Ordinary Soviet family. The wife is a doctor, the husband is an officer. The profession of Isaac Yarmolnik often forced them to change their place of residence. In January 1954, the couple had a son. They called the son Leonid.
Childhood Leonid Yarmolnik
The beginning of the 60s was marked for the family by moving to the Ukrainian city of Lviv, where Leonid Yarmolnik, whose biography is full of travels, went to school. Studying was easy for the boy, but he could not boast of special diligence and desire to learn. But if he was fond of something, then seriously. True, not for long. One hobby was replaced by another. As a child, he decided to learn how to play the accordion. Immediately they bought an instrument for him, sent Leonid to a music school, and paid tuition fees for five years.
Leonid Yarmolnik, whose nationality was very reflected in his creative preferences, having successfully graduated from the accordion school, closed the case with the instrument and no longer opened it. Now he passionately wanted a bicycle. And again, his parents supported his son’s hobby, bought him an Eaglet bike. True, his frame was ladies'. But this didn’t upset Leonid. He drove his bike so recklessly that once, having crashed onto a stone, he “crashed”, collapsed at full speed from his bicycle and came home with a broken nose. Yarmolnik’s nose was generally “lucky” - the second time he suffered from dashing skating from a hill.
Leonid Yarmolnik, whose biography was rich in all sorts of adventures and misadventures, recalls with a smile that one day his father really tore him out, although before that his parents almost did not apply harsh punishments when raising their son.
Cheerful youth of the famous actor
Lenya took up the easy way of making money - he began to play for money in the "locker room". He carefully hid the money he won under the floorboard, feeling that his parents would not be delighted with his new hobby. However, how much rope does not curl ... Father accidentally discovered a cache, took a belt and thoroughly tore his son. This was the only time in his life when Isaac raised a hand against his son.
As Leonid Yarmolnik grew, the circle of his interests changed. At the box office, he suddenly fell in love with literature, began to dream of theater. The father wanted to see in the son the successor of the family dynasty of the military, but it seems that the soul of Yarmolnik the Younger did not lie at all with this matter. He first became engaged in a studio at the city folk theater, and after school he left for Leningrad, deciding to act "for an artist." The first attempt was unsuccessful. Young people who grew up in Lviv rejected Russian pronunciation. I had to return home with defeat. However, Leonid Yarmolnik did not intend to end his artistic biography on this. The failure did not discourage him, did not discourage him. He decided not to give up.
A courageous step towards fate - to Moscow!
He wanted to become an artist, this dream firmly stuck in his head. He decided to make the next attempt already in Moscow, at the Theater School. Schukin. Surprisingly, in Moscow no one was embarrassed by his “Little Russian” reprimand, and Leonid Yarmolnik successfully completed all the tours and found himself on the lists of students enrolled! A big step towards the dream has been made!
Famous actors became his teachers: M. Ulyanov, A. Shirvindt, V. Etush. The simple and charming Yarmolnik settled in a hostel, quickly made many friends. Alexander Abdulov was among them in a special place. This friendship lasted for many years, until the death of Abdulov.
Amorous adventures of Yarmolnik
Not the appearance, but the amazing charm of this man, like a magnet, attracted women to him. Yarmolnik had a lot of them. But he did not offend, offend or deceive any of them. He simply preferred not to make promises, which he could not fulfill.
For a long time he lived with a woman whom he had taken away from her husband. After a few years, her ex-husband resurrected his former feelings for his ex-wife. He made Yarmolnik showdown, during which they managed to get drunk and fight. But the woman still returned to her husband, the family recovered.
Life "on the Taganka"
In Schukinka, Yarmolnik Leonid Isaakovich never entered the list of the most diligent students. Maybe that is why after graduation he was distributed not in a troupe with a good reputation, but in "Taganka", the most scandalous and ambiguous theater in those days.
Yuri Lyubimov, at that time a director in the theater, introduced the young artist to the play “The Master and Margarita”. Yarmolnik remembers the time spent in Taganka only in good words. Then the famous stars worked in the theater: V. Smekhov, V Zolotukhin,
A. Demidova, L. Filatov and Vladimir Vysotsky himself.
Yarmolnik was not a close friend of Vysotsky, but they were bound by comradely, very warm relations. Vysotsky, while still working at Taganka, gave some of his roles to young Yarmolnik. For four years they acted together in the theater.
Theater and the world of cinema in the life of Yarmolnik
Yarmolnik was, like many beginning artists, ambitious, he wanted and felt the strength in himself to play not only in the theater, but also in films; to be shot so that the viewer recognizes him. Then the theater youth crowds walked around the capital's film studios in the hope that they would be noticed. Some were indeed noticed. But Yarmolnik was not one of these lucky ones. In Yarmolnik, many directors did not see their cinema heroes. Sometimes they suggested tiny episodes in which the viewer did not even have time to make out the faces of the actor, not to remember the name. So Leonid Yarmolnik lit up for a couple of seconds in the episodic "role" of the happy groom in the feature film "Citizens".
In the native theater, the situation was not so deplorable. True, he was not given the main roles, but he went on stage regularly. At least he played in performances more often than starred. Famous Yarmolnik made the TV screen. From the TV show “Around the Laughter” his famous tobacco chicken “fluttered” and made him a favorite of a huge audience. Now the viewer remembered the artist.
Alexander Abdulov helped his friend get to the set, where they worked on the film “The Same Munchausen,” and Leonid brilliantly played the hysterical son of the protagonist. Then there was the Gnus gangster in the movie "Detective".
For Yarmolnik for a long time the role of the negative hero was entrenched. Although in all these “bad uncles” there was something elusively attractive, brought into the role by the personality of the actor. But it was precisely this role that played a cruel joke with him - they did not want to accept him into the Union of Cinematographers. But he starred in more than 50 films!
New life of a free artist
The 80s have changed a lot in the life of Leonid Yarmolnik. Instead of Lyubimov who left for treatment in England and remained there, Anatoly Efros became the chief director of Taganka . Several leading actors immediately left the theater troupe. Decided to part with the theater and Yarmolnik. What could he have been waiting for if Efros frankly said that Leonid Yarmolnik was a dummy actor. So, with the theater he was out of the way. He did not even try to get into another team. Just leaned "on free bread."
Having become a “free artist”, Leonid Yarmolnik was ready to undertake any business, no matter what was offered to him. Diverse concerts, popular creative evenings, rare recordings at radio studios. Well, my favorite movie, of course. But, as Leonid Yarmolnik himself says, the filmography of that period is entirely films where he played negative roles.
Leonid Yarmolnik Filmography
- "Crossroads";
- "Operation" Happy New Year "";
- "Heads and tails";
- "Princess and the Pauper";
- "Enchanted plot";
- "Man from the Boulevard of Capuchins";
- "Real Tale";
- "Countdown";
- "Dudes";
- "Detective Agency" Ivan da Marya "";
- "Odyssey of Captain Blood";
- "Nuts";
- "7 days with a Russian beauty;
- "Swamp Street, or Remedy for Sex";
- "God's creature";
- "Waltz of the Golden Calfs";
- "Nastya";
- "Coffee with lemon."
The list could go on for a long time. However, not the movie screen, but the pop scene and television made Yarmolnik a real star. On television, he was the host of several television shows. And although television took almost all of his time, he could not see himself without a movie.
And so they shot Moscow Vacations. Yarmolnik played the main role of the hero-lover in the film and acted as a producer. Leonid Yarmolnik films (domestic films), shot even in the dashing nineties, is still considered better than American. Because they are about us, about our life. Because they are more soulful and cleaner.
Love and family in the life of Yarmolnik
Leonid Yarmolnik, for whom personal life always stood in the first place, found his destiny in the early 80s. The future wife of Leonid Yarmolnik was then a student. Studied at a textile institute. And her aunt was a dentist, many Taganka artists knew her, sometimes she had to be treated with her. Thanks to her aunt, Oksana often visited this theater. Here I met Yarmolnik. And soon they got married. Several years passed, and the family of Leonid Yarmolnik increased by one person - a daughter, Sasha, was born. While she does not show any addiction to acting, although all the girls at this age are eager to become artists. Now they all live together in their own house. There is a garden, a pool and a guest house on the plot. Yarmolnik has both an expensive car and a motorcycle.
A house for an actor is not just housing. This is the homeland. This is the place where his beloved wife and daughter are waiting for him. This is the place where he likes to receive guests. This is a place where his friends like to visit, whom over the years have not diminished.