Leonid Markov is an actor of strong expressive talent and a bright, memorable appearance. On stage, he embodied many exceptional, outstanding images, diverse in character, behavior and temperament. He was easily given both the main and secondary roles, both the roles of treacherous villains and the roles of unhappy lovers.
Cinema met the theater actor Leonid Markov inhospitable. He played many roles, shone in a variety of famous and outstanding films, endowed his heroes with a bright and colorful nature, remembered by many fans of Soviet cinema.
However, the roles he was offered are secondary and episodic, turning a blind eye to the original talent and creative performance of the actor.
The biography of Leonid Markov is a lively and dynamic book, the plot of which is completely devoted to acting and mastery. Flipping through the pages of this folio, we can enjoy the bright and unique talent of the famous actor and we can better understand the world of lyceum art of the Soviet Union.
Little talent
The biography of Leonid Markov originates in faraway Kazakhstan, where a little boy Lenya was born in a family of creative people. This happened in December 1927.
Parents of the future actor worked in an artistic environment. Father - Vasily Demyanovich, worked as an actor in provincial theaters, mother - Maria Petrovna, served as a make-up artist there. Markovs were constantly engaged in repertoires, often moving from place to place: from city to city, from village to village.
As expected in theatrical families, the children were involved in the productions. Little Lenya (together with her older sister Rimma, the future famous actress), has been performing on stage since the age of five. He played in Uncle Tom’s Hut and other famous performances of the time. And often not boys, but girls.
Brother and sister
In childhood, the appearance of the future outstanding actor Leonid Markov was very disposed to such roles. He had a gentle beautiful face, a thin figure, calm habits. The sister, on the contrary, grew cannabis and muscular, so at first she got the roles of lanky clumsy teenagers.
Already at that time, the talent of little Leni was amazing and fascinating. For example, his performance of the seven-year-old orphan of Valka, dying from poverty and poverty, impressed with his realism and expressiveness (the play “Street Children”). While watching the performance, the audience was so impressed with the tragedy of the little heroine that their heart began to hurt, and some even received medical help!
The talented children were adored by the theater public. They were treated to sweets and cakes, hugged and kissed.
But, despite the obvious talent and universal recognition, little Lenya did not like acting.
Hobbies of the future actor
Young Markov was a creative person, but he was cold about the theater. He was very fond of creating something with his own hands: to draw, sculpt, carve on wood. There was a time when he dreamed of becoming a painter. If I studied further, everything would be quite feasible.
At school, little talent also did well. Despite the nomadic life, he grew up disciplined, responsible, diligent. He got high marks, made plans for the future, where there was absolutely no place for the stage.
But fate decreed otherwise. The war has begun.
Young years
The Great Patriotic War caught Markov in Vologda, where a gifted teenager went to school and wholeheartedly supported the victory of “his own people”.
After receiving secondary education, the young man had a question: where to study further? War, bombing, devastation and uncertainty. What to do? Where to go?
And my mother advised Leonid to enter an acting studio located at the drama theater. Studying artistic skills and being so close to the stage, Markov Leonid Vasilievich fell in love with the whole scene and stage art. He was entrusted with the main roles, which he performed talentedly and selflessly, the audience adored the young actor and called for an encore.
He was greeted with applause and recognized on the street, fell in love with him and admired him. Such universal approval was to the liking of a novice actor. Feeling a taste of fame and recognition, he wanted to connect his future life with acting.
Crucial moment
The studio's artist, Leah Rothbaum, saw great potential in young Leonid. She nurtured acting ambitions in him and offered to go to Moscow to conquer the metropolitan scene.
Life in a big city was not easy. Although Markov (along with his sister Rimma) was admitted to the studio located at the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theater, the housing was tight with housing and especially money.
At first, we spent the night at the station, then they were accommodated in a dilapidated theater extension, a bit later they allocated a room in the hostel of one of the institutes.
With a career, too, everything did not work out right away. At first, young people were put on episodic roles, then they began to trust supporting roles, and only then the main ones. So, slowly, life began to improve.
Positive sides
Whatever the external conditions, the young Markov always maintained a positive attitude. He believed in his star, in his calling, in his work.
Despite the instability and precariousness of the situation, brother and sister every day (if training allowed and there were no evening performances) attended cultural events - museums, exhibitions, concerts.
Four years after arriving in the capital, Markov Leonid Vasilievich was officially accepted into the Lenkom theater troupe. This strengthened his position in the theatrical field and gave hope for a bright future.
Theatrical career
For his theatrical activities, actor Leonid Markov replaced three theaters, where he played vivid and unforgettable roles in the leading performances of the season. He equally brilliantly managed to convey on the stage the spirit of both classical works and contemporary productions. His characters, regardless of age, character and temperament, were striking in their realism, effectiveness, inner psychology and depth of emotions.
They say that the directors “fought” for the actor, various artistic directors lured him into their theaters, and Markov himself - talented, happy and proud - played where he wanted, trying to find his own style of performance, his presentation of the work, his colorful character.
He loved heroes of the strong in spirit, hesitant and grotesque. Talentedly conveyed their passionate character, their doubts and fury. He focused not on the social side of the work, but on the intimate, personal, individual. Therefore, many characters of the actor are so fond of his fans. The audience saw in them themselves, their thoughts, their feelings and experiences.
Markov was very fond of sustaining a significant pause on the stage, making the audience worry and expect impatiently for further action. True theatergoers froze in awe of this acting technique, which fascinated and fascinated at the same time.
First productions
The first place of work of Leonid Vasilievich, as mentioned above, was the Moscow Theater. Lenin Komsomol. There, the young aspiring actor had the opportunity to work thirteen years, performing in more than twenty productions.
The very first of them was the performance “Honor from the Young”, where the aspiring actor talentedly played a young and ambitious Nekhod. Then there were the plays “The Cherry Orchard” (in which Markov first played Yasha, and then Trofimov), “The Living Corpse”, “Bread and Roses”, “Factory Girl”, “Nobody fell asleep that night”, “Lost Illusions” , “Saint Joan”, “First Symphony”, etc.
Whatever the actor represented (be it a modern student, director of an enterprise or a medieval hero), all his characters breathed life, energy and sensitivity.
In the theater to them. Pushkin Markov worked for only five years, presenting on the stage unforgettable, vivid images of Timofei Rvanoy (the play “Virgin Soil Upturned”), Marcelo (“Theresa's Birthday”), Michele Foscini (“Romanyola”) and others.
Becoming an actor
In the Mossovet Theater (where Leonid Vasilievich served from 1966 until his death), he actively performed in many classical productions, and also took an energetic part in plays by contemporary authors.
His characters were diverse and many-sided, as before. He talentedly and soulfully transferred the images of various characters to the stage. Among them, first of all, it is necessary to note Zvyagintsev (the play “They Fought for the Homeland”), Arbenin (“Masquerade”), Kuzma Methodius (“My Heart is with you)”, Porfiry Petrovich (“Crime and Punishment”, “Petersburg Dreams” ), Flora Fedulych (“The Last Victim”), Baturin (“Arctic novel”), Count Orlov (“Imperial Hunt”), Yegor Bulychov (“Yegor Bulychov and others”), etc.
In parallel with the stage, Leonid Markov actively starred, playing in the national cinema of bright and unforgettable characters.
Film career
Films of Leonid Markov impress with their numerousness and variety. These are detective stories, and mystical stories, and melodramas, and historical paintings.
The most prominent among them are “Signs are Conducting Investigations. Escape ”,“ Red and Black ”,“ My Tender and Tender Beast ”,“ Do not Change Horses at the Crossing ”,“ Zmeelov ”,“ Hotel Edem ”, etc.
Let's get to know this filmography better.
A little filmography
The five-part film “Anna Pavlova”, which was released in 1983 and in which Markov played General Bezobrazov, is a biographical picture of the life of the diva of Russian ballet. The talented ballerina performed by Galina Belyaeva makes the audience cry and suffer, rejoice and worry about her successes, achievements and personal tragedies.
Markov, in the role of Vladimir Mikhailovich Bezobrazov, helps viewers see the full depth and strength of Anna Pavlova’s talent. The film was nominated for the USSR State Prize.
The film “Seven Hours to Death” (which appeared on the same screen in 1983), where Leonid Vasilyevich plays Nechaev, the sea captain who went on his last voyage, tells about the heroic everyday life of doctors and other people for whom human life, mutual help and feeling debt is not at all an empty phrase.
The film “Garage” was remembered by the audience for its sparkling tragic satire, in which the actor played one of the leading roles - Professor Smirnovsky, who has a beloved woman, a contemporary of his adult daughter.
It is also worth mentioning the last film in which Markov starred - the mystical "Hotel of Eden", where the elderly actor got the role of the lascivious Satan, seducing young women in one of the Crimean resort rooms. In the film, Leonid Vasilievich appears before the audience as a charming imposing man, despite his already venerable age and illness.
The picture appeared on the screens in 1991. In the same year, Leonid Vasilievich died - from a terrible cancer.
Personal life of Markov
The personal life of Leonid Markov was rich and diverse in events and incidents. With a bright spectacular appearance, he drove women crazy and shamelessly fell in love with them.
The first three marriages were fleeting and unhappy. The wives of Leonid Markov tolerated his violent temper and bad habits, immoderation and rampant. They forgave the actor a lot, but could not give true happiness.
The last wife of Markov - Elena - found the key to the heart of the famous spouse. She experienced a lot with him, suffered a lot, but remained for him a faithful and devoted wife, always loving, always smiling.
There was a big difference between the spouses - sixteen years, but it did not prevent them from living in perfect harmony, happily and safely. They were an outlet for each other, joy and support. Could spend hours together talking and wandering through the alleys, meeting at breakfast and spending holidays together.
Leonid Vasilievich was a real defender and patron for his wife, and she for him was muse and inspiration.
Leonid Markov had no children. It a little upset him and saddened. But he never lost heart. “My child is you,” he often said to his beloved wife, Elena.
Actor Characteristic
In the acting environment, Leonid Vasilyevich was very respected. Respected for his bright boundless talent, for his courageous, colorful appearance, for kindness and quick-wittedness.
Markov was quick-tempered and conceited, a little arrogant and mocking. But at the same time I was remembered by friends and acquaintances for my good nature and humility, warmth and sincerity.
The actor died in March 1991 from cancer, eating his life for many months.