Russian and Soviet film actress Zhanna Prokhorenko, a native of the Ukrainian city of Poltava, was born on May 11, 1940. A father and a half years later died at the front, and Jeannette (this is her real name) moved with her mother to Leningrad, where her career began. The girl entered the theater studio at the Zhdanov Palace of Pioneers, on Nevsky Prospekt, house 39. There, the future movie star received her first acting skills, which she later came to use when she moved to Moscow, filed documents with VGIK and passed an audition in the selection committee.
Star fellow students
At the Institute of Cinematography, Zhanna Prokhorenko, whose biography then opened her first creative page, was taken on the course of Sergei Apollinarievich Gerasimov and immediately fell into star surroundings. Her classmates were Galina Polskikh, Zhanna Bolotova, Larisa Luzhina, Lidochka Fedoseeva (in the future Fedoseeva-Shukshina) and Sergey Nikonenko. However, all these students had yet to become movie stars of the first magnitude, and Prokhorenko, the only one from the whole group, received an invitation from the famous director Grigory Chukhrai for the role of Shura in the film "Ballad of a Soldier".
The main movie of life
Zhanna Prokhorenko, an eighteen-year-old girl, did not even have to make up, she perfectly matched the image of her heroine. "Ballad of a Soldier" became the finest hour of the aspiring actress - Jeanne brilliantly coped with her role. The picture received many prizes and was included in the annals of world cinema as one of the best works on the theme of the Great Patriotic War.
As always said, Zhanna Prokhorenko "woke up famous the next morning." Fame also came to Vladimir Ivashov, who played the main role in The Ballad of a Soldier - Alexei Skvortsov, a soldier who shot down two German tanks at once and received two days leave as an incentive. So, the success of the film exceeded all expectations, they started talking about the film in the West. The Americans invited Jeanne and Ivashov to New York to "exchange experiences", and the young actor and actress traveled to the United States. There, they were immediately dressed up in traditional cowboy clothes, and Ivashov was also handed a balalaika. In a word, it was fun.
"And if it's love?"
Two years after the premiere of the film "Ballad of a Soldier," the already held actress Zhanna Prokhorenko starred in the film, directed by Yulia Raizman, "And if it's love?" The image of the heroine, the ten-class girl Ksyusha Zavyalova, and this time, fully corresponded to the image of the actress. Prokhorenko played talentedly, convincingly, with a high degree of reliability.
Actress Records
Then Zhanna Prokhorenko, an actress whose biography was just beginning, began to appear in many Soviet films. There was no end to the directors' invitations. Several times, actress Prokhorenko even set her own records, acting for several years at once in several films.
In 1964, the actress starred in the films:
- "Train of Mercy" - directed by Iskander Hamraev, put on the film studio "Lenfilm". The role of Zhanna Prokhorenko is Lena Ogorodnikova.
- “They Goed East” - directed by Dmitry Vasiliev, Mosfilm film studio. Prokhorenko played the role of Katya.
- “Marriage of Balzaminov” - production of director Konstantin Voinov, Mosfilm film studio. The role of Prokhorenko is Kapochka Nichkin.
- "Chamber" - a picture of the director Georgy Natanson, the film studio "Mosfilm". Prokhorenko played a nurse.
- "An Invented Story" - directed by Vladimir Gerasimov, film studio "Mosfilm". The main role is the welder Varia Levchukova.
- First Snow is directed by Boris Grigoryev, Gorky Film Studio. Zhanna Prokhorenko in the role of Maryana.
To star in six films for one year, at various film studios - few people are capable of this, and Zhanna Prokhorenko succeeded. In 1973, the actress repeated her record.
New achievements
Films of 1973, in which the actress Zhanna Prokhorenko starred:
- "Siberian Grandfather" - directed by Georgy Kalatozishvili, "Georgia-Film" film studio. The role of Nastya.
- "Guelder-rose red" - directed by Vasily Shukshin, Mosfilm. Zhanna Prokhorenko played a police investigator.
- “A Door Without a Lock” - production by director Adolf Berkunker, film studio “Lenfilm”. Dasha Sycheva.
- "Anvil or Hammer" - directed by Hristo Hristov, Bulgarian film studio "Boyana". Prokhorenko played the role of Luba.
- "Discovery" - directed by Baras Khalzanov, Sverdlovsk Film Studio. The role of Anka.
- "Mischievous Ditties" - a short film, directed by Vera Tokareva, the Mosfilm film studio. Zhanna Prokhorenko - the main role.
Full filmography
In the creative life of each actor and actress, periods of activity and, conversely, lulls are inevitable, when demand is reduced, and directors are less and less invited to shoot. This is a simple dialectic of life, dictated by the unwritten laws of the cinematic world.
Actress Zhanna Prokhorenko, whose filmography contains 55 films, ceased to act in 2002, since her role no longer met scenario requirements. After the role of a kiosk in the movie Drongo, the actress no longer received invitations. Four small episodic roles in different films over eight years do not count.
Films of a lifetime
Prokhorenko Zhanna, whose filmography can serve as an example of success, suddenly lost faith in cinema.
List of films starring Zhanna Prokhorenko:
- Year 2010 - grandmother in the movie "Lynx".
- Year 2007 - Misha’s mother in the movie "Smersh".
- Year 2004 - Gleb’s mother in the film "Place in the Sun."
- Year 2003 - Daria in the movie "Twins".
- Year 2002 - a kiosk in the film "Drongo".
- Year 1998 - Anna Sergeyevna's girlfriend in the film "Streets of Broken Lights".
- Year 1992 - Doctor in the film "Fake Marriage".
- Year 1990 - Elena, sister of Nicholas, in the film "There Is No Alien Land". Dr. Ingrid in the movie "Witch's Dungeon".
- Year 1989 - Anna Pozdnyakova in the movie "Entrance to the Maze".
- Year 1987 - Fomicheva in the film "Empowered by the Revolution."
- Year 1984 - on-duty at the hotel in the film Charlotte’s Necklace, Paramonova in the film TASS authorized to declare, Yekaterina Kravchenko in the film Two Versions of the Same Collision.
- Year 1983 - Mukhina Anna Sergeevna in the film "Loop".
- Year 1982 - Daria Lukyanova in the movie "We Lived Next Door".
- Year 1981 - Ozerova, an underground worker, in the film "They Were Actors."
- Year 1980 - Malyshev’s wife in the film “They Do Not Change Horses at the Crossing”. Maria Chernikova in the picture "Crazy Bullet". Sergeant Maroussia in the movie "You Must Live." Aunt Lida in the movie "Lyalka-Ruslan".
- Year 1978 - Anka in the film "In a New Place". Talnikova Anna Vladimirovna in the film "Close Range".
- Year 1977 - Maria Vladimirovna Nesterova in the film "Coming." Brunova Lily in the painting "Golden Mine".
- Year 1975 - Irina Tikhomirova in the film "Fear of Heights." Dr. Marina Danilovna in the film "Retired Colonel". Nadezhda Roznova in the film "From Dawn to Dawn".
- Year 1972 - Teacher in the film "Point, dot, comma."
- Year 1971 - Anna Yashchurova in the film "Mortal Enemy". Petrovna in the movie "If you are a man." Mironova Klava in the movie "Anthracite".
- Year 1968 - Nina in the movie "One Chance." Maria in the film "Love of Seraphim Frolov."
- Year 1967 - Nastya in the film "The Incident, which no one noticed."
- Year 1966 - Luba in the film "Farewell". Moskaleva Zinaida Afanasevna in the film "Uncle's Dream".
- Year 1965 - Lena in the film "Going to a Thunderstorm". Dunya in the film "Twenty Years Later."
- Year 1962 - Katya in the film "Vienna Forest".
- Year 1961 - Ksyusha Zavyalova in the picture "And if it is love?"
- Year 1959 - Shura, the film "Ballad of a Soldier".
Zhanna Prokhorenko: personal life
When Jeanne was a second year student at VGIK, she met Gennady Vasiliev, the future director. This meeting took place after the film "Ballad of a Soldier" was released. And of course, in the eyes of VGIK student Vasilyev Gennady Zhanna Prokhorenko was a goddess. The relations of young people developed rapidly - Jeanne and Gennady immediately decided to get married. In 1961, the daughter of Catherine was born to the couple.
The actress and director divorced a few years later, when Jeanne already knew Arthur Makarov, the adopted son of Sergei Apollinarievich Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova, who did not have their own children. The future second husband of Zhanna Prokhorenko successfully worked at the Mosfilm film studio as a screenwriter.
Civil marriage of the actress
Prokhorenko and Makarov lived happily for more than ten years. And when the post-perestroika time of the 90s came, Arthur left his literary work and went into business. He opened his own furniture hardware manufacturing enterprise and began indiscriminately making acquaintances in all areas of furniture manufacturing. In the fall of 1995, a tragedy occurred - Arthur Makarov was killed in his own house by unknown criminals. The robbers brought out all that was valuable: things, money, and antique furniture.
Having lost her husband, Zhanna Prokhorenko, whose personal life began to crumble, retired to a village house, acquired shortly before the murder. Occasionally, her daughter Catherine and the granddaughters of Ksyusha and Maryana visited her. The actress herself rarely, once every few months, traveled to Moscow to star in another episodic role.
Illness and death
On August 1, 2011, the national artist Zhanna Prokhorenko died. The cause of death is cancer. The actress turned 71 years old, and for several years until her death she lived in a calm, rustic setting. Locals idolized Shurochka from The Ballad of a Soldier - the heroine of the film, which they watched more than once.
In 2009, the actress revealed a malignant tumor of the esophagus. At that time, Zhanna Prokhorenko, whose cause of death, as it turned out later, was hiding in a cancerous formation, at first did not attach importance to poor health. She believed that her chronic depression was to blame for the malaise.
After some time, the condition of the actress worsened, and she had to be moved to Moscow, where she underwent 12 sessions of chemotherapy. Zhanna Prokhorenko, whose cause of death, although explained by a specific cancer, was at the end of her life a deeply unhappy person with shattered dreams. She was constantly in a state of deep stress, and besides, she was tormented by loneliness.
The actress was conducted by her granddaughter.
Fortunately, the actress moved into another world, surrounded by her relatives - the last minute shared with her granddaughter Maryana Spivak, who held her grandmother's hand.
So, in Moscow, Zhanna Prokhorenko died in 71, the cause of death of which lies in the last years of her life. It was not an easy existence of an elderly, unclaimed actress, successful and talented in the past. And although Zhanna Prokhorenko died, the memory of the People’s Artist of Russia is still alive. Many paintings with her participation attract viewers to this day.
The Khovansky cemetery of Moscow, on which many famous people rest, became the last refuge for the actress, whose name is Zhanna Prokhorenko. Her grave is always strewn with fresh flowers.