “Gosh, get up, let's go, your own museum is opening,” said Yuri Vladimirovich. “So it’s necessary to put on pants,” Vitsin replied. “What, you go without pants at all?” - "So it is necessary to put on other pants." And turned over to the other side. But then he still packed up and came.

Vitsin said about himself: “I have always tried not to draw the attention of others to myself. What is an eyesore to the people? He put on a gray cloak, pulled a cap over his eyes and tried to blend in with the crowd. There is a story that once they recognized him in the queue, they began to give way. “I am not George Vitsin, I am his brother,” the actor began to deceive people. “Man, you have such a great brother that you also have full right enjoy his fame. Come forward!"

The last time Georgy Mikhailovich starred in 1994 in the film by Andrei Benkendorf "A Few Love Stories" and one of the first domestic "horror films" "Haggi-Tragger". Sometimes he performed at the national "humor" in the former Theater film actor - he joked that he was earning food for homeless dogs. He was disinterested in literally this word. Few people knew that Vitsin studied the works of Ovid, Horace, Plato and Petrarch, was fond of astronomy.

Vitsin was very fond of animals. The family had two parrots and a dog. One bird screamed all the time: “Why are you running around? Go to sleep!”, and about the dog, Vitsin, in all seriousness, reported that she knew how to say “mom”.

At the end of his life, poor health constantly reminded Vitsin of himself. He was often sick. There was dissatisfaction with what was happening in the country in the 1990s. The actor categorically did not like this time. He could not and did not want to adapt to him. He was rescued by the duty that he placed on himself: "I must go feed the pigeons." Every day he got out of bed, took sacks of millet and went outside to feed the birds. The surrounding stray cats and dogs got pieces of food - Georgy Mikhailovich could not pass by their troubles calmly. And so it turned out that by the time Vitsin left the house, all his pets were gathering near the entrance.

Georgy Vitsin worked a lot on dubbing cartoons. He approached his puppet and drawn characters according to the Stanislavsky system, considering this part of his work no less responsible and serious. His voice is spoken by the brownie Kuzya, the hare (“The Bag of Apples”), Giuseppe (“The Adventures of Pinocchio”), the musician beetle (“Thumbelina”) and many other animated characters.

Vitsin basically did not go to polyclinics. “And then they will find something, so you will start thinking about your sores.” He looked at all the costs of age with his characteristic humor: “Why put prostheses? If it's time to burn your bridges, don't change them for plastic ones."

Despite the fact that Georgy Vitsin was constantly ill, he periodically participated in national concerts, since his meager pension was clearly not enough for a full life. Vitsin lived with his wife, who did not work due to illness, and his daughter, an artist, whose salary was also small.

On September 6, 2001, Vitsin agreed to participate in a concert that took place in the capital's Film Actor Theater. The organizers called Vitsin two hours before the start and asked him to replace the sick artist. Vitsin, who himself did not feel well that day, agreed, setting the only condition - to speak first. But it didn't help. Immediately after the performance, he became ill with his heart. An ambulance was immediately called, which took Vitsin to the 19th city ​​hospital. He was placed in the intensive care unit. The next day, the artist felt better, and he was transferred to a double ward of the cardiology department. There, his daughter Natasha looked after him.

O. Alekseeva wrote in the newspaper “Life”: “Georgy Mikhailovich categorically forbade his wife to leave his beloved dog Boy unattended. And Tamara Fedorovna does not dare to ask someone she knows to sit with the dog. He does not want them to see the conditions in which the people's artist of Russia lives, who has played more than a hundred roles in films. The picture is indeed depressing. In the tiny hallway are books and a bowl of food for the Boy. In the room - an old black-and-white TV and again a lot of books. The shower has not been working for six months, there is no cold water in the kitchen. “It's not that it's unfair, it's inhuman,” says Tamara Fedorovna. - A great actor, a people's favorite, but he lives in such devastation. But Georgy Mikhailovich bravely endures everything, does not turn to anyone for help. And he scolds me if I start talking about it. I sometimes think, maybe - write a letter to the government, to the Union of Cinematographers? But Georgy Mikhailovich forbids, says: it’s very hard for everyone now, and he has no right to demand special attention to himself ... "

Doctors of the 19th hospital relieved Vitsin of an acute attack of angina pectoris and treated his heart. Then the daughter took the artist home. But a couple of days later he became ill again due to an attack of angina pectoris. On October 10, Vitsin was placed in a more comfortable Clinical Hospital No. 2 under the Russian Ministry of Health. When Vitsin entered the 2nd hospital, the doctors had no illusions - the actor had no chance. And he himself understood this very well. On Thursday, October 18, Vitsin got worse. He stopped eating on his own, could not sit up in bed, and spoke with difficulty. On Friday, the actor lost consciousness. Over the weekend, he woke up for a few minutes, but then fell back into oblivion.

On October 22, Vitsin's condition became extremely serious, and the doctors called his daughter Natasha. She immediately arrived, and for several hours was inseparably with her father. But he never regained consciousness. At 16.30 Georgy Vitsin died.

“He did not need time,” said Leonid Kuravlev. - He himself rejected it, rejected it. Vitsin did not need such a time with his philosophy, with his modesty, with his ability to idolize the very foundations of human morality and soul, according to which one must live on, and they are framed by the ten commandments of Christ. Here he lived according to the laws of Jesus Christ.

One of recent interviews Georgy Vitsin finished like this: “Don't fuss, people. Life takes an awful lot of time!”

Throughout his life, Vitsin portrayed a cowardly squishy man, which in real life he was not at all.

About George Vitsin was filmed documentary"Hermit".

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Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov

Used materials:

Site materials www.biografii.ru
Site materials www.kino-teatr.ru
Site materials www.mad-love.ru
Site materials www.tvkultura.ru
Site materials www.art.thelib.ru
Site materials www.rusactors.ru
The text of the book by F. Razzakov "Dossier on the stars"
Text of the article "The brave coward Georgy Vitsin", author T. Boglanova
Text of the article "Georgy Vitsin lived under fake documents?", Author O. Kalnina

Acted in films:

1945 Ivan the Terrible
1951 Belinsky
1952 Composer Glinka
1954 Substitute
1955 Twelfth Night
1955 Maxim Perepelitsa
1955 Mexican
1956 She loves you
1956 Murder on Rue Dante
1957 Wrestler and clown
1957 Don Quixote
1957 New attraction
1958 Girl with a guitar
1958 Bridegroom from the Other World
1959 Vasily Surikov
1960 End of old Berezovka
1960 Revenge
1961 Artist from Kokhanovka
1961 Dog Mongrel and unusual cross
1961 Moonshiners
1962 Business people
1962 Way to the pier
1963 Cain XVIII ("Two Friends")
1963 Short stories
1963 First trolleybus
1963 Blind bird
1964 Spring chores
1964 Give a complaint book
1964 Balzaminov's marriage
1964 Bunny
1964 Tale of Lost Time
1965 Road to the sea
1965 Operation "Y" and Shurik's other adventures
1966 Prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures
1966 Who Invented the Wheel?
1966 Amazing story like a fairy tale
1966 Rainbow Formula
1967 Save a drowning man
1968 Seven old men and one girl
1968 Old, old fairy tale
1969 At the thirteenth hour of the night
1970 How we were looking for Tishka
1970 Guardian
1970 Step from the roof
1971 12 chairs
1971 spring fairy tale
1971 Gentlemen of Fortune
1971 Mortal Enemy
1971 Shadow
1972 Tobacco Captain
1973 ... Have you ever loved?
1973 Sannikov Land
1973 Incorrigible Liar
1973 Cipollino / Cipollino
1974 Car, violin and dog Klyaksa
1974 Big attraction
1974 Dear Boy
1974 My destiny
1974 Northern Rhapsody
1974 Tsarevich Prosha
1975 It can't be!
1975 Finist - Clear Falcon
1975 Step forward
1976 Cheerful dream, or Laughter and tears
1976 While the clock is striking
1976 Blue bird
1976 Sun, sun again
1977 12 chairs
1977 Marinka, Yanka and secrets royal castle
1980 For matches
1980 Comedy of bygone days
1981 Hands up!
1985 Dangerous for life!
1985 Rivals
1986 Pan Klyaksa's Journey
1991 The story of the meter page
1992 Shot in the coffin
1993 Brave Guys
1994 Gentlemen Artists
1994 Several Love Stories
1994 Hugy Tragger

Voiced cartoons:

1946 Peacock's Tail (animated)
1951 High slide (animated, Chick)
1953 Magic Shop (animated, shop assistant)
1954 Orange Neck (animation)
1955 "Arrow" flies into a fairy tale (animated)
1955 The Enchanted Boy (animation, Rosenbaum)
1955 Lourja Magdana (grandfather Gigo / role A. Omiadze /)
1955 Nut twig (animation)
1955 Postal Snowman (animated)
1955 Brave Hare (animation)
1956 Boat (animation)
1956 Jackal and camel (animation)
1957 In a certain kingdom (animation)
1957 Wonder Woman (animated)
1958 Cat's House (animation, Goat)
1958 Beloved beauty (animation, Trash)
1958 The Boy from Naples (animated)
1958 Tale of Malchish-Kibalchish (animation)
1958 Sportlandia (animation)
1959 The Adventures of Pinocchio (animated, Giuseppe)
1959 Three Woodcutters (animated)
1959 Mr. Pitkin Behind Enemy Lines (UK)
1960 Non-Drinking Sparrow (animated, Sparrow)
1960 Different wheels (animation)
1960 I drew a little man (animation)
1961 Dear penny (animated, Pyatak)
1961 Dragon (animated)
1961 Key (animation, father)
1961 Ant-braggart (animated)
1961 Beggar's Tale
1962 Two Tales (animation)
1964 If you want - believe it, if you want - no ... (lecturer)
1966 How to Steal a Million (USA)
1966 An amazing story, like a fairy tale (reads the text)
1967 Engine from Romashkov (animation)
1968 Diamond Hand (drunkard in the alley, sings "Song of the Bears")
1969 Puss in Boots (Japan, animation)
1970 Beavers follow the trail (animated)
1977 Stepmother Samanishvili (priest Michael)
1978 Santa Claus and Gray wolf(animated)
1978 D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers (judge, role of Vladimir Dolinsky)
1980 Taming of the Shrew (Italy)
1982 In love with own will(unlucky boyfriend-artist, the role of Ivan Ufimtsev)
1982 Intercession Gate (Savelyich)
1982 Wizards (1982) scientist cat
1984 House for Kuzka
1984 Adventures of a brownie
1984-1987 Brownie Kuzya (animation, brownie Kuzya)
1986 Tale for Natasha
1986 I am an outpost leader (father of Kolya Gudkov, role of Alexei Kozhevnikov)
1987 Return of the brownie

The talented Soviet actor Georgy Vitsin is familiar to almost everyone, and his characters enjoyed great success and earned popular love. The actor tried not to use his celebrity and led a quiet humble 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 health-improving forest school, where there was a place only in the younger 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 notoriety and moved straight towards the danger - to become an artist.


After leaving school, Georgy Vitsin entered the Maly Theater School. But soon he was expelled with the wording "For a frivolous attitude to the educational process."

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


A real film career began in 1951 immediately with a serious role - Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in Kozintsev's film "Belinsky".


Vitsin was so convincing that after a couple of months he received an invitation again to the role of Gogol - in Grigory Alexandrov's film Composer Glinka.

Georgy Vitsin starred in different genres, but Georgy Vitsin was widely known for his roles in comedies. The first such role was a charming football player in Semyon Timoshenko's film "Reserve Player" in 1954.


Vitsin always looked very young, so he often played heroes much younger than himself in age. Vitsin performed the role of the modest Kostya Kanareikin already at the age of thirty.


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


At 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 "Reserve Player" whole month the actor trained daily at the stadium to lose weight. And at the rehearsal of the 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 took a puff on a bullock under the stairs and got a lifelong aversion to tobacco.


And I didn’t drink, after one day I decided to drink on New Year’s and realized that if you want to strangle yourself in the 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, he ate right, was fond of breathing exercises. Sometimes - right on the set.


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


And Savely Kramarov introduced him to yoga, with whom they became friends at the "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 (it was forbidden then) to Vitsin.


Colleagues in the workshop perceived Vitsin's lifestyle differently. For example, Nonna Mordyukova, after the episode of the kiss of the merchant's wife Belotelova with Balzaminov, told Vitsin: “Are you a man? Don't drink, don't smoke, don't hit on women. You're dead!"


In general, at first, Vitsin was predicted to have a career as a dramatic actor, but in 1961 Gaidai's short film Dog Mongrel and an 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" from all over the country they began to send letters in bags, demanding from Gaidai to make a new movie about Coward, Dunce and Experienced.

The climax for the trinity was "Prisoner of the Caucasus" - the leader of the box office in domestic cinema from 1967 to the present day. In the year of release, the film took 1st place at the box office, gathering 76.5 million viewers at the screens.


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


Nikulin suggested putting cotton in a mug, but Vitsin could not stand it: “Yes, the sixth mug will not fit into me. Even with cotton wool, even without!”


Despite the image of a Coward, Vitsin was an amazingly courageous person. For example, on the set of She Loves You, a scene with a lion was planned, and the beast 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 in shock. But not Vitsin. "Do not be afraid," he said, "lions do not touch brave people." And stroked the animal...


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


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


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


The viewer thought that in life he was also a drunkard, and he was always pestered by bastards and offered: “Will you be the third?” To which Vitsin replied: "No, I can only be the fourth and that is the concept."


Vitsin voiced many cartoons. He approached dubbing no less responsibly than acting. Kuzya, a snowman-mailer, a lot of hares from a variety of cartoons, and even Puss in Boots speak in his voice.


Not possessing the most spectacular appearance, Vitsin stole his wife from the chief director of the theater. This love story shook the whole theatrical Moscow.

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


He was 19 years old, she was 35, but she reciprocated and left her husband. Together they lived for almost 20 years, although they never officially signed. However, Khmelev (pictured) forgave his wife and his student and still gave them new roles.


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

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


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


Georgy Vitsin did not have a passion for wealth. Tried to live modestly. He hid from the annoying public in his apartment or retired in nature with an easel. And he drew wonderfully. In the photo is his caricature of Yuri Nikulin.

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


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


Once he picked up a half-dead homeless shepherd dog, went out and called him a Boy. The dog loved to sleep on his master. And when they called Vitsin, the wife answered: “He can’t come up. The boy sleeps on it. The poor dog has suffered so much… Let him rest now.”


Georgy Vitsin has played over a hundred film roles. The people loved him for the Coward, and he liked the role of Sir Andrew in Twelfth Night the most.


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


Once he was recognized in the queue, they began to give way. “I am not Vitsin, I am his brother,” Vitsin tried to get out. “Man, you have such a great brother that you also have every right to enjoy his fame. Come forward!"


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

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


The actor was buried in Moscow, at the Vagankovsky 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 fence of the grave for several years.

People's Artist of the USSR, actor Georgy Vitsin is probably known to every Russian moviegoer. His most popular image on the screen was the Coward from four comedies by Leonid Gaidai, starting with the film "Dog Mongrel and an Unusual Cross" and ending with the unforgettable "Prisoner of the Caucasus". In addition, Vitsin starred in more than one hundred and fifty film projects, most often in comic roles, not counting dubbing. animated films and duplication of foreign, radio performances and theatrical roles. He was a great comic actor and will be remembered by the public forever. The cause of death of George Vitsin was heart disease.

He was born in 1917, in the Finnish city of Terioki, which has now become the territory of St. Petersburg. In infancy, he was transported with his family to Moscow, where his mother, who worked as an usher in the Hall of Columns, often took the boy with her. From the age of 12, George began to play in school plays, more often - negative characters. In 1933, he graduated from the Moscow seven-year school No. 26 and entered the Theater School at the Maly Theater, but was expelled "for a frivolous attitude to the educational process." In 1934, Vitsin resumed his studies at the theater school at the Vakhtangov Theater, in 1935 he moved to the Theater Studio of the Moscow Art Theater. Young Georgy Vitsin began his acting career with the Studio Theater under the direction of Khmelev, then, from 1936 to 1969, he worked on the stage of the Moscow drama theater Yermolova's name

The film debut of the actor, according to his confession, was the role in Yutkevich's film "Hello, Moscow!" in 1945, and not an episode in Esenstein's film "Ivan the Terrible", as his biographers believed. Already in the sports comedy "Reserve Player" in 1954, in the role of Vasya Vesnushkin, Vitsin attracted the attention of the audience, and in addition, he had serious roles Gogol in the dramas Composer Glinka and Belinsky. In the theater, he was predicted to have a career as a dramatic actor, and Grigory Kozintsev invited him to audition for the film Hamlet. Everything changed by chance: the shooting of Leonid Gaidai took place earlier and Georgy Mikhailovich was taken on the role of a Coward. After that, he specialized only in comic roles, which, at times, many found almost brilliant.

IN privacy Georgy Vitsin was not at all the kind of person he played on the screen. He never drank or smoked and was a vegetarian. He was seriously engaged in yoga and looked much younger than his years: he played the 17-year-old Vesnushkin at the age of 37, and the 25-year-old Balzaminov at the age of 45. At 19, he had an extraordinary romantic relationship with actress Dina Topoleva, a 35-year-old beauty who left her director husband for their love. Talented artist, Vitsin once created her sculptural portrait. Later, as the husband of the niece of the famous breeder Michurin, theatrical costume designer Tamara Feodorovna, Vitsin helped his ex-lover as much as he could: he went shopping, got medicine.

Vitsin was sharply negative about his fame and said: “If glory creeps up, hide!” He was a non-confrontational and pleasant person in communication, but remained closed even to colleagues. And they learned about his heart disease in the theater only when he had a heart attack on stage. By the year of his death - 2001, when he was 84 years old, Georgy Mikhailovich began to complain about the liver. He never ate much and loved the nuts he fed his pet parrots. The actor was upset when someone offered him help: “I can’t take it, because people give the last.”

He fed stray animals in his yard and he was always met near the entrance by a whole pack of dogs. Dogs and birds, to whom he also regularly took out bread crumbs, accompanied his coffin to the cemetery. After the death of this wonderful actor, ridiculous rumors appeared among the people about why Georgy Vitsin died: they said that he died of hunger. This was not true, because the daughter of Georgy Mikhailovich, Natalya, never abandoned her father. He himself moved to the old "Khrushchev" in Starokonyushenny Lane, leaving Natalya a 3-room apartment in the center of the capital, and lived modestly, diligently avoiding other people's attention and curiosity.

He is buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow.

2466 views It is unlikely that anyone will doubt that the People's Artist of the USSR Georgy Vitsin is an actor with capital letter. Vitsin can be called an actor "without age" - at the age of 30 he could play an old grandfather, and at 50 - a perky young man. Despite the fact that he is familiar to most viewers with his comedic roles - Coward in the comedies of Gaidai and Khmyr "Gentlemen of Fortune", Vitsin did an excellent job with dramatic images.

The childhood of George Vitsin

According to official data, which today can be found in some documents, the birthplace of Georgy Vitsin is Petrograd. However, according to other information, which is now considered to be more reliable, the hometown of the Soviet actor is the town of Terioki, today called Zelenogorsk (Leningrad Region).

Certain inaccuracies are also associated with the date of birth of the actor. So, it is generally accepted that Vitsin was born not in 1918, but in 1917. Changes in the official metrics were made at the insistence of his mother, who took such a step to send her son to a good forest health school, which the boy did not go to due to his age.

When George was only eight months old, his parents moved to Moscow, and all further fate the actor was associated with this city.

Carier start

After graduating general education school, the actor entered the Maly Theater School, where, however, he did not study for long and was expelled with a funny wording "for a frivolous attitude to study." True, this life episode of George did not embarrass and only strengthened in him the desire to become a professional actor. The following year, after being expelled, Vitsin applied to three theater studios, each of which accepted him.

"Song of Moonshiners": Vitsin, Morgunov, Nikulin

Choosing from three options, George gave preference to the prestigious Moscow Theater School. E. Vakhtangov, but a year later unexplained circumstances transferred to the Moscow Art Theater-2 studio.

Here the actor has already studied to the very end. Having received a diploma in 1936, Georgy Vitsin went to work in the theater studio of N.P. Khmelev (subsequently it was renamed the theater named after M. Yermolova).

On the stage of this theater Vitsin total worked for thirty-three years, giving the audience a lot of vivid stage images, for example, in the performances of As You Like It and Night of Errors.

Acting career of George Vitsin

The first work of Georgy Vitsin in the cinema was the episodic role of a railway worker in the film “Hello, Moscow!” (1945). However, the actor was able to really mark himself in the cinema a little later. So, in 1951, Georgy Vitsin surprisingly accurately reincarnated as Nikolai Gogol in the biographical drama Belinsky by Grigory Kozintsev. His work turned out to be so bright and successful that a year later the actor again appeared before the audience in the image Ukrainian classic in the film "Composer Glinka".

From 1954 to 1961, the actor was noted in many remarkable films. In his creative biography there were such films as “Maxim Perepelitsa” with Leonid Bykov, “Twelfth Night” by Jan Frid, “Don Quixote” by Grigory Kozintsev, as well as the film “How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”, in which Vitsin again played Gogol. The directors often gave Vitsin small, one might even say, passing roles, but he always knew how to add his zest to any image. But, of course, the all-Union glory of Georgy Mikhailovich was brought by the comedies of Leonid Gaidai and the image of the Coward created by the actor, which Vitsin first embodied in the film novel “Dog Mongrel and an Unusual Cross”. Their trio with Yuri Nikulin and Yevgeny Morgunov After that, Vitsin returned to this role three more times. So, the paintings "Moonshiners", "Operation" Y "", "Prisoner of the Caucasus" became the true apogee of his career. These roles were remembered by the viewer, but it is difficult to say that after them Vitsin's career began to decline sharply.

There were many more wonderful roles in his life. The most famous and beloved by the audience were the tapes "Balzaminov's Marriage", "Gentlemen of Fortune", "Old, Old Tale".

During his life, the great Soviet actor was noted in almost a hundred films. In addition, the fame and popularity of Vitsin brought numerous roles in the theater. In addition to all of the above, Georgy Mikhailovich also worked on the dubbing of many foreign films and Soviet cartoons. In this field, he also achieved considerable success, giving his voice to countless on-screen characters.

Many years of work in the theater and cinema brought Vitsin the title of Honored, and then People's Artist of the RSFSR. In 1990, Georgy Mikhailovich was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

To the 100th anniversary of Georgy Vitsin

Georgy Vitsin behind the scenes

According to the actor's friends, Georgy Vitsin was passionately passionate all his life fine arts. He drew caricatures well, and also achieved some success in painting, sculpture and graphics.

In the early nineties, Vitsin toured Russia a lot, speaking with famous monologues and playing various excerpts from Gaidai's films with other characters of the legendary trinity. However, such a busy work schedule has never brought the actor any tangible dividends.

Having given his spacious apartment to his only daughter Natasha, Vitsin moved to the usual "Khrushchev", which he rarely left. IN last years Georgy Mikhailovich lived his life like a hermit, leaving his house only to take a short walk and feed the pigeons. Despite the modest living conditions, he always refused the help of friends and acquaintances. the only person, who was always next to the aged and sick actor, was his wife Tamara Fedorovna.

The death of George Vitsinam and everything that happened after

The actor died on October 22, 2001. Georgy Vitsin died in a Moscow clinic due to chronic heart and liver diseases. The grave of the legendary comedian is located at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow. After the death of the actor, a monument was erected in his honor in one of the parks of his native Zelenogorsk. The sculpture depicts him as Mikhailo Balzaminov.

96 years ago was born great actor- Georgy Vitsin. A serious clown of Soviet cinema, a book lover and a sculptor, a yogi and a sage. The essence of the funny, in his own words, he understood only by the age of eighty: "Laughter is great ... Laughing is a natural need of a normal person. Lack of a sense of humor is a disease ... of an abnormal person" ...

Parents and childhood of Georgy Vitsin

Georgy Vitsin was born in Petrograd on April 23, 1918. However, according to the entry in the Metric Book of the Petrograd Holy Cross Church for 1917, Vitsin was baptized on April 23, on the day of the Holy Great Martyr George, and April 5 (April 18 according to the new style) 1917 is indicated in the “birthday” column.

The year from 1917 to 1918 in the metric was corrected by his mother Maria Matveevna in order to send painful George to a health-improving forest school, where there was only a place in the younger group.

When George was eight months old, his parents moved him to Moscow. Maria Matveevna alone carried all the household chores, since her husband returned from the war as a seriously ill person - he was poisoned by gas and did not live long.When Maria Matveevna, having changed many professions, went to work as an usher in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions, she often took her son with her to work.

Vitsin. The cure for shyness

Gosha Vitsin did not like exams from childhood until the end of his life , and in any form. What could be more unpleasant than questions that you have to answer. It doesn't matter to whom - a teacher, a boss, a policeman or a journalist. In the classroom, hiding from the teacher's strict gaze, he always hid behind other people's backs. But, realizing that you can’t hide from everyone, he decided to overcome shyness and complexes and moved straight towards the danger - to the artists!

Here is what he recalled about it:

“I grew up as a very shy child. And in order to get rid of this complex, I decided to learn how to perform. Went to the fourth grade in the theater club. By the way, a very good remedy, even the psychologist Vladimir Levy wrote about this. I know him, he treats stutterers in this way, people with all sorts of complexes - arranges a theater at home, distributes roles, and they improvise. Here I am cured…”

In the school theater, as a therapy for shyness, in one of the performances Vitsin performed the dance of the shaman so passionately and emotionally that he received advice from his teachers to seriously take up ballet. But after graduating from school, Vitsin decided to seriously engage in theater.

Vitsin's path to the artists

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

The following autumn, he again decided to test himself. He submitted documents and entered three universities at once, but chose Vakhtangov's "Pike". A year later, he left from there and, finally, donkey at the theater school at the Second Moscow Art Theater , where he was enrolled after graduation. Vitsin's teachers were S.G. Birman, A.I. Blagonravov and V.N. Tatarinov.

However, the young artist was clearly unlucky ....

In 1936, the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Postyshev, in a personal conversation with Stalin, complained that there were two Moscow Art Theaters in Moscow, and not a single one in Ukraine, and Stalin immediately "gave" the fraternal republic the Moscow Art Theater-2 with the whole troupe.

The actors were offered to pack their things and go to Kyiv, and when they refused to leave the capital, the theater was disbanded...

So Vitsin ended up at the Yermolova Theater. There he brilliantly played a sexually horny the impotent old man in Fletcher's play Taming the Tamer.

The audience fell on this production in droves, and it was precisely “on Vitsin”. People found out at the box office if he was playing, and only then did they buy tickets. True, they were dissatisfied. One day, an angry general appeared backstage, watching a performance with his 16-year-old daughter, and demanded that the "indecent text" be cut.

The funny thing is that before that the play had already been rewritten twice, but it has not lost its piquancy.

Vitsin himself always treated the theater with great reverence. . Even after he finally said goodbye to the stage and went to the cinema. There is no such thing as a "film actor", he believed. There is an actor, and he is born on the stage, in live communication with the audience.

In his theatrical experience, Vitsin found blanks for many film roles. The sexy old man who embarrassed the general's daughter turned into Sir Andrew from Jan Fried's Twelfth Night. The British press, which always jealously follows any adaptations of Shakespeare, caressed this picture, and the role of "the Russian actor Vypin, who accurately grasped the specifics of English humor", although with a mistake in the surname, was mentioned in the BBC program.

Theater critics wrote about Vitsin with pleasure , and no one then could have imagined that an actor with such a brilliant stage career could leave the theater forever for the sake of cinema.

Film career Vitsin

The first film director of George Vitsin was the great Eisenstein with his film "Ivan the Terrible". True, Vitsin starred there in the episodic role of the guardsman, in the crowd.

The real film career began in 1951 with the role of the arch-serious - Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in Kozintsev's film "Belinsky" .

The director's assistant, who came to Moscow from Lenfilm, selected several actors from the mass of the capital's actors at once, among whom were famous actors Vladimir Kenigson, Boris Smirnov and a number of others. However, it was in Vitsin that the assistant saw the features of Gogol's nature.

Vitsin in the image of a classic was so convincing that after a couple of months he received an invitation again for the role of Gogol — in the picture of Grigory Alexandrov "Composer Glinka".

First fame

Georgy Vitsin starred in films of various genres, but Georgy Vitsin became widely known for his roles in comedies. The first such role was a charming football player Vasya Vesnushkin in Semyon Timoshenko's film "Reserve Player", taken in 1954. Vitsin got into this role quite by accident.

The picture was shot at Lenfilm, where Vitsin was invited to audition for the role of the Gadfly in the film directed by Alexander Feintsimmer. The tests were unsuccessful, Oleg Strizhenov was approved for the role, and Vitsin was about to return to Moscow, when Semyon Timoshenko's assistant accidentally found him in one of the Lenfilm corridors. This time the test of the young actor was successful, and Vitsin was immediately approved for the role.

True, later the director was very surprised to learn that the “young actor” was not 25 years old, as it seemed to the eye, but almost 37.

"Ageless Phenomenon" Vitsin

Gorgeous physical form Vitsina deserves a separate discussion. He was under 40 years old when he equally convincingly played a 70-year-old old man in the film "Maxim Perepelitsa" and a 17-year-old hero of Rozov's play "Good Hour!". Of course, genes also played a role here, but the actor himself made every effort not to lose the gifts of his nature.

Before filming the same "Reserve Player" for a whole month he trained daily at the stadium in order to “burn fat”. And at the rehearsal of the boxing match, Vitsin broke up so much that he seriously attacked Pavel Kadochnikov.

Kadochnikov, who boxed professionally, reacted automatically. As a result, Vitsin woke up with a crack in his rib, but did not leave the site, but continued filming, tightening his chest with a towel.

In 1956, Vitsin starred in the comedy She Loves You. . According to the script, a complex stunt episode on water skiing was supposed. An understudy was supposed to be filmed, but the director decided to take Vitsin "weakly". Together with the screenwriter fabricated a letter from a fan:

“Dear comrade Vitsin! You are my ideal, I dream to meet you! Heard you're aquaplaning tomorrow? How brave are you! I will definitely look and after the shooting I will come to you. Believe me, you will not be disappointed. Klava.

Vitsin read the letter, agreed to act, worked brilliantly for the whole episode, but at the end he said to the joyful director: “But the name of the girl could be more interesting to come up with.”

But it's one thing to play a 25-year-old at 37, and quite another to deceive the viewer for more than 20 years, but without any newfangled computer graphics.

It happened in the picture "The Marriage of Balzaminov". The shooting of this film was planned in 1955, and the only candidate for the role of the underage Misha Balzaminov was Gosha Vitsin, a longtime friend of the director Voinov through joint work in the Khmelev theater studio. But something did not work out then, and the script was shelved for a very long time.

After 10 years, the opportunity arose to return to the project, and Voinov offered the main role ... again to Vitsin. And then Georgy Mikhailovich was neither more nor less, and two years before fifty dollars. He flatly refused, but Voinov insisted: “It’s 48 according to your passport, but you don’t even look 30. We’ll remove the makeup for another five years, and then the light, etc., etc. And Vitsin succeeded!

Vitsin and a healthy lifestyle

This reincarnation was possible because Vitsin treated his health responsibly and reverently. He didn't smoke since at the age of eight he took a puff under the stairs and got an anti-nicotine reflex for life. And I didn't drink after one day in the New Year he decided to drink and realized that if you want to strangle yourself in the morning, it’s better not to drink.

But the most important thing is he did yoga . In those days, when no one here really knew what it was, Vitsin systematically and regularly studied according to this ancient Indian system. Mandatory cleansing of the body, proper nutrition, high resistance to stress, daily training and meditation, and strictly on schedule and regardless of circumstances.

A lot of directors got angry when, after the command "Motor!" Vitsin looked at his watch and politely but firmly stated: “Excuse me, I need to stand on one leg for seven minutes and sit in the lotus position.” Ignoring the heated atmosphere, he stepped aside, worked out his norm and calmly returned to work.

Savely Kramarov recalled how on one of his business trips he lived with Vitsin and he amazed him with his daily yoga classes. “If I had not practiced yoga, then many of my film roles would not have been so successful,” Georgy Mikhailovich explained. - After all, the process of filming is a very difficult dreary thing.

In anticipation of being filmed, you can sit all day, moreover, get so tired that all the humor will fizzle out of you by itself. How then to play? But during the filming, despite the noise, screaming, I often fell asleep for exactly ten to fifteen minutes, thereby giving the body a rest, relaxation.

The partners treated this obsession with a healthy lifestyle differently. Some were indifferent, others were skeptical, and some were rather harsh. For example, Nonna Mordyukova, who, after the episode of the kiss of the merchant Belotelova with Balzaminov, told Vitsin: “Are you a man? Don't drink, don't smoke, don't hit on women. You're dead!"

Non-drinking wino

With all this, for many years of work in the cinema Georgy Mikhailovich masterfully learned to play drunks. However, in real life, he never learned to drink. Therefore, Vitsin did not like all kinds of acting gatherings, anniversaries and creative meetings in restaurants.“The worst thing that mankind has come up with is a feast,” he said.

In the cinematic environment, such a bike even went. One actor says to another: “I was at the presentation yesterday. The table was awesome. Everyone was there, everyone was drinking. Leonov, Papanov, Mironov, Nikulin, Morgunov, Vitsin…” “Stop,” the second interrupted, “don’t lie.” “Well, everyone was there, and everyone drank. In addition to Vitsin, of course ... ".

With difficulty persuaded the actor to drink a mug of beer on the set of "Prisoner of the Caucasus". At first, he categorically refused: “I won’t beer, pour rose hips.” One take, a second, a third... I've already drunk five mugs of rosehip infusion, as someone from the film crew remarked: “It won't work! There is no foam!

Nikulin suggested putting cotton in a mug, but Vitsin could not stand it: “Yes, the sixth mug will not fit into me. Even with cotton wool, even without!”

“As you wish, Georgy Mikhailovich,” the director of the film, Leonid Gaidai, intervened. - And you still have to shoot another take. And with real beer. And the teetotaler Vitsin had to forcefully drain a whole mug.

In the 10 years that have passed between the idea and the release of Balzaminov's Marriage, a lot has happened in the fate of Vitsin.

The famous trinity ViniMore

But the main event took place in 1957, when Leonid Gaidai invited him to his first comedy "The Bridegroom from the Other World." The picture did not have much success, especially since the censorship dealt with the "Groom ..." quite abruptly, turning the film into a curvy short film with peripheral distribution.

But the next joint work, from the very beginning focused on short films, became a cult and fateful one. In the movie "Mongrel Dog and the Unusual Cross" the most famous film trinity of Soviet cinema was born - Coward, Dunce and Experienced.

First, Gaidai read in Pravda a poetic feuilleton about poachers, then he came up with three characters - masks and began to look for actors. Vitsin immediately chose Coward, The coward found the Dunce when he saw Yuri Nikulin in the circus. Experienced, in the person of Evgeny Morgunov, Gaidai was betrothed by the director of Mosfilm, Ivan Pyryev. The fourth hero - Barbosa - portrayed the dog Brekh , which spoiled a lot of blood for the artists, stubbornly refusing to fulfill Gaidai's ideas in the frame. Somehow, after another screwed up take, Morgunov in his hearts promised to strangle the harmful dog at the end of filming. In the next take, an intelligent animal ... grabbed the actor's leg!

"Dog Mongrel" was only one of the five short stories in the humorous almanac "Quite Seriously", on which the Mosfilm studio did not have any special hopes. But Gaidai's eccentric short film was a resounding success with the public. The viewer liked everything - tricks, music, frantic rhythm and filigree editing.

New heroes instantly became characters of folklore, tales and anecdotes. Made after "Moonshiners" exacerbated the situation of universal love and popularity. Bags of letters came from all over the country, in which Gaidai was demanded in an ultimatum form to make a new movie. about Coward, Dunce and Experienced .

Meanwhile, the trio in full force temporarily migrated in the film by Eldar Ryazanov "Give me a plaintive book" , where she was remembered for a fight in a restaurant and Vitsin's conceptual phrase: “You need to know the authorities in person!”

Grigory Kozintsev, who planned to shoot Vitsin in the role of Hamlet, was shocked when he saw the artist in Gaidai's short films. No one could have imagined that a dramatic actor would turn out so brightly comedic.

The phenomenal success of Gaidai's films even influenced the inviolable laws of the Soviet planned economy. The light industry responded to potential demand and quickly launched the production of products with "triple" symbols: T-shirts, masks, toys, calendars. Coward, Dunce and Experienced reincarnated as scary forest robbers from the cartoon "The Bremen town musicians".

The audience perceived them as a single being, and even came up with a name for him - ViNiMor (according to the first letters of the surnames). But what different people made up this trio.

Clown from God, man-holiday Yuri Nikulin (for him, Gaidai's films became the beginning of a film career), with calm, quiet, contemplatively closed Vitsin- an artist with excellent theatrical training and solid film experience, and noisy, interfering in everything, often cheeky in communication Evgeny Morgunov , who, unfortunately, did not play anything of equal value either before or after the role of Experienced.

Gaidai admired Vitsin's talent. And Morgunov admitted: “Neither I nor Nikulin are worth Vitsin’s nail. He is insanely talented! He'll even play the doorknob for you."

While working on "Operation" Y ..." Gaidai planned to complete the adventures of his heroes. The director had a difficult relationship with Morgunov, who was naughty even on Moonshiners, and allowed a lot both on and off the set.

Apotheosis and finale of V&Mor

In my painting "Business people" based on the stories of O. Henry Gaidai I didn’t take the experienced one, although both Nikulin and Vitsin played excellent roles there.

However, a suitable scenario was soon found. When Nikulin read the script "Prisoner of the Caucasus" , then flatly refused to act in "this nonsense." But Gaidai convinced him and the others that the script would be just the main canvas, on which everyone has the right to string as many fictions, tricks and gags as they can invent. And in order to stimulate the imagination of his “co-authors”, the director promised to give the inventor a couple of bottles of champagne for each idea.

According to the oral traditions of filmmakers, Nikulin earned 24 bottles, Morgunov - 18, and Vitsin - 1, because he did not like champagne . In fact, Georgy Mikhailovich was no less prolific than his colleagues.

It is to him that we owe shouting "Watch out!" flying from the door of the Coward, a trick with a cucumber and a slingshot, a Varley scarf , which the Coward is afraid of, and the famous stage under the motto "Stand to the death!" , when the heroes build a living wall in front of a speeding car.

In general, tricks were invented so spontaneously that it was then difficult to determine exactly who invented what. For example, Nikulin came up with a huge syringe that remains after an injection in Experienced’s ass, but the fact that the syringe will swing is Vitsin’s find.

Pyotr Vail wrote about “ViniMore”: “The heroes of the great Gaidai trio bore meaningful names denoting those qualities without which there is and cannot be a worthy person. According to the clownish laws of comedy, these were shifting names, which, of course, did not confuse anyone.

It is clear that forever sitting in a puddle Experienced - Evgeny Morgunov - is the personification of honest insecurity: the inevitable fate of the individual in society. What Balbes - Yuri Nikulin - common sense embodied. What Coward - Georgy Vitsin - courage and stamina, beyond the control of either society or the state.

Their words and phrases diverged in quanta of worldly wisdom no worse than quotes from Ilf and Petrov.

"Prisoner of the Caucasus" - a favorite of domestic cinema from 1967 to the present day. In the year of release, the film took 1st place at the box office, gathering 76.5 million viewers at the screens.

The apotheosis of the troika was its end. Gaidai came to the conclusion that it was no longer possible to exploit these types without self-repetitions. In addition, on the set of "The Captive" he had major scandal with Morgunov. Evgeny Alexandrovich appeared on the site surrounded by fans and began to make comments to the director, causing an enthusiastic reaction from the environment.

Gaidai sharply ordered the director to remove all outsiders from the site, Morgunov was offended, Gaidai too, and in front of the actor tore out all the remaining episodes from the director's script.

After Gaidai

Vitsin, Nikulin and Morgunov only once met on the screen, but not at Gaidai's, but Karelov's film "Seven Old Men and One Girl".

And in 1980, director Yuri Kushnerev tried to revive the legendary trio in the film The Comedy of Bygone Days. Yes, not just revive, but combine it in one film with the no less famous Gaidai deuce, Archil Gomiashvili and Sergei Filippov - Ostap Bender and Kisa Vorobyaninov from "12 chairs".

Despite the fact that Yakov Kostyukovsky and Maurice Slobodsky (authors of “Operation Y”, “Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Diamond Hand”) took up the script, the result turned out to be ... as if it were softer ... pathetic. Nikulin immediately abandoned the project, and the remaining " Fantastic Four"I strained with all my might, but I could not make" at least something out of nothing.

Vitsin's participation in this failed project can be explained, perhaps, by only one thing - he felt the "acting sunset". And indeed, either age, or lack of material, but for the entire 80s - only 3 paintings that cannot be called successes.

In our country, the popularity of a film actor is often determined by the number of "catch phrases" he sent from the screen to the people.

“Money in the morning, chairs in the evening!” (“12 chairs”), “There is no romanticism, there is no one to drink with” (“It can’t be”), “Well, quickly everyone in the caves!” ("Sannikov Land"), "Yes, yes ... OBKhSS!" ("Gentlemen of Fortune") - it's all Vitsin.

And as the apogee of popularity - an invitation to become the guest of the television tavern "13 chairs" by the poet Odyssey Tsypa.

Vitsin, along with other popular artists, often toured the country with programs "Comrade KINO" and group concerts. At one of these concerts, leaving the stage, he ran into a young singer standing backstage: “And I’m watching you, Georgy Mikhailovich, I’m learning from a professional to feel the stage and the audience,” said the artist Alla Pugacheva.

In 1990, they again found themselves side by side - in "last list" for the title of People's Artist of the USSR, which Gorbachev managed to sign in front of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

Georgy Vitsin said about himself: “I am generally very flexible, patient and non-aggressive. I will always turn the other cheek and will not fight... Just because it is a wise Christian rule. My dogs sometimes bite me, but I forgive them - after all, they are all so unfortunate, curs ... I'm not explosive. Nerves can pass, but I still try not to let it happen. My temperature is not such that passions play. Yes, I am afraid of them ... ".

Ivan Dykhovichny wrote about Vitsin: “There are people who live a very long time and when they pass away - no one remembers them anymore, such a terrible moment happens, but here the story is amazing, because fortunately, fortunately for us - the audience and the people who knew him, Vitsin lived for many years, but most importantly, he managed to leave an image so beloved by people from and to a variety of tastes, which is also unique.