Places where Nikolai Penkov was born, Ivan Bunin called "fruitful stepping stone", as the Oryol region gave Russia more than a dozen prominent figures of art and literature.
The future artist himself was born near the estate of his sister Ivan Bunin, in which the best works of this author were created. Nikolai Vasilievich carried his love for this writer through his whole life. According to him, in difficult times he always reread the works of a genius fellow countryman.
Choosing a Life Path
The future People’s Artist of the Russian Federation was born on January 4, 1936 in the village of Glotovo. For a long time, he did not even think about an acting career, although later he always readily recited poems. In Lipetsk, the young man graduated from the mining and metallurgical college and, according to the distribution, got to Magnitogorsk, where he worked as a foreman for two years. From here he was taken into the army in the Far East. Having served and participating in amateur performances, Nikolai Penkov is finally determined with the choice of his future life path. From the part in which he served, he was demobilized ahead of schedule, thus giving an opportunity to a talented young man to prepare for admission to a theater university.
One theater for life
In Moscow, he enters the Moscow Art Theater School, the studio of the Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR Viktor Karlovich Monyukov, who released such famous actors as Nikolai Karachentsov, Marina Golub, Evgeny Kindinov, Alexander Korshunov.
In 1963, Nikolai Penkov graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School, and he, as a gifted and promising student, was left in the theater, to which N. V. Penkov remained faithful until the end of his days. After 6 years, Nikolai Vasilievich received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
Moscow Art Theater, but to them. Gorky
On the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, he played more than 50 roles. After the division of the theater in 1987, he became an actor of the Moscow Art Theater named after Gorky, which is still led by Tatyana Doronina. Here he also tries himself as the director of several performances - Avvakum, the solo performance Rosa Jericho by I. Bunin and Napoleon in Moscow, which the audience liked and was highly appreciated by critics. In the performance “Ruy Blaz” by V. Hugo, staged for the 70th anniversary of the actor, he got the role of Don Sallusty de Bazan, which he performed, as always, with brilliance.
Talented in many ways
He began to work with such great "old men" as Gribov and Massalsky, Prudkin and Yanshin, Androvskaya and Stanitsin, and absorbed all the best that the term "actor of an art theater" implies.
Nikolai Penkov himself believed that his ministry at the Moscow Art Theater allows him to communicate with God. A man of the highest decency, great talent and the highest education, he, according to experts and connoisseurs, was a great, powerful artist and an excellent prose writer. In addition to the book about the Moscow Art Theater, he wrote a series of stories published in the journal "Young Guard" and united under the name "From Under the Table."
Artist from God
In his favorite theater, actor Nikolai Penkov, whose biography (theatrical) began with the small role of a student named Misha in 1963 and ended with the role of Napoleon in the play by V. Malyagin “Napoleon in Moscow”, has served more than forty years. The artist “by the grace of God," he never shouted on stage, but he could be heard anywhere in the hall. He was busy in the best performances of the theater, played several leading roles of the Chekhov repertoire. Nikolai Penkov wrote a book about his beloved theater entitled “It was time”, which he managed to publish before his death, it was published in 2008.
Popular movie actor
In addition to working at the Moscow Art Theater, to which the actor gave his whole life, Nikolai Vasilyevich successfully acted in films, thanks to which he became known throughout the country. Such iconic TV shows as “The Shield and the Sword” and “The Eternal Call” have made the theater actor a popular film actor.
Nikolai Penkov, films with the participation of which the whole country knew, at one time was very popular. His best films include “In the First Circle” (2006), and “Marriage,” a film released in 1977. Along with such universally recognized, serious works as the role in the film “The Battle for Moscow”, one can also name the role in the very sweet, not pretending film “I Will Wait ...”, in which the young N. Penkov played the rival . Or work in such films and TV shows as “Our Debts”, “For the Rest of My Life” and others.
From the first to the last role
Penkov Nikolay is an actor who was subject to any roles and who could not play badly. According to his friends and admirers, he simply became the one he played. His first picture was a small role in the film "Life is in Your Hands" (1959), in which he starred as a student. The latter is in the series “In the First Circle” (2006) based on the works of I. A. Solzhenitsyn. In this film, N. Penkov plays the prosecutor Makarygin. In general, the cast of this television series is magnificent. Gleb Panfilov gathered the best for the film adaptation of the work that struck him. N.V. Penkov, whose filmography includes 22 films and series, in each of them was remembered by the viewer. Therefore, it seems that there were much more movie roles.
The death of the artist
An absolutely integral nature, a patriot of his homeland in the best sense of the word, an erudite person - that was Nikolai Penkov. The actor, whose family - his wife, daughter and son - steadily endured Nikolai Vasilievich’s severe illness, went on stage even when his legs no longer obeyed.
The People’s Artist of Russia died on an early Sunday morning on December 21, 2009. Nikolay Vasilyevich was buried at the
Troekurovsky cemetery. N.V. Penkov had government awards - two Orders of the Pochen and the Order of Friendship.