Films with Savely Kramarov: the complete filmography of the actor

Almost all films with the participation of Savely Kramarov have been sincerely and passionately loved by several generations of residents of the USSR and the entire post-Soviet space for almost half a century. Without playing a single main role, this actor, solely due to his natural charm, was remembered by the audience sometimes more clearly than the film itself in which he played ...

short biography

The birthplace of Savely Viktorovich Kramarov was the Bauman district of the city of Moscow, where he was born on the unlucky date of October 13, 1934. In the very first days of life, the baby showed a defect - the eyelid of the left eye was thickened, so that later the actor appeared with his signature "slanting" look and a hooligan image.

After the not-so-successful graduation from the comprehensive school, Savely Kramarov, the films with which we will recall in this article, decided to connect his life with the profession of an actor and enter GITIS, however, he failed at the introductory auditions. The reason was the peculiar appearance of the guy and his memory. Rather, its almost complete absence, due to which he could not really learn a single literary passage for exams.

After an unfortunate failure, Saveliy entered the Faculty of Gardening of the Forestry Engineering Institute, but did not stop dreaming of acting, having entered the theater studio of the Central House of Artists in 1954. Soon he went to military training, where he had a fateful meeting with VGIK student Alexei Saltykov, who later invited Kramarov to star in his first film, thereby opening the door to the magical world of cinema.

First steps to the cinema

After graduating from the Forestry Engineering Institute in 1958, Savely Kramarov, a young graduate of landscaping, who was familiar with films only as a spectator, managed to work for a short time by profession. A year later, his old friend A. Saltykov offered Savely a role in the short film "Guys from Our Yard", which tells the story of the life of the Komsomol members of the city of Kolomna, faced with yard hooligans led by Vaska Rzhavy. The image of which was played by twenty-five-year-old Kramarov. This film was just a term paper of VGIK student A. Saltykov and was never shown on a wide screen. However, almost all the filmmakers recognized Savelius' impeccable and talented game.

After a successful debut, the winged Kramarov finally decided for himself that cinema is his real fate. He decided to fight for his vocation, quit the landscaper job and sent his photos to all the movie studios in the country. Of the dozen studios in the USSR at that time, only Odessa responded, urgently inviting a novice actor to audition for a new film, “He was nineteen.” So Savely Kramarov, films with which the audience was not yet familiar, first appeared in this full-length movie and, together with the famous actor Mikhail Pugovkin, brilliantly performed all the comedic moments of this picture, playing the role of soldier Petkin.

60s

Immediately after the premiere of the film "They were nineteen," the young actor was invited by the Yalta film studio to shoot the film "Farewell, doves" in which he was to play Vaska Konoplyanisty, another bully from films with Savely Kramarov.

It should be noted that the actor himself, being a native of an intelligent Jewish lawyer family, not only was never a bully, but always avoided such characters. However, due to its peculiar appearance, it became almost a slave of its outstanding texture.

In the same period, friend Kramarova A. Saltykov, who was finishing his studies at VGIK, was already working on his diploma film “My friend Kolka!”

It is only natural that he invited Savely to play the role of the bully Vaska again. This picture told a bold enough story for our country of those times about the secret society of the three-men, avenging the honors pupils.

The actor himself subsequently recognized this film, which appeared on the screen in 1961, as one of the best in his film career.

What films did Savely Kramarov star in at the beginning of his career, other than those listed?

In the 60s, the actor managed to appear in as many as thirty films. Among which, the most memorable were such films as “The Adventures of Krosh”, “Without Fear and Reproach”, “Horseback Drive”, “The First Trolleybus”, “The Tale of Lost Time”, “City of Masters”, “Thirty Three”, “Ballad about the attic, "The Devil with the Briefcase", "Red, Blue and Green", "Golden Watch", "Trembita" and "Abduction".

But the real fame came to Savely Kramarov after the “Elusive Avengers” and “The New Adventures of the Elusive”, and it was unexpected for him himself, since the cowardly bandit he performed from the chieftain of Ataman Burnash appeared on the screen only a few times, and the artist, knowing this, by and large participated in the filming for the sake of a "tick". However, the image he performed turned out to be so organic and real that millions of viewers loved it no less than the "elusive" heroes themselves.

Savely Kramarov himself subsequently recalled shooting in these paintings as follows:

“Elusive Avengers” I did by the way ... But you will never guess what this or that picture will bring to you. That picture, in which I invested as a whole, went in small circulation, and the “Elusive Avengers”, in which I appeared only four times and said the phrase: “And the dead with braids stand along the road and - silence!” Gave me great success. I immediately became popular, went to concerts a lot and made money ...

70s

The period from 1971 to 1975 for Savely Kramarov, all the films with which by then there were already about four dozen, was the time of the heyday of his film career and the triumph of his extraordinary acting talent.

During these years, such masterpieces of Soviet cinema as “12 Chairs”, “Gentlemen of Fortune”, “Big Change”, “This Fun Planet”, “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes the Profession”, “Afonya” and “It Cannot Be!” Came out one by one. ", in which the studied actor played, no doubt, the best roles in his life.

More than forty years have passed since then, but millions of viewers still laugh at his Feday-Kosy, the clerk of the embassy’s order Feofan, Petya Timokhin, Egoza and friend of the groom Seryozha ...

You can’t ignore the very short, but such a memorable role of Kramarov in the film "Mimino", where he played the convict at the door of the court:

- Listen, friend, you have good eyes, you can immediately see that you are a good person. Please help me.

- Sorry, genatsvale. About five years later I will help ...

In addition to the above paintings, Savely Kramarov in the 70s could also be seen in such films as “The Secret of the Iron Door”, “Hold on to Clouds”, “The Mystical Adventures of Plugs and Tarapunka”, “Golden Horns”, “New Adventures of Doni and Mickey, "Solo for an Elephant and Orchestra", "Mom," "Live in Joy," and "They Dressed a Dresser Down the Street."

The last, fifty-eighth role of Savely Viktorovich, filmed in the USSR, was the fierce Harry in the film "The New Adventures of Captain Vrungel", which was released in 1978. By that time, the relationship of the actor with the high authorities from Goskino completely deteriorated, and he began to seriously think about how to leave the country forever.

Conflict and Emigration

The discord occurred due to the fact that officials saw in Kramarov’s foolish heroes something other than a comedy. After some time, a decree appeared in the backstage of Goskino forbidding the actor from filming in any films. Soon, all domestic cinema for Savely Viktorovich was closed.

He was not released from the USSR, since in the event of his emigration, the Goskino would have been forced to “put on the shelf” dozens of films loved by millions of television viewers with Kramarov's participation. They didn’t give him a shot either. In the end, the case ended with Saveliy Viktorovich writing an open letter to US President Reagan in 1981 complaining about his boycott and lack of work, and also asked for help in moving.

After this letter was read several times on the air of Voice of America, the actor was finally released from the country.

Hollywood

On October 31, 1981, Kramarov left the USSR, and already in 1983, after a series of tours around the USA organized by his friends, he made his debut in a Hollywood film. There were not so many roles of Savely Kramarov in American films. However, each of them, the actor gave all his talent.

The first film of Savely Viktorovich, shot in the USA, was the tragicomedy “Moscow on the Hudson”, dedicated to emigrants from the Soviet Union and the reverse side of the seemingly luxurious American life.

Kramarov got the role of a KGB agent selling hot dogs on the streets of New York. And his partner in the film was none other than the famous Robin Williams, who at that time was only thirty-second year old, and work in Moscow on the Hudson was the first major role in his subsequent brilliant career.

Which Hollywood films starred Savely Kramarov in subsequent years?

His next work was the role of the Soviet cosmonaut in the science fiction film "Space Odyssey of 2010", which premiered in December 1984.

The film was nominated for five Oscar awards, and Kramarov himself greatly enjoyed participating in the filming of this film, since he got a serious rather than comic role in it, almost for the first time in his entire film career.

In 1986, the crime comedy “Armed and Dangerous” was released, in which the actor again returned to his usual role as an idiot, playing a mock guard. True, in one of the scenes, his screen partner was the famous actress Meg Ryan.

Among the Hollywood films starring Savely Kramarov, there is also the 1988 criminal action movie Red Heat. In which the former "gentleman of fortune" played the Soviet connection Grigory Mazursky. This picture was dedicated to the joint work of the US and USSR police, and the famous partners Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi, who played the main roles, became Kramarov’s partners on the set.

In 1989, Savely Kramarov could be seen in the comedy action movie "Tango and Cash." He again got a small episodic role of a nervous nameless hero, dressed in a T-shirt with the inscription "GLASNESS" in Latin, from which Lieutenant Cash took the car out of official need. Kramarov’s partners this time were the famous Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell.

Return to Russia

In Russia, which he always missed incredibly, the actor was able to return only after eleven years. This happened in 1992, when the USSR collapsed. Savely Kramarov was invited as an honored guest to the Kinotavr film festival. At the same time, the memorable photo below was later published in the domestic media under the heading "Guest of the Kinotavr Festival" by American actor Savely Kramarov "...

Nevertheless, during his stay in Russia, Kramarov managed to play the image of a thief in the film directed by George Danelia "Nastya", dedicated to life in Russia during a deep crisis that swept all spheres of the country's life.

In 1993, Savely Viktorovich also starred in the first directorial film of actor Mikhail Kokshenov, Russian Business, in which he played the role of an uncle Vasya's trainer, after which he returned to the United States.

Afterword

The last work in the filmography of Savely Kramarov, numbering nearly eighty films, was the romantic drama "Love Story", filmed in America and released on the screen in 1994.

On June 6, 1995, the great Soviet actor and favorite of millions of spectators died of cancer in San Francisco. He was only 60 years old.

In the USSR, and later in Russia, there were and there are a lot of serious actors playing the roles of strong-willed and strong people. But the place of this special, real, genuine and charming nonsense with which the actor appeared on the screen, with the death of Savely Viktorovich Kramarov, remained empty ...