Nikolai Trofimov was born on a frosty winter day on January 21, 1920 in the city of Sevastopol. His father was a worker and his mother was a housewife.
Childhood and youth
Back in school years, the future artist was distinguished by the ability to expressively read literary works. At school breaks, he was pleased to entertain classmates, playing funny scenes. The guys laughed fervently, but the teachers scolded Nikolai for carelessness and indiscipline. Because the behavior and diligence of the young Kolya "was limping on both legs", parents were often called to school, who were told about the numerous tricks of his son. The headmaster repeatedly said about the student Trofimov: “The children make fun, but he does not laugh. A true artist. " Her words were prophetic.
At the age of 14, Nikolai Trofimov first performed on the stage. The debut took place in the Sevastopol Youth Theater, where he played the role of a slave boy (the play "Uncle Tom’s Cabin"). And despite the fact that not everyone appreciated his extraordinary approach to playing the role, it was after this that he finally decided on the choice of profession: Trofimov decided to become an artist.
Conquest of the Northern Capital
In 1937, Nikolai left Sevastopol to study at the A.N. Ostrovsky Leningrad Theater Institute. In addition to studying, he performs on the stage of the Leningrad Youth Theater. His unconventional thinking made it possible to embody bold experiments in productions. For example, taking part in the play “The Snow Queen”, he, among other extras actors, was supposed to portray a bird. To do this, you had to put on black clothes and run around the unlit stage, holding a stick in the hands of which a paper bird was attached at the end. Nikolai Trofimov, despite his short stature, wanted his bird to be the best. For this, he asked his friend for help. Piling on shoulders to an accommodating companion, he raised his bird above the rest. But once a friend stumbled, and a quick-witted couple fell with a roar into the orchestra pit. This failure did not stop Trofimov’s creative search. He invented something unusual again and again, striking viewers and colleagues with his indefatigable imagination and quick wit.
War years
After graduation, he was going to continue acting. However, it was at this time that the war began. Always in love with the sea, Nikolai Trofimov wanted to go to the fleet. But fate decreed otherwise. At this time, composer Isaac Dunaevsky recruited artists to the song and dance ensemble “Five Seas”. Among them was the merry Trofimov.
The exhausting years of the war were a difficult period for the entire Russian people. Nikolai Nikolaevich, being the most humble person, did not really like to remember the time in which there was hunger, cold, fatigue and pain. He visited warships, garrisons, and the front line. And it is not so important that his weapon was a word addressed to our fighters. The self-sacrifice with which he spoke was of great importance for raising the spirit of a people exhausted by war. Trofimov was awarded the orders of the Red Star and World War II degree, medals "For the Defense of Leningrad" and "For the Victory over Germany."
Leningrad Comedy Theater
Nikolai Nikolaevich was demobilized from the army in 1946. Almost immediately after that, he becomes a member of the troupe of the Leningrad Comedy Theater, led by N. Akimov. There he worked for 17 years, during which he grew from a little-known artist to a star of the first magnitude. More than thirty roles were played by Trofimov under the leadership of Akimov, some of which (Khlestakov in The Inspector General, Epikhodov in The Cherry Orchard) were iconic in the acting fate of Trofimov.
Family of Nikolai Trofimov
The period of his life when he worked in the comedy theater became for Nikolai Nikolaevich one of the happiest. Creative take-off, meeting with his first wife, audience love.
Nikolai Trofimov is an actor whose personal life never burned with passion. By his own admission, there were two women in his fate who gave him happiness. With his first wife, actress Tatyana Grigoryevna, he met in the theater. She sacrificed her career as an actress for him, left the theater and devoted her life to her husband, surrounding him with great love, tenderness and care. During the period of their life together, the actor felt serenity and calm. Together, Nikolai and Tatyana were carried away by the creation of mosaic paintings. But happiness was short-lived, Tatyana Grigoryevna passed away early, and Nikolai Nikolaevich in memory of his wife continued to create masterpieces from mosaics and craft crafts from natural material.
The second wife of the actor, Marianna Iosifovna, was an engineer by profession. Often attending performances with the participation of her idol Nikolai Trofimov, she once met him in person. After that, they no longer parted. The couple had a daughter, who was named Natalia. Nikolai Trofimov, an actor, family and children, in the understanding of which is human happiness, loved his daughter very much and tried to devote more time to her.
When the girl grew up, she became a translator. Often I was on business trips abroad. And once, while on vacation in Italy, she met her love there, got married and became a citizen of another country. Nikolai Nikolaevich suffered from rare meetings with his daughter, despite the fact that he and his wife often went to visit her in sunny Italy.
First movie role
Nikolai Trofimov, whose filmography began with the film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s great work “War and Peace,” appeared in films not in his usual comedic role, but in the role of a valiant warrior, the commander whom the soldiers followed without looking back, - Captain Trushin. So the actor proved his limitless dramatic possibilities, which allowed him to comedy with the comedic ease to embody Chekhov’s heroes on stage and with his characteristic warmth to play front-line soldiers, lyricists ...
The role of captain Trushin in the epic "War and Peace" brought him all-Union popularity.
At the peak of fame
Despite the undoubted success in War and Peace, Nikolai Trofimov, whose photo can be seen in the article, by virtue of his characteristic appearance, played the role of a comedy plan. Films with his participation, the audience always took with a bang. He played in the movie more than 70 roles. His most vivid films are Trembita, On the Way to Berlin, Tobacco Captain, Blockade, Poor Masha, Fathers and Grandfathers, Steppe, Princess of the Circus, Bride from Paris and many, many others.
Theatrical activity
In the early 60s, Nikolai Trofimov, an actor who at some point was tired of playing only in comedies, transferred to the Bolshoi Drama Theater, which was directed by Georgy Tovstonogov. He wanted, like every artist, to play drama, tragedy and other serious works on stage. And although Trofimov was far from always getting big roles, each of them, even the smallest, was played brilliantly. As Nikolai Nikolayevich himself admitted, he exchanged dizzying lightness for deep drama. One of the very first successful works - under the direction of Tovstonogov in the play "Petty Bourgeois", where Trofimov played the role of the bird-catcher Perchikhin - changed the opinion of many members of the troupe who at first did not believe that Nikolai Nikolaevich would be able to step over his comedic past.
Nikolai Trofimov, whose biography proves that a truly talented artist can get used to any role, gave his work in the Bolshoi Drama Theater nearly 40 years of life. He was sweet, naive and deeply handsome in his sincerity, humility and resilience to the vicissitudes of fate. He exuded radiant cheerfulness and cheerful goodwill.
He, like one of his favorite heroes, Sir Pickwick, never ceased to believe in people. More than 500 times he went on stage in the image of Pickwick, each time with enchanting success, coping with this difficult role of a man who, faced with injustice and lawlessness, did not lose his warmth and love for people.
The theater, by his own admission, has always been a fiery traction for Trofimov. He was completely dissolved in his heroes, without a trace, each time in a new way smiling, laughing and crying.
On the last trip with the Cranes
Trofimov Nikolai (actor) claimed that his name was immortalized long before his birth. He joked, of course, but not without reason. The fact is that once on a tour of the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Rome, excited troupe colleagues approached Nikolai Nikolaevich and invited him to leave the hotel. A surprise was allegedly waiting for him on the street. Trofimov did not immediately believe his eyes when he saw that not far from the hotel where they were located, archaeologists were excavating. And one of their finds was an ancient marble sarcophagus, on which the saying: “Trofimo - actor” is carved in Latin.
His entourage said that he foresaw the approach of death. Mysteriously peered into the distance, saying that soon he could not see the sun. Saying goodbye to loved ones. And a few days before the deadly stroke, in a conversation with the sound engineer, the BDT said: “Soon already”, and said that he would like to be escorted to the last journey with Mark Bernes's song “Cranes”. He died on the night of November 7, 2005. Nikolai Nikolaevich Trofimov died in a reanimation of an Alexandrian hospital from a stroke. His body rests on the Literary bridges of the Volkovsky cemetery.
During the funeral,
in fulfillment of his last will, the voice of
Mark Bernes sang about cranes.