In 1964, at the International Film Festival in San Francisco from the USSR, the feature film "At Your Doorstep", directed by V. Ordynsky, was presented. Russian actress Nadezhda Fedosova was declared the winner in the nomination "Best Actress in a Supporting Role". However, an official from Goskino came out to receive the award, since neither the film crew nor Fedosov herself was allowed to the festival. Not a single line was written about the success of the actress in the press.
Biography of Nadezhda Fedosova
The famous theater and film actress Fedosova Nadezhda Kapitonovna was born in April 1911. Her father served as the senior janitor at the princes Golitsyn. An early deceased mother left 9 children orphaned. The family lived in eternal need. From the age of 15, she began working in the factory "Red Textile" and there she performed in amateur performances. Then she was a mass entertainer in a park of culture and rest. A talented girl attracted the attention of theatrical teachers who suggested she study for an actress.
In 1938, after graduating from a theater school at the Central Theater of the Red Army, she began performing on the stage of the Theater of Working Youth. During the war years she played in the Second Front Theater. She devoted the next twenty years of her life to the Moscow Drama and Comedy Theater on Taganka. In 1958 she was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
From 1961 to 1988 he acted in films. Over the years, she played many roles that were included in the gold fund of domestic cinema.
In 1966, Nadezhda Fedosova decided to leave the theater forever. She never changed her decisions.
Outstanding actress Fedosova Nadezhda Kapitonovna passed away in December 2000, not having lived a few months before her ninetieth birthday.
The personal life of the actress
Nadezhda Fedosova never advertised her personal life, as she was a very modest person. The actress’s family became known after a series of documentaries “Kings of the episode” was filmed in 2015, in which her grandson Andrei Azovsky, professor, doctor of biological sciences, tells about her beloved grandmother.
The first time Nadezhda married at the age of 19. Her husband, Alexei Kuvshinov, a military man, went missing in October 1941. Veronika was born from him, Nadezhda Fedosova had no more children. The second husband was David Anapolsky, they lived together happily for 38 years. In 1979, the actress was widowed.
Her only daughter Veronika Azovskaya (after her husband) connected her life with science, since her mother categorically forbade her to follow in her footsteps. The last years of her life, the actress put her whole soul into the education of her little great-granddaughter. The actress was dying at home. Until the very last minute of his life, Andrei was next to her. The grandson carefully stores all the relics associated with the name of the famous grandmother.
Theater work
Most of her life, Nadezhda Kapitonovna worked in the theater, there were several: the Red Army Theater, the Theater of Working Youth, the Second Front Theater, the Moscow Regional Drama and Comedy Theater, the Moscow Drama and Comedy Theater on Taganka. For many years she shone on the stage in a variety of ways: the woman commissar in Optimistic Comedy, Marisha in Kashirskaya olden times, Solokha in Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, Extrale in Seville's Star.
I felt especially good on the stage of the Taganka Theater, where I worked from 1946 to 1966. The director of the theater until 1963 was A.K. Plotnikov, who, praising the talent of Nadezhda Fedosova, made her a leading actress. She could play any role in Shakespeare's comedy, and in revolutionary drama.
In 1964, Lyubimov became the main director, who led a whole galaxy of young actors to the theater. At first, she enthusiastically participates in the theatrical experiments of the new director, but after two years decides to leave the stage forever.
Movie roles
In the movie, Nadezhda Fedotova begins acting at the age of fifty. She played many roles, starred in various directors. But work in the cinema brought disappointment. What caused this? About this actress with her inherent frankness told in an interview given to the magazine "Art of Cinema" (1974). First of all, the roles of the same type: "I play the same thing in a row ... For me, mortal longing is repeated from picture to picture ..."
Another problem that hurt Fedosova painfully was the indifference of the directors towards the actors. Of all the directors with whom she worked, she warmly recalled only Gerasimov and Raizman.
The actress starred in 34 films, there were main and episodic roles, but everywhere she played with full dedication, not just played, but lived the life of her heroines, simple Russian women with a difficult fate, strict, sometimes rude, but so understandable and recognizable.
Best actress movie roles
Each role played by Nadezhda Fedosova is a masterpiece. I would like to pay special attention to 3 films in which the actress starred.
In the movie "And if it's love?" (1961) she played the role of Tatyana Zavyalova, the mother of the main character. The woman works all day in the dining room as a dishwasher to feed her mother and two daughters, whom she raises alone. She loves her daughter, but keeps her strict, afraid of gossip, afraid of repeating her difficult fate.
In 1965, the picture "Women" was released, and again the image of the mother, Aunt Glasha, who, having become a widow, raised her daughter Alka alone. The female heroine is wise: having learned about her daughter’s pregnancy, she is ready to help, support her. She transfers all her unspent tenderness to her grandson Slavik.
In the role of Anfisa Vasilyevna, the mother of Shura Olivantseva, Fedosova starred in the film "Stepmother", which was released in the box office in 1973. Before us is the image of a mother who teaches life to her adult daughter. It is clear that she wants to protect Shura, to dissuade her from taking responsibility for someone else's child, but she does it rudely and cruelly, if not cruelly.
Three mothers, three women of the same generation, but how differently played, how talented and convincing! Only the great actress could play this way. And it’s very disappointing that Nadezhda Fedosova did not receive any awards from domestic cinema.
A few words in conclusion
According to reviews of people who knew Fedosova closely, she did not at all resemble the heroines of her roles. Cheerful, cheerful, reliable, modest, fair. It was such an actress that remained in the memory of colleagues in the theater and cinema, family members, friends.