A talented student of Konstantin Stanislavsky himself, despite being in demand in the acting profession and a well-established personal life, did not consider himself one hundred percent a happy person. Sophia Pilyavskaya won the love of a huge army of spectators, showing them the whole range of her creative potential. She was also an experienced teacher, raising a galaxy of actors, who later became famous.
For her filigree roles in cinema and theater, Sofia Pilyavskaya became a laureate of the Stalin Prize and received the "high" title of People's Artist of the Soviet Union. However, she was constantly burdened by the events that happened to her relatives: she survived the death of her sister and brother, the arrest of her father in 1937, her friends and colleagues passed away ... She had to put up with this and adapt to the new conditions that were dictated to her from the outside.
Curriculum Vitae
Sofia Pilyavskaya was born in Krasnoyarsk on May 4, 1911. The Moscow Art Theater prima recalls her childhood years with warmth. Actress Sofya Pilyavskaya, whose family six years later goes first to Petrograd and then to Moscow, did not realize that her Pole father was obsessed with a “revolutionary” idea. Many years later, she found out that her parent was an “old Bolshevik” from the environment of Lenin. This is not to say that her family was in poverty. On the contrary, on New Year's holidays she received luxurious gifts from Poland, her parents tried not to refuse her anything.
From school, she woke up interest in acting: she took part in mornings and skits with pleasure, where mini-performances were staged.
"The first pancake is lumpy"
But the first attempt to become a student of the Z. Sokolova Art Theater Studio was a failure. The teachers were confused by the Polish accent of the girl. But the perseverance and hard work of the young "Siberian" were rewarded. Classes at a speech therapist gave positive results, and soon the theater university was subdued.
Moscow Art Theater
After studying at the Art Theater Studio, Sofia Pilyavskaya falls into the Moscow Art Theater troupe. When fascist Germany attacked the USSR, the Melpomene temple was evacuated to Saratov and only in the late autumn of 1942 did it move back to the capital. An actress from Krasnoyarsk has served at the Moscow Art Theater for almost seventy years.
It should be noted that at the beginning of her career, the Moscow Art Theater leadership actively involved her in productions, as she masterfully reincarnated as the representative of the Soviet waste dramatic art. However, it was not difficult for her to remove this “communist” charm, so Sofya Pilyavskaya (Moscow Art Theater actress) could play diverse roles, which is proved, for example, by her work in the performances of “The Ideal Husband” and “School of Slander”. However, in the 60s and 70s, a creative crisis occurred in the career of the “Siberian” lyceum : she was offered very few roles.
Movie work
In the cinema, Pilyavskaya did not play many roles, but for the image of Christina Padera in the film “Conspiracy of the Doomed” (M. Kalatozov, 1950), the actress won the Stalin Prize. Critics noted her brilliant work in "Anna Karenina" (A. Zarhi, 1967).
And, of course, the moviegoer remembered Pilyavskaya in the roles of Raisa Pavlovna in “We'll Live Until Monday” (S. Rostotsky, 1967) and Alisa Vitalievna in “Pokrovsky Gates” (M. Kozakov, 1982).
Personal life
The husband of the actress was Nikolai Dorokhin, also an actor of the Moscow Art Theater. Only together they lived very little - our heroine survived her husband for 46 years. The fact is that they tried to recruit him in the NKVD, but he refused, which caused heart attacks one by one. The first was when Nicholas turned 33 years old, the last - at 48 years old.
last years of life
At the end of her life, Sofia Pilyavskaya rarely agreed to take part in filming a movie. She preferred to lead a secluded lifestyle, while not forgetting to visit the Moscow Art Theater School from time to time.
The actress died on January 21, 2000. She was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery of the capital, where her dear people found her last refuge: Knipper-Chekhova, Nemirovich-Danchenko, Moskvin.