Igor Efimov is an actor of Soviet cinema, a dubbing master is a real nugget. This talented man “gave” his voice to characters in more than 630 films, both domestic and foreign. And from Soviet stars, Efimov voiced Anatoly Papanov, Pavel Kadochnikov, Nikolai Grinko, Gennady Yukhtin, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan.
His childhood
Actor Igor Efimov, whose biography is not very well known to the mass audience, was born in the city on the Neva, Leningrad, on the first day of September 1932. His dad, Konstantin Petrovich, died during the Great Patriotic War, in 1945. Mom, Valentina Maksimovna, then worked as an engineer.
At school Igor studied well enough. Even then, the boy noticed a tendency to imitate famous actors of those years. This went on for more than a year, and Igor developed this tendency in himself as he could, as he understood. He became interested in theater and began to engage in amateur performances.
When the boy grew up a little, he began to go to the theater circle of the Leningrad House of Pioneers. It was then led by Margarita Fedorovna Lindt. Many other famous actors were involved here - Anatoly Ravikovich, Tatyana Tarasova, Efim Ioffe and others.
From korfak to the theater
Based on what Igor was fond of in childhood and adolescence, one could conclude that the young man had already chosen a future profession for himself. Unlike other guys who changed their preferences very often, wanting to grow up and become astronauts, tankmen or doctors, Efimov did not change his dream.
But after receiving a school certificate, he becomes a student at the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute, choosing a korfak. But while studying there, he did not stay away from all sorts of creative evenings and performances. Igor Efimov, an actor in the near future, participated in student performances. He played one of the main roles in the play "On the Pilot, 3". At the same time, he continued to study with Margarita Lindt. Gradually, the desire to become a sailor was diminished, but the desire to act, on the contrary, increased.
After studying for two years at the Institute of Shipbuilding, in 1954, Igor left for Moscow. It was in the capital that he entered the Theater School. Shchepkina - the famous "Sliver".
After studying for four years, Igor Efimov, whose filmography includes several dozen works and plus six hundred dubbing films, returns to Leningrad, where he is credited to the staff of the film actor’s studio and the Lenfilm film studio.
A little later, his creative biography replenished with the so-called overseas episode: in 61, he left for four years to work in the theater of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.
Life in the cinema
Efimov came to the cinema while still a student. At first, these were episodes, very small, but then ... Very soon, significant roles began to be entrusted to him. Efimov began to play his contemporaries, workers, and military. And in every role he was beautiful.
A little later, the actor switched to characteristic roles, in which the audience was remembered. And he always played with a touch of humor and with amazing authenticity. The best acting works include:
- Major Semochkin from The Chronicles of the Dive Bomber,
- Litvinenko from Golden Mines,
- Kurbatov from the "Winner", P
- etr Basalaev from Late Meeting and many others.
A separate line is Charlotte’s Necklace, a 1984 film. In it, Efimov played the investigator Alexei Ivanovich Toropov.
And despite the fact that the actor appeared only in the second series of the picture, it was impossible not to notice his character.
Stories about actors and their voices. Charming Lestrade
On the road leading to becoming a detective, actor Borislav Brondukov, who played superbly as Inspector Lestrade, stood a parasite and alcoholic Fedul from Danelia’s famous comedy Afonya. At that time, officials felt that the Englishman from the actor did not work. But through the efforts of director Maslennikov, Fedul managed to turn into Lestrade, and now it is simply unrealistic to imagine someone else in this role. It was Brondukov who, in the opinion of Igor Maslennikov, was both comical and international. But his speech did not at all resemble English. To get closer to reality, Lestrade speaks in the voice of Igor Efimov.
Scoring roles in this series did not end only with an appeal to Lestrade. In addition to the inspector, Efimov in these films voiced the marker, Dr. Grimsby Roylot, Major Sholto, charioteer Perkinst.
Good Santa Claus
One of the many roles that viewers know Igor Efimov can be called the role of the good and wise Santa Claus in a children's fairy tale, filmed back in 1975 - "New Year's adventures of Masha and Viti." Perhaps all the children of the Soviet Union know this story. By the way, initially in Pavel Finn’s play “Masha and Vitya against Wild Guitars” (it was from her that this fairy tale was filmed) instead of Santa Claus was just a Wizard, and instead of Snow Maiden - Snow White.
But the director came up with his own way. As a result, millions of Soviet children watched with great interest the adventures of two children rescuing the beauty Snegurochka from Koscheev at the request of Santa Claus.
And in this film, Efimov Igor Konstantinovich showed himself as a high-class actor. And his velvet voice, as usual, simply magnificent and pure, plunged the audience into the atmosphere of the real New Year.
"Dog in the manger"
Another favorite musical film, released "from the pen" by Jan Fried, is "Dog in the Hay." In just two episodes you can hear not only beautiful songs, but also relive the story of Diana and Theodoro. Senora Diana, who widows after the death of her rich and very elderly husband, is captive of doubts: she does not know who to give preference to and who to marry - for one of her suitors or for the personal secretary of Theodoro. Grooms are noble and rich, and Theodoro is young, handsome and passionate, but completely poor.
Teodoro's friend in this musical film was Tristan, played by Armen Dzhigarkhanyan. Filming went very well. But when it came to scoring, it turned out that at that time Armen Borisovich had a lot of parallel shootings and he simply physically did not have enough time to voice his hero. Knowing that Igor Efimov, the actor is very talented, Dzhigarkhanyan himself proposed his candidacy so that Tristan would finally gain a voice. It so happened that this character was played by one talented actor, and voiced by another, no less talented. Moreover, the voice acting was so professionally performed that so far not all viewers know that Tristan’s voice is not Dzhigarkhanyanovsky.
For Shukshin and Papanov
Fans of Vasily Shukshin’s talent remember that this actor passed away just at the time when he starred in the film “They Fought for their Homeland”. That was in the mid-seventies. Shukshin did not have time to work out in just a few episodes, so the director Sergei Bondarchuk decided not to remove the episodes in which Vasily was involved from his picture. Another actor came up for him - Yuri Soloviev. But what to do with voice acting? And again, the choice fell on one of the most talented actors of our time - Igor Efimov. It is with his voice that the character of Shukshin speaks - Pyotr Fedotovich Lopakhin.
For the same reason, Igor Efimov, an unusually talented and hardworking actor, spoke for the hero Anatoly Papanov - Nikolai Pavlovich Starobogatov or Kopalych. In 1987, the film "Cold Summer of the fifty-third ..." was shot. Anatoly Papanov did not have time to finish his last work in his creative biography. Therefore, after filming, instead of Papanov, it was Efimov who was engaged in the voice acting. Moreover, he voiced the role so accurately that it was impossible to distinguish the voices of two actors. And just as in the case of Tristan (Dzhigarkhanyan), many viewers still do not know that Kopalych received his face and voice from different people.
Efimov was truly outstanding, the best dubbing master of Soviet cinema. He had a unique gift, because he did not just duplicate, but masterfully imitate the voices of the actors he voiced.
About personal
With Iraida, his future wife, Igor studied at Sliver. They got married in their fourth year, and already in 1958 their first son Konstantin was born, who now lives in the United States. He is a pianist.
A little later, their second son, Igor, was born. Now he is a dubbing director at the Neva-Film film company.
In the last few years of his life, Igor Konstantinovich had a hard time - doctors diagnosed him with cancer. But until his last breath, he courageously tried to keep himself in shape, continuing to work on dubbing and playing in the play "Three Sisters", staged by his youngest son.
The actor passed away in November 2000. His ashes rest in the Northern Cemetery in St. Petersburg.