Nikolai Cherkasov, actor, People's Artist of the Soviet Union, winner of the Lenin and Stalin Prizes, the idol of millions of admirers of his cinematic talent, spent more than half of his life in the troupe of the Academic Theater named after Pushkin.
The childhood and youth of the great artist
Cherkasov Nikolay Konstantinovich was born on July 27, 1903 in the Northern capital of Russia, in a working-class family of employees of the railway station Konstantin Alexandrovich and Anna Andrianovna Cherkasov. The whole subsequent life of Nikolai Konstantinovich was connected with the city on the Neva. Here he grew up, studied, met his first love and first set foot on the theatrical stage of the Mariinsky Opera House.
After replenishing the family, the birth of Brother Kostya, the family of Nikolai Cherkasov in 1909 moved to a spacious four-room apartment on Krasnoarmeyskaya Street. From childhood, Nikolai was passionate about music. This love was conveyed to him by his mother, who loved to play music in the evenings in the family circle. Even in his teens, Nikolai Konstantinovich Cherkasov got acquainted with the work of F.I. Chaliapin, who made an unforgettable impression on the young man.
First creative steps
The first performance seen in the life of the future master of theater and cinema - “Ruslan and Lyudmila” performed by actors of the Mariinsky Theater, happened in 1912. Then the student of St. Petersburg Gymnasium No. 10 had not yet thought about the future profession. Everything happened in the summer of 1917, when Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin spoke in Pavlovsk. The image of Boris Godunov performed by the great master of Russian opera was imprinted in the minds of a fourteen-year-old boy. Since then, the young Cherkasov did not miss a single opera premiere of the great bass of Russia.
Choice of profession
After graduating from a labor school in revolutionary Petrograd, Nikolai Cherkasov submits documents to the local military medical academy, but in his heart the young man deeply doubts his choice of the future profession of military doctor. In 1919, N.K. Cherkasov made an important decision in his life and radically changed his future. From now on, Nikolai Cherkasov is an actor in the mimicry studio under the direction of A. Clark. The talent of the young actor was immediately noticed, and after several months in the studio he was invited to the professional stage of the Petrograd Academic Opera and Ballet Theater as an extra.
Ballet dancer
Nikolai Cherkasov, an actor at the Mariinsky Theater, participates in all theatrical productions while mastering ballroom dance in the creative laboratory of the Institute of Arts. Since 1920, N.K. Cherkasov has been playing mimic roles in classical ballet productions of the theater, which is highly noted by the metropolitan choreographers. Roles of Nikolai Cherkasov:
- Brahmin in the play La Bayadere;
- evil genius in theatrical production of Swan Lake;
- Don Quixote in the ballet of the same name by Ludwig Minkus;
- in the "Fairy Dolls" the actor performed Negro dance.
However, the final recognition for the talented young actor came after the play "Twelfth Night" based on the comedy of the great William Shakespeare. Theater critics leave flattering reviews about the talent of N.K. Cherkasov. He is noticed by the whole creative elite of Petrograd.
Theater student
In the fall of 1923, Nikolai Cherkasov also joined the student brotherhood of the city on the Neva, the biography of the actor was replenished with another important event. From now on, N.K. Cherkasov is a student in the drama department of the Petrograd Institute of Performing Arts. “Dance Trio” - so students called their parody number. The future stars of Soviet cinema - Boris Chirkov, who played the role of silent film comedian Patashon in the trio, Nikolai Cherkasov, who played the thin and pensive melancholic Pat from the Danish comic duo Pat and Patachon, as well as Peter Berezov, who got the role of Charlie Chaplin - had great success with viewers. Student trios were invited to various events and club parties. And soon, young people “lit up” on the professional stage, playing several times a day on various theatrical stages of Petrograd and Moscow.
At one of these performances, a student of the history department Nina Weybreht turned her attention to a lanky actor. A few days later, speaking in the city garden of rest, Nikolai Cherkasov, the actor of the “Dance Trio”, gets acquainted with the girl. After some time, in 1930, a young couple will get married, and a year later a daughter will be born in the family - Victoria, who is destined to live 11 years.
Search for a creative role
The Leningrad Theater of Young Spectators (Youth Theater), where Nikolai Konstantinovich was invited after a theater university, is the first test of professional suitability. However, the young actor withstood this test with honor. It was while working at the Youth Theater that N.K. Cherkasov first became acquainted with cinema. The small episodic roles that Nikolay Cherkasov receives, films that significantly enriched him in creative terms, allowed the actor to make a new round in his creative career. In the spring of 1929, an eccentric actor was invited to the Moscow theater “Music Hall”. The reason for this decision is material interest. In the theater of the young spectator, wages were half as much as in the Music Hall. However, the dramatic roles in the theater and cinema of the actor attracted more than the material side.
In the spring of 1931, Nikolai Konstantinovich transferred to the Leningrad Drama Theater, where he participated in staged plays by classical and contemporary authors. Soon, the actor was invited to the troupe of the Academic Drama Theater. Pushkin, where Nikolai Cherkasov will last until the last days of his life.
"Children of Captain Grant" - 1936 film
After minor cinematic roles in 1935, director Vladimir Vainshtok invites Nikolai Cherkasov to star in an adventure movie based on the work of Jules Verne. Professor Jacques Paganel is a new work in the movie of a talented actor. Nikolai Cherkasov gladly accepted the proposal of the eminent director, who had previously shot seven films. In the future, Vladimir Petrovich Vainshtok will be known as a director and scriptwriter of cult films:
- “Children of Captain Grant,” 1936 film.
- “Treasure Island”, released in 1937.
- Detective feature film "The Dead Season" (1968).
- “Mission in Kabul” (1970), “Headless Horseman” (1972), joint work with screenwriter Pavel Finn.
The shooting of the film “Children of Captain Grant” took place in various regions of the country. The Chegem Gorge, the Sueazsu Gorge, the peaks and slopes of Tikhtingen and Bashil, the waterfalls of the Twiberian Pass are the places visited by Jacques Paganel (Nikolai Cherkasov) and which were replaced by the Cordillera of North and South America.
Popular popularity
The film was a huge success with the audience, after which proposals from eminent directors rained down on Nikolai Cherkasov. All offered the actor roles in the movie, and one did not resemble the other. However, the choice of the artist fell on the historical film "Peter the Great", where Nikolai Konstantinovich played the role of Tsarevich Alexei, the heir to the royal throne. Following the historical and biographical film of the director V. M. Petrov, the new film “Baltic Deputy” is released on the screens of the country, in which Nikolai Cherkasov, as a 35-year-old man, played the role of an elderly professor Polezhaev, a prototype of the great Russian scientist Kliment Timiryazev. The film by Alexander Zarha was highly praised by the government and awarded the Stalin Prize. Not only the director of the picture receives a high award. The title of Honored Artist of Russia is also received by the leading actor Nikolai Cherkasov.
Films with the participation of an actor in a pre-war country inspired Soviet viewers for new labor feats and instilled in them a love of the motherland. An example will be the next big role of a favorite of the public, this is Alexander Nevsky. The film of the same name by Sergei Eisenstein will not only receive recognition in the country, but will also be highly appreciated in world cinematography, entering the catalog of the best films of all times and peoples as a movie that fosters patriotic feelings for his country. For the role of Alexander Nevsky and Tsarevich Alexei in the film "Peter the Great" Nikolai Cherkasov receives the Stalin Prize and the Order of Lenin. It is noteworthy that the profile on the order of Alexander Nevsky, the highest award for the command staff of the Red Army, belongs to the protagonist of the film of the same name.
Social and political activities
The popularity of his beloved actor among millions of admirers of his talent allowed him to be repeatedly elected as a deputy of the Supreme Council. According to eyewitnesses, Nikolai Cherkasov did not treat his deputy duties as a formalist, but as a person who really wanted to help people. Many years later, the People's Artist of the USSR calculated that he had received more than 2500 people in his deputy chair. And Georgy Tovstonogov described the deputy N.K. Cherkasov as follows: “If you gather all the people who were helped by Kolya Cherkasov, you would have to rent a football stadium.”
War years
The news of the beginning of World War II caught N.K. Cherkasov on a creative business trip to the Far East. Upon returning to his native Leningrad, he and the entire troupe of the academic theater were evacuated to Novosibirsk. The concert crew of the theater, created in 1941 and led by N.K. Cherkasov, traveled the entire Baltic Fleet, inspiring its audience with new exploits in the fight against fascist invaders.
In April 1943 in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan), Sergey Eisenstein began a new cinematic project, where Nikolai Cherkasov should play the main role. “Ivan the Terrible” is a Soviet historical film, the filming of which was personally supervised by the head of state, Joseph Stalin. Initially, it was assumed that the film will be released in three series. However, the deadlines set by the Cinematography Committee did not allow the director to fully reveal the whole artistic and historical meaning of the picture. On October 28, 1944, the film premiered in the Kremlin. After watching the feature film, Joseph Vissarionovich was pleased with the work done. Later, in 1947, for the role of Ivan the Terrible, N.K. Cherkasov will receive the title of People's Artist of the Soviet Union, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the Stalin Prize.
Filmography of People's Artist N. K. Cherkasov
In the postwar years, the actor continues to work fruitfully in theater and cinema. Films, which have become iconic in the cinema art of the Soviet Union, go to the Soviet film distribution one after another. So, in 1947, the painting "Spring" appears, where the main role is played by the incomparable Lyubov Orlova, and the role of the director Arkady Gromov was perfectly performed by Nikolay Cherkasov. In the film "Academician Ivan Pavlov", which premiered in 1949, Nikolai Cherkasov was entrusted with the image of Maxim Gorky. In the same year, the biographical film “Alexander Popov” was released, where the Russian physicist and inventor of the radio was played by N. K. Cherkasov.
However, the most famous and recognizable role of Nikolai Konstantinovich remains Don Quixote. This film directed by G. Kozintsev based on the novel of the same name by Miguel de Cervantes, the Soviet audience first saw May 23, 1957, when the premiere of the film in the USSR took place. For the main role in the film "Don Quixote" Nikolai Konstantinovich at the international film festivals in Vancouver and Stratford receives an award as the best actor.
Nikolay Cherkasov: personal life of a national artist
Few people know that a successful career in the theater and cinema of the People's Artist kept pace with the personal drama of the Cherkasov family. The family life of the idol of the public was full of tragic events. Children of Nikolai Cherkasov, born in love and harmony, had a different fate. So, the eldest daughter, born in 1931, died with her grandfather - the father-in-law of Nikolai Konstantinovich - in besieged Leningrad. The second daughter, born in 1939, died at birth. The only heir to the Cherkasov family was Andrei Nikolaevich (b. 1941), who still preserves the creative heritage of his father.
The last years of Don Quixote
The health of Nikolai Konstantinovich began to deteriorate in 1964, when chronic asthma worsened, tormenting the actor since the Great Patriotic War. In addition, the People's Artist had serious heart problems. September 14, 1966 the heart of the great artist stopped. The Alexander Nevsky Lavra in the city on the Neva became its last refuge.