Popular and beloved by millions of viewers, the Soviet and Russian actress, who has been pleasing not only her compatriots, but also viewers outside our country with her work for decades, is Larisa Luzhina.
Childhood
Larisa was born in Leningrad on the fourth of March, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-nine. Two years later, the most bloody war in the history of mankind began. Father - Anatoly Ivanovich, a long-range navigator, went to defend his country, and Larisa with her mother, grandmother and older sister Lyusya remained in Leningrad.
Blockade
The Luzhin family survived the terrible Leningrad blockade. During this time, the elder sister died, the wounded father died of starvation, and the grandmother could not stand the terrible trials. Only after lifting the blockade, little Larisa Luzhina and her mother were evacuated to the Kemerovo region.
First performances
In Kuzbass, Larisaâs mother went to work at a meat factory. The girl had her first performance in front of the audience. At the New Year's holiday, she read a poem by Twardowski to the workers at the Confession of a Tankman factory. As Larisa Luzhina herself recalls, her performance caused tears from the women, and the director took her in her arms, kissed her, and then âawardedâ an unusually tasty cutlet, the smell of which she still remembers.
Tallinn
After returning to Leningrad, it turned out that their apartment was occupied, Larisa and her mother had to move to Tallinn, where Luzhina spent her childhood. They were sheltered by a distant relative in a tiny six-meter room.
Drama circle
From a young age, the girl was attracted to creativity, she liked to participate in performances, sing songs, recite poems at concerts. At school, Larisa immediately enrolled in a drama circle. It was directed by the artist of the drama theater I. D. Rossomakhin. In this circle were engaged guys who were destined to become famous actors - Vitaly Konyaev, Igor Yasulovich, Vladimir Korenev. Performances of the amateur troupe were shown not only on the school stage, but also on the professional one. During this period of time, she began to dream about the profession of an actress.
Unsuccessful attempt
The biography of Larisa Luzhina is inextricably linked with the theater and cinema. After graduating from ten classes, the future actress went to Leningrad to enter the theater university. At the entrance exam, she was offered to sing a song. An agitated entrant failed the test. According to Luzhina Larisa Anatolyevna herself, at that moment she simply did not have enough perseverance. She did not consider herself to be a man at all costs. She was sure that if they told her: âYou donât fit,â then you shouldnât even try.
Work on the podium
So, the failed actress Larisa Luzhina returned to Tallinn. At first she got a job at a pharmaceutical factory, and soon she went to work at the Kalev confectionery factory. Every day she breathed powdered sugar and put marshmallows in boxes (since then she has not eaten it). Naturally, such work for a girl who dreamed of a scene was simply a way of survival, she did not bring moral satisfaction. Once Larisa Luzhina, whose photo you see in this article, accidentally saw an announcement in the newspaper about the opening of the Tallinn Model House. Of course, the podium can hardly be compared with the stage, but at that time it seemed to Larisa a worthy alternative. Biography of Larisa Luzhina has changed dramatically. A girl with a height of 172 centimeters and a slender figure was quite suitable for the Model House.
Larisa and her mother lived very poorly. The girl did not have an extra dress, not to mention some kind of expensive toilets. Therefore, when she stepped on the catwalk in fashionable and beautiful outfits, she felt like a fairy Cinderella, who appeared at the ball. And Larisa was called a "smiling fashion model." Unlike her colleagues, who appeared in public with a kind of detached face, Luzhin smiled. For this, she was always very warmly received and awarded with a flurry of applause.
Dreams Come True
Entering the catwalk, the girl imagined that she was an actress. Larisa Luzhina just raved about the scene, and once a miracle happened. She was invited to the Tallinnfilm film studio to play the tiny role of a singer in a night cabaret. The film was called "Uninvited Guests" (1959). A few months later, the director of this tape moved to permanent residence in England, and the film was banned. But probably, the actress Larisa Luzhina, whose biography was now unthinkable outside the cinema, was born under a lucky star. On the set of the film, she met a trainee from VGIK, which showed a photo of Luzhina to S. A. Gerasimova. From this moment, Larisa considered trainee Leyda Laius her godmother.
Sergei Appolinarievich agreed to see the girl. To do this, you just had to come to Moscow. But the problem was that Larisa and her mother did not have money for this trip. As often happens, a case intervened in this situation. Quite unexpectedly, Luzhin was invited to audition for the film "Peace to the incoming", while "Mosfilm" paid for the road and the hotel. Thus, Larisa managed to get acquainted with Gerasimov. After the aspiring actress read Larisaâs soliloquy from The Bride to the great director, her fate was decided â she was accepted into Gerasimovâs workshop without examinations.
Since 1959, Larisa Luzhina is a student at VGIK. The course was very strong. Together with our heroine studied Nikolai Gubenko, Zhanna Bolotova, Galina Polsky, Zhanna Prokhorenko, Evgeny Zharikov.
First steps to the cinema
Many people close to the cinema know that Gerasimov was very fond of filming his students. Those who for some reason did not suit him, he recommended to other talented directors. Unfortunately, Larisa Luzhina was not his actress.
From the first year she was already shot in films. This was the main role of Luba in the film novel "The Man Does Not Give Up" (1960), the gardener in "The Man Follows the Sun" (1961). But the biggest success was the work in the film âOn the Seven Windsâ (1962) of Rostotsky and Galich. For the role of Svetlana Ivashova, she was recommended by Gerasimov.
It should be said that actress Larisa Luzhina, whose biography consists of constant experiments, recalls that the work in this film was not easy. At first, she didnât succeed at all. It got to the point that Rostotsky was simply afraid that the actress could not cope with the role. He showed Gerasimov all the footage and asked to replace Luzhin. Gerasimov was an excellent psychologist, he was well aware that this refusal could kill Larisa as an actress. And he really believed in his talented student, so he advised the director to give her more attention. Heeding the advice of his great teacher, Rostotsky began to work a lot with the young actress. He even tried to repaint her in a blonde, in order to strengthen the correspondence to the created image of Svetlana Ivashova.
Fame
After the premiere of the painting âOn seven windsâ Larisa woke up famous. The film was sent to the Cannes film festival, where the delegation of the national cinema headed by Gerasimov, Rostotsky, Kulidzhanov, Rayzman also went. The actors were represented by young Inna Gulaya and Larisa Luzhina. It was necessary to somehow solve the issue of outfits. As a sign of respect, the Tallinn Fashion House sent Larisa two luxurious evening dresses, in which the actress shone in Cannes.
At the festival, a situation occurred due to which Larisa Luzhina, whose biography is full of surprises, could say goodbye to her further career. At the evening reception, Larisa was invited to dance a twist. In those days, this dance in the USSR was considered unprincipled, and even obscene. VGIK students, including Larisa, perfectly âmasteredâ it and dashingly danced it at their parties. But to dance a twist at a reception, and even abroad? The actress was reassured by Gerasimov, who said that his student should be able to do everything.
Returning to her homeland, Luzhin was called to Furtseva (Minister of Culture). In anger, she struck out the âdelinquentâ actress from further trips. And again Gerasimov came to the rescue. He came to an appointment with Furtseva and said that Larisa was his student and it was he who allowed her to dance. After that, Luzhin visited the festival in Karlovy Vary, Sweden, Iran, Poland.
Work in Germany
After the film âOn the Seven Windsâ, the films with the participation of Larisa Luzhina, the audience waited impatiently. At this time, the German director Joachim HĂźbner invited her to star in his five-part film "Dr. SchlĂźtter" (1964â1966) in two roles at once - mother and daughter. Filming lasted two years.
It was a difficult time for Larisa. Arriving in a foreign country, she knew only two words in German, so at first she just memorized the text, much later she began to understand what she was talking about. But these were not all the problems that faced the actress - she needed to be naked in the frame. She was to star in some swimming trunks - an episode for Soviet cinema is unthinkable! The director managed to persuade her by removing from the platform all but the operator and himself.
Acquaintance with Vysotsky
After returning from Germany, the actress was waiting for a real gift of fate. She was invited to appear in his picture Stanislav Govorukhin. We are talking about the film "Vertical" (1966), where Luzhina was to work with the legendary Vladimir Vysotsky. His claim to this role was very complex. The art council of the Odessa film studio categorically objected to his candidacy. He was approved only after Govorukhin vowed to promise that Vysotsky would not sing in the film. He did not keep his words, for there would hardly have been a man at that moment who could have kept Vladimir charmed by the mountains.
The famous bard wrote some great songs that instantly scattered across the country.
Larisa Luzhina quickly made friends with Vysotsky. They had a very warm relationship, but they were only friendly. Vladimir Semenovich dedicated the song âShe Was in Parisâ to his new girlfriend.
Larisa Luzhina: personal life
Larisa experienced her first love at sixteen. The guyâs name was Pavel, he studied at the Naval College of Tallinn. The guys met, went to the dance. After graduating from college, Pavel left for his native Irkutsk. Leaving, he presented Luzhin with a guitar and promised to write. And later the girl found out that in Irkutsk Pavel was waiting for the bride, whom he soon married.
In the movie, Larisa Anatolyevna was very lucky for partners - Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Vladimir Vysotsky, Igor Ledogorov. According to the scripts, she was in love with all of them. However, in her life she liked very different men.
Larisa Luzhina, whose husbands are creative people, four times tried to create a family. The first spouse was Alexey Chardynin (the cameraman of the films âJournalistâ, âDo not Set Traps for Leshemâ, âIvan da Maryaâ). Larisa met him in the second year of VGIK. A handsome, tall and very talented young man won the girlâs heart almost instantly. But young people lived only seven years - the marriage could not stand the separation, the constant trips of Larisa.
Larisaâs second husband is Valery Shuvalov (cameraman in the films â12 Chairsâ, âMagicianâ, âIntergirlâ and others). To the great joy of the actress, a son was born in this marriage - Paul. The family broke up when the boy was seven years old.
The third time, the union also did not work out. Unlike the first two marriages, the husband was the initiator of the divorce, and this was a tragedy for Larisa Anatolyevna. We can say that the personal life of the actress did not work out. With the fourth spouse, the family also did not work. But at the same time, Larisa Anatolyevna considers herself a happy woman. She has an adult and successful son, a good, caring daughter-in-law, two of the best grandchildren. Son is an excellent recording engineer at the Mosfilm film studio.
1966-1986 years
After success in the film Vertical, Luzhin was shot a lot by the country's most famous directors. The images she created are lyrical, feminine, very charming, but at the same time courageous and strong. Her most popular works were roles in the films âThe Main Witnessâ (1969), âRacersâ, âGoldâ (1969), âNastenkaâ (1973), etc.
Restructuring
In this difficult period for the whole country, a change has come in the life of Luzhina. She began to be filmed a little in the movie, the Theater of Movie Actor was closed. However, Larisa Anatolyevna managed to survive this period a little easier than many of her colleagues. Having borrowed some money from a friend, she staged a âTheater Jokeâ - a performance with which she toured a lot around the country. It was not possible to earn big money, but enough for a life.
Upset that in the cinema things were very bad. Almost no films were made, and those that were released were of very poor quality.
New century
The situation began to stabilize after the two thousandth year. The first serious work after a long stagnation was the painting âSecrets of Palace Revolutionsâ (2001-2003) by Svetlana Druzhinina, the role of Praskovya Dolgorukova. In the career of an actress, this is the first real costume role.
Then came the time for the series âJunckerâ (2007), âThere Is No Salvation from Loveâ (2003), âHunt for the Manchurian deerâ (2005). In 2006, the premiere of the series âLove as Loveâ by V. Krasnopolsky took place. In this tape, Larisa Luzhina and Sergey Nikonenko became the favorites of the audience. Strict critics noted the amazing authenticity of the images they created.
Larisa Luzhina, whose films are very beloved by the audience, still works at the Theater of Film Actor. She plays in the play âExactly at Sevenâ and also takes part in the entreprise. Often viewers ask how old Larisa Luzhina is. Passport age of the actress does not matter. Everyone who was lucky enough to chat with her falls under the charm of this self-confident, very beautiful woman. Moreover, it is completely devoid of "stardom." She is always sincere and attentive to the interlocutor.