Everyone who knew this man called him amazing, kind and disinterested. The artist, like a magnet, attracted people of all ages. It was as if some warmth was emanating from him, a little sad, but wise. He wanted to believe, and they believed him. Everyone knew him always smiling and never discouraged. And he considered himself a very sad person.
Childhood
The birthplace of Fedor Chekhankov, who was born on September 21, 1939, was the distant land on the border between the Urals and Siberia, where the ancient city of Chelyabinsk is located on the slope of the Ural Mountains.
The future artist made happy the intelligent family of the military and actress. His father, Colonel Yakov Faybyshevich Weinstein, led the Office of Culture of the city of Yaroslavl. Mom, Valentina Avraamovna Chekhankova, served in the Yaroslavl Theater for Young Spectators. Shortly before the start of World War II, Yakov Faybyshevich was sent to lead the political agencies of the Baltic Military District in the city of Riga. He went missing at the front in 1942. Therefore, little Fedya practically did not remember his father, his mother was engaged in his upbringing.
Mom
Valentina Abramovna Chekhankova was an actress in the provincial Theater of Young Spectators. It was not marked with any titles or awards. However, in the regional Oryol State Academic Theater named after I.S. Turgenev, in which Fedor Chekhankov's mother got a job after the war, she was in good standing. And now her name is listed in his hall of fame.
As Fedor Yakovlevich himself later recalled, since childhood he was a homebody, not shy of loneliness. However, he grew up a sociable child and often disappeared in the yard. But even more often, he disappeared on the stage of the theater in which his mother worked. So in the end it turned out that Mom, the theater and the yard became what Fyodor’s childhood came from.
Moscow holidays
In their small family, under the influence of the acting environment, which in one way or another influenced the boy, the tradition somehow imperceptibly developed - for all winter vacations, mom let him go to Moscow to stay with relatives.
It would seem nothing special. But for the boy, such a journey became a real event. After all, Fedor was still a schoolboy, and an eight-hour train ride from Orel to Moscow alone was a curiosity for many.
And what about the capital? Instead of New Year's adventures, walks around Moscow, skiing, and everything that children usually do during the winter holidays, our hero went to the theater. He didn’t just go, but managed to attend ten or twelve performances, visiting Moscow churches of Melpomene every day, sometimes even twice.
An indispensable component of the current extraordinary tradition of the future actor Fedor Chekhankov was the purchase of the newspaper Moscow Theater. Then, returning to Oryol, the boy for long evenings flipped through the pages, smelling of a completely different, noisy and vibrant life, from which honored and popularly beloved artists looked at him, he reread the names of theatrical productions, learned about the events of the art world.
In 1991, Fedor Chekhankov was awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR. Could he know then that he would soon become famous?
The beginning of the creative path
The creative path of Fedor Chekhankov began, one might say, back in his school years, during trips to Moscow. From the official point of view, the beginning of his artistic career was studying at the Moscow Higher Theater School named after M. S. Shchepkin, which he entered after graduation.
In Moscow, the mother of the future artist, Valentina Abramovna, rented a room for her son in the center, in a communal apartment on Moskvina Street. So Fedor Yakovlevich was in a kind of cultural epicenter. Soon, newlyweds from the world of Soviet ballet settled in the same street - the future People’s Artist of the USSR, but for now just a promising young ballet dancer Vladimir Vasiliev and his wife, Ekaterina Maximova, also the future ballet star and People’s Artist of the USSR.
Every morning, a chubby chubby boy ran past Fedor’s house, being late for a lesson at a nearby school. It was Andrei Mironov himself, with whom after some time Fedor Yakovlevich made friends. Already being famous artists, they often stayed up late in the kitchen in the house of the Mironov spouses, conducting endless conversations about music and theater.
After graduating from a theater school in 1961, Fedor becomes an actor in the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, in which he will serve for forty-nine years, until the end of his life, becoming one of its central actors.
There is only one entry in my workbook: Admitted to the Theater of the Russian Army.
The theater provided him with new housing: a communal apartment, only on Shchuseva street. Fedor Yakovlevich settled in a ten-meter room among the ever-noisy retired neighbors.
So, in the bustle of acting and musical performances ten years have passed. And in 1971 television decisively and suddenly burst into his life.
Blue screens star
Very soon, Fyodor Chekhankov, becoming the permanent presenter of the popular TV shows “Artloto”, the only music program on television of those years, and “the operetta invites you,” gained wide popularity and recognition.
His partner in "Artloto" was the famous future Lyudmila Senchina. True, at that time she was just Luda, a young pretty girl, and even married to a jealous husband, which sometimes very much interfered with their work.
I am firmly convinced: on the stage you have to be either just partners, or husband and wife, in order to be able to discuss any conflict at home ...
In addition to the beautiful artistic manners laid down by his mother, Fedor Yakovlevich in the era of gray costumes and the restrained style of broadcast television programs broke stereotypes and dressed brightly and catchy, even then using exotic ties and scarves in his clothes. Creating his own corporate identity back in the 70s of the last century, the artist did not cheat on him until his death.
Music
Fyodor Chekhankov sang beautifully and often performed on stage, and also willingly participated in concerts dedicated to operetta.
He made the impression of an operetta artist. And for sure I could decorate her scene. However, the leadership of the Operetta Theater, despite the attempts of Fyodor Yakovlevich to demonstrate his talent, was of a different opinion. Therefore, the artist’s dream of operetta was not destined to come true.
In 1997, CDs were released - "No need to be sad" and "Memory of the heart."
Movie
Fedor Chekhankov acted in films not so often. His debut was an episode in the film "Business Trip" in 1961, in which his name did not even appear in the credits. Two years later, a serious picture “The Man in Doubt” followed, a detective about the investigation of the murder of a tenth grader, in which he played the real, albeit secondary role of Igor.
The filmography of the actor included the following films: "Business trip", "Lushka", "Monday is a hard day," "Bedroom Key" and others.
Life of an artist
In his personal life, Fedor Chekhankov, always smiling, kind and gentle man, was quite closed.
Having returned late at night from the theater or from the filming, he sought peace and quiet in his small two-room apartment, finding room, like a clam, in one armored room. In another, his extensive fashionable wardrobe was kept - bright and stylish clothes for all occasions.
Despite the voluntary desire for isolation, he was always afraid that the phone would turn off. His own island was by no means supposed to become uninhabited.
When friends came to visit, he always prepared refreshments himself. He liked to cook simple food for dear people in the kitchen.
Fedor Yakovlevich never had a family and children. Although novels with female artists he had happened, he never met the one with whom he could share his life. His only passion was art.
I planted a tree. Alas, the house was not built. And certainly now I will not build. I did not give birth to children, it is not in our power. God either gives them or not. I admit, I really wanted to have a family. I could have children, they were supposed to be born in 1961, immediately twins, ”the doctor said. They would now be 46 years old, almost as much as I serve in the theater. Did not happen. Why? This was obviously pleasing to God ...
The artist believed that the people around him in life, including friends, colleagues, and spectators, live hard. And all of them, without exception, need to be spared and respected. After all, he is an artist. And someone else’s pain, he simply must feel and understand how his personal, Fedor Chekhankov’s pain.
The latest applause
Formerly easy and pleasant to talk to, Fyodor Yakovlevich became more self-absorbed and unsociable when doctors warned of the seriousness of his illness. He became especially afraid of loneliness, clutching at his best friend, Valery Samuilovich Shane, and at his caretaker Elena Pugach, as if he were a life buoy.
The artist’s health continued to deteriorate. His aorta was clogged, doctors required an emergency operation. It is not known for what reason Fyodor Chekhankov refused to sign a consent to surgery. Just a few days later the artist had a heart attack. Fedor Yakovlevich fell into a coma, out of which he was no longer destined.
The artist died in Moscow on August 01, 2012. He was 72 years old.
At the farewell ceremony held at the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army, Olga Bogdanova, the stage partner of Fedor Yakovlevich, voiced the epigram of Valentin Gaft, which he dedicated to Chekhankov:
Talent not to buy, not to steal.
One thing is whether it is or not.
But Feday possesses another passion -
he is passionately in love with operetta.
On the army scene - a hero lover.
And there he is a naughty and prankster.
He is a holiday that is always with you.
May the holiday last longer ...
The cause of the death of Fedor Chekhankov was heart failure. Friends and relatives of the actor do not hide that it was caused by the immunodeficiency virus (AIDS).
When the body of the late artist was taken to the square of the Army Theater, a huge number of people who came to say goodbye to him carried him with their last, deafening ovation.
Fedor Yakovlevich Chekhankov was buried next to his mother at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow.