In our article, we will focus on the biography and personal life of George Menglet - a wonderful person, a talented, original artist and an excellent family man. He traveled a long life, played many diverse roles and left a good, good memory. So, let's start our story.
How it all began
As the biography says, Georgy Pavlovich Menglet was born in Voronezh on September 4, 1912. Acting abilities showed up in his school years. The boy enrolled in a drama club led by a teacher of literature and the Russian language.
The young actor was entrusted with playing the most difficult roles: Osip in The Inspector General, Chatsky in Woe from Wit, Professor Krugosvetov in The Fruits of Enlightenment, etc. The teacher noticed how gifted her student was and advised him to go to the theater school .
In 1930, a young man went to Moscow to take exams at GITIS. Despite the huge competition, Menglet easily passes all entrance tests and becomes a student of the capital's theater university.
Noble roots
Menglet's fans have always been interested in where this man born in the provinces, in the family of an ordinary Soviet employee and housewives, comes from with such aristocratic manners and noble appearance. Apparently, the whole thing is in the noble roots.
Father George Pavlovich was a hereditary nobleman, carefully hiding his origin under the Bolsheviks. The Russian branch of the Menglet family originates from the captain of the French army, Louis Menglet.
Theatre
After the successful completion of GITIS, Menglet is accepted as an artist in the studio of Alexei Wild. Subsequently, the actor called this person his most important teacher.
The first success came to the young actor after playing the role of Sergey’s clerk in the sensational performance of Alexey Dikoy “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk County” based on Leskov’s novel. In 1937, Alexei Dikiy was arrested on a denunciation as a foreign spy. The students were orphaned. It was unsafe to stay in Moscow, and the troupe went to Stalinabad (later the city was renamed Dushanbe). So George Menglet ended up in Tajikistan.
In Stalinabad, the capital's artists organized the Russian Drama Theater. Menglet lived and worked in this city until 1942. During the Great Patriotic War, Georgy Pavlovich became a member of the artistic front-line brigade and went to the front to speak to the fighters. Subsequently, he was appointed head of the front-line theater. After the war ended in 1945, Menglet entered the troupe of the capital's Satire Theater and literally from his first roles became a leading artist. All further creative biography of George Menglet will be firmly connected with this theater, in it he will serve his whole long life.
Our hero was not only a talented artist, but also an amazingly beautiful and charming person. At the beginning of his career at the Satire Theater, he often played lover heroes. It is no exaggeration to say that in those years Menglet was considered one of the best artists working in this role.
He was especially good in the role of Georges Durois in the play staged based on Maupassant’s novel “Dear Friend”. Enthusiastic fans followed him in droves. Even the partners could not resist the charm of Menglet and fell in love with a handsome artist. Below you can see a photo of George Menglet in his youth.
Years passed and gradually the actor switched to more interesting acutely characteristic roles. Georgy Pavlovich Menglet appeared on the stage of his native theater until the very last days of his life.
Such different roles
Among the best roles played by the artist in the Satire Theater, the following stand out especially:
- the old servant Firs ("The Cherry Orchard");
- judge ("The Marriage of Figaro");
- Trustee Strawberries ("Examiner");
- Pishta ("Wake up and sing");
- Devyatov ("We, the undersigned");
- Vyshnevsky ("Profitable Place");
- Kuchumov ("Crazy Money").
Movie work
The actor did not like to work in films, he was annoyed by the camera. There are few films with Georgy Menglet; he practically did not appear on the big screen. In 1984, Evgeny Matveev invited him to star in the role of Churchill in the feature film Victory. Menglet very organically looked like an English prime minister.
Over the years, the actor has successfully played in television films: "Andro and Sandro", "Ordinary Man", "House where hearts are broken" and many others. Menglet even managed to star in several episodes of the popular satirical television project "Zucchini 13 Chairs" in the comedic role of Mamont Malomalsky.
In Soviet times, the genre of television plays was very popular. Some of the most successful productions of the Satire Theater were filmed for broadcast on central television. Thanks to this, we can still enjoy the theatrical work of George Menglet. The legendary productions of The Marriage of Figaro and Awake and Sing, where the artist played, are sometimes broadcast on television.
The personal life of George Menglet
The first time an actor married actress Valentina Koroleva at a very young age. In this marriage, the actor had a daughter, Maya, who later became a famous actress. This first marriage lasted long enough, the couple raised a daughter together and married her. But in 1961, the actor decided to leave the family and start a new life.
The second wife of George Menglet was the actress of the Satire Theater - Nina Arkhipova. Their relationship began during joint rehearsals of the play "Dear Friend". The biography and family of George Menglet - these topics always worried his fans, but the actor did not like to devote others to the secrets of his personal life.
Nina Arkhipova told reporters how Zhorik - so everyone called the young Menglet - helped her in everything, gave advice, supported her when something did not work out with the role. The woman conquered his kindness and responsiveness. At that time, the actress was going through a difficult period in her life, her husband, the writer Gorbatov, died, leaving her in the care of four children from a previous marriage and a sick mother-in-law.
Menglet had to patiently look after Nina Arkhipova for several years before she agreed to marry him. Subsequently, she never regretted her decision. They lived very happily and loved each other.
Menglet was a wonderful husband! He had to take care not only of his beloved wife, but also of the children of Hunchback, and even his mother. The personal life of actor George Menglet was filled not only with the joys of reciprocal love, but also with endless labors.
He was a good stepfather, children loved and revered him as a father. When they grew up and began to live separately, they often visited their parents and helped them in everything.
Although Arkhipova and Menglet served in the same theater, they almost did not manage to play together. The exception was a performance staged on the stage of the Satire Theater by Mark Zakharov - "Wake up and Sing." In this production, the couple performed the comedic roles of husband and wife.
Actor's daughter
I would like to talk a little about the fate of Menglet’s own daughter, Maya, who was born in 1935. She is known to fans of Soviet cinema for her role in the film "It Was in Penkov."
The daughter of the actor graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School and for a long time worked at the Theater. Stanislavsky. As a student, Maya Menglet married actor Leonid Satanovsky. The couple had two sons. When the children grew up, they emigrated to Australia, and their parents left after them. In 2015, Maya's husband passed away.
Maya Menglet after her father left the family for a long time did not talk with him, believed that he had betrayed her mother - Valentina Koroleva. Over time, the bitterness of resentment began to subside, but it did not go to the end. Today, Maya Georgievna lives in Melbourne, brings up grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Actor's hobbies
In his youth, Menglet had a passion for photography and was very fond of reading books. He later became a true football fan. He was a fan of the CSKA team. If his favorite team won the match, he rejoiced like a child. In the event of a loss, he called his friend - entertainer Yevgeny Kravinsky (the same passionate fan) - and literally sobbed into the telephone receiver. Nina Arkhipova told reporters about this.
She also said that the famous artist was a very domestic person. Menglet did not like noisy companies and restaurants, he always tried to immediately go home after the performance.
Funny life
There were many funny situations in the life of George Menglet; he often told friends about them. Here are some of these stories:
1. The actor’s daughter, Maya Menglet, became very famous after the success of the film “It Was in Penkovo,” and her father at that time was not yet familiar to a wide audience. When he met someone and called his last name, they immediately asked him: is he a relative of the famous film actress?
The father really wanted to catch up with his daughter in popularity, but he did not succeed soon. After all, he preferred not to act in films, namely, it is the most popular form of art. Menglet became truly famous and recognizable by the multimillion-dollar Soviet audience only after the premiere of two new episodes of “Connoisseurs” in 1975, where he played the role of a charming swindler.
2. In 1952, director Alexandrov began filming a film about the composer Glinka. For the main role, he invited Menglet to try. The screening was successful, but the art council said that it would be very strange if an actor named Menglet plays the role of a Russian composer.
After this remark, another actor was found for the film, and Georgy Menglet was very offended by the cinema and tried to avoid film screening for several years.
3. In the twenties, the young artist traveled with the propaganda team through the villages. At one of the performances, when the actor was singing ditties to the peasant audience about “fists” and “podkulakniks”, one of the village men got out of his place, went up to Menglet and hit him with a huge club.
Fortunately, the artist managed to quickly deviate, and this saved him from a serious injury. The next day, almost all the metropolitan Soviet newspapers printed notes on this incident. So Menglet first tasted the "glory."
Filmography
George Menglet was primarily a theater actor, so the list of films in which he starred is not so great. Here he is:
- "Schweik is preparing for battle";
- "Nude with a violin";
- Lermontov;
- "The heirs of Raburden";
- "Ordinary person";
- mini-series "Short stories";
- comedy television series "Zucchini" 13 chairs ";
- "Labyrinth";
- "Fleet Officer";
- "Schweik in the Second World War"
- "Crazy day or the marriage of Figaro";
- "Wake up and sing";
- "Andro and Sandro";
- "A house where hearts break";
- "Slap in the face";
- the series "Investigators are leading";
- "Well, public!";
- "Foam";
- "Pill under the tongue";
- "Victory";
- Churchill;
- "Suicide".
Ranks and awards
Over his long life, Georgy Pavlovich Menglet received many awards and several honorary titles. Among them:
- the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR (received in 1956);
- the title of People's Artist of the USSR (1974);
- Order of Merit to the Fatherland;
- Order of the Red Banner of Labor;
- Order of the Badge of Honor;
- medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War";
- medal "In memory of the 850th anniversary of Moscow".
Cause of death and burial place
People's Artist suddenly died on May 1, 2001. On this day, the wife of George Menglet, Nina Arkhipova, turned 80 years old. The theater was preparing to celebrate an anniversary; Menglet rehearsed a solemn speech, which was supposed to speak at the event.
Suddenly, the actor became ill. As it turned out later, a blood clot had come off. Georgy Pavlovich Menglet was buried in Moscow at the Kuntsevsky cemetery. He lived 88 years.