Igor Ilyinsky is one of the most prominent theater actors in the first half of the 20th century. Igor Vladimirovich rarely appeared in the cinema, but, as they say, aptly: his face will forever be remembered by the audience for the role of comrade Ogurtsov in "Carnival Night" and Field Marshal Kutuzov in the "Gusar Ballad". And how did the career of a famous artist begin and in what films did he act?
early years
Igor Ilyinsky was born in 1901. His father was a simple Moscow doctor during the day, and in the evening he shone on amateur theater stages. Little Igor loved to attend his fatherâs performances, but once, when Vladimir Kapitonovich was beaten on stage by his colleague, as the script required, Igor yelled to the whole audience: âDonât dare beat my dad!â More Igor Ilyinsky was not taken to performances.
However, the future actor solved the problem of his leisure time very creatively: he independently composed a comic play, rehearsed his role, hung posters throughout the house and made home-made tickets for the performance. On his first âsalary," the boy dreamed of buying a horse and engaging in a private carriage. But his dreams were not destined to come true. Soon horses were replaced everywhere by cars, and Igor had a new hobby - the theater.
Carier start
Igor Ilyinsky, whose biography is inextricably linked with the theater, at the age of 14 received the strictest ban from his father to receive the acting profession. According to Vladimir Kapitonovich, his son did not possess acting talent. But when Igor was 16 years old, his father was hospitalized with a heart attack. The young man remained left to his own devices, so he went to enroll in Komissarzhevsky's acting school, and who would have thought it was accepted!
Ilyinskyâs comedic gift was considered by director Vsevolod Meyerhold. In 1920, he invited the actor to serve in his theater and literally created a comedic star from it. Once Igor Ilyinsky so well coped with his role in the play "The Magnanimous Cuckold" that the audience burst onto the stage and began to rock the actor in his arms.
In 1924, Ilyinsky began his career in cinema. His first film is Aelita by Yakov Protazanov. In it, Igor Vladimirovich played the role of an amateur detective Kravtsov.
"Volga, Volga"
Igor Ilyinsky in 1938 played in the famous comedy of Gregory Alexandrov "Volga, Volga". Subsequently, this picture became the favorite film of Stalin himself.
The film's plot focuses on an amateur acting troupe sailing along the Volga on a ship to Moscow to take part in an amateur competition. The main roles in the comedy were played by Lyubov Orlova (âCheerful Guysâ) and, in fact, Igor Ilyinsky, who got the role of official Ivan Ivanovich Byvalov.
The hero of Ilyinsky is a bureaucrat and an avid careerist. No wonder he bears the name Byvalov: he is self-confident, believes that he knows everything and understands everything, so he does not want to listen to anyone. This is the comic character of this character - with a smart face, Byvalov does great stupid things. In addition, the importance and pomp of any official cannot but amuse ordinary people.
The value of the film lies not only in the talented cast, but also in good musical accompaniment: the songs from the picture were broadcast on the All-Union Radio.
"Crazy day"
Igor Ilyinsky, whose filmography entirely consists of comedies, in 1956 played a major role in Andrei Tutyshkin's film âCrazy Dayâ.
The character of Ilyinsky - Comrade Zaitsev - is the foreman of the nursery. By all means, it is necessary for him to paint the furniture in white, but there is no paint available. To get the deficit, Zaitsev needs to get into the rest house and talk with one person there, but the trouble is: outsiders are not allowed into the territory. The whole comic nature of the picture lies in the fact that the character of Ilyinsky pretends to be another person - a certain husband of the athlete Ignatyuk, but soon the real husband of Klava Ignatyuk really stays in the specified holiday home.
Together with Igor Ilyinsky, Anastasia Georgievskaya (âThe Big Changeâ), Serafima Birman (âDon Quixoteâ) and Vladimir Volodin (âKuban Cossacksâ) also played in the film. The director of the film Andrei Tutyshkin also shot the films âFree Windâ and âWedding in Robinâ.
"Carnival Night"
The acting work of Ilyinsky was highly appreciated in the Soviet Union: the actor was considered one of the highest paid and was the winner of numerous awards and awards. But the real celebrity of Ilyinsky made the role of Ogurtsov in the famous comedy of Eldar Ryazanov "Carnival Night".
According to the plot of the film, the creative team of the House of Culture has the task of holding a New Year's event as worthy and fun as possible. And Lenochka Krylova performed by Lyudmila Gurchenko is trying her best. But on the eve of the holiday, a new boss is appointed to the House of Culture - Serafim Ivanovich Ogurtsov - who cuts off all Krylova's endeavors on the go: he is trying to replace the old art numbers with new, "curious", gray and boring ones. The comedy begins when the collective of the House of Culture decides to take a holiday desperately without the direct participation of comrade Ogurtsov, leaving the program forbidden numbers.
Hussar Ballad
Igor Ilyinsky, whose roles are mostly comedic, made an exception only once, playing a serious historical figure in another film by Eldar Ryazanov - âThe Hussar Balladâ.
The film takes place in 1812, during the Russo-French War. The girl Shurochka dresses in a manâs hussar suit and goes to fight in the hussar regiment. No one even suspects that the famous Cornet Shurik is actually a girl. However, when the famous Field Marshal Kutuzov, performed by Igor Ilyinsky, arrives at the headquarters, he immediately understands what's what. But after a long conversation, Kutuzov still allows Shurochka to remain in the army.
I must say that Eldar Ryazanov long and zealously defended Ilyinsky's candidacy for this role: the art council was sure that the comedian would turn the image of the famous commander into an absurd farce. But that did not happen. It turned out that Ilinsky was equally good at both serious and ridiculous roles.
âThese are different, different, different facesâ: Igor Ilyinsky and his many faces
Soon, the actor managed to surprise his audience even more. After the release of the television movie âThese Different, Different, Different Facesâ in 1971, everyone found out that Igor Ilyinsky is an actor who is able to play absolutely all the roles in any picture on his own.
The comedy consists of seven short stories, scripts for which are based on Chekhov's stories. The uniqueness of the picture is that Ilyinsky played absolutely all the characters in it independently: ladies, men, officials, police chiefs - absolutely all.
In addition, Ilyinsky also acted as a director of the film along with Yuri Saakov.
Igor Ilyinsky: biography, personal life
Igor Vladimirovich was never distinguished by external attractiveness. In addition, in life he was very shy, so his first love came to him late - at 23 years old. The actor fell in love with his colleague in the Meyerhold Theater - Tatyana. The girl reciprocated, and they got married.
Soon, due to a major quarrel with the director, Ilyinsky and his wife were expelled from the Meyerhold Theater. But Igor Ilyinsky, whose films were watched by the entire Soviet Union, soon returned to his former place, and his wife Tatyana was not accepted back. She was a simple housewife for a long time, and in 1945 she died under obscure circumstances.
Ilyinsky some time later married a second time - to actress Tatyana Eremeeva-Bitrich, who bore him a son. The actor himself died in 1987 at the age of 85.