In the first part of the legendary film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", the stars of Russian cinema perform the cameo: Leonid Kharitonov, Innokenty Smoktunovsky and Tatyana Konyukhova. The crowd of fans gathered at the Cinema House applauds enthusiastically when the famous actress appears.
The film by Vladimir Menshov was released in 1979. Many viewers, representatives of the young generation, having looked at the picture, asked: "And who is Tatyana Konyukhova?"
In the biography of this actress, it is said that there were ups and downs in her life. Her name thundered throughout the country, and decades later suddenly went into obscurity.
Being at the peak of fame, actress Tatyana Konyukhova disappeared from the screens. There are many similar stories in the cinema: today the artist’s photos adorn the covers of magazines, millions of viewers are eager to get on films with his participation, and tomorrow his name is forgotten. However, Tatyana Konyukhova left the cinema once of her own free will.
Childhood
There are no juicy details in the biography of actress Tatyana Konyukhova. Today, it appears from time to time on the screen, but, as a rule, in documentaries telling about famous artists. The star of the fifties talks about himself reluctantly.
Tatyana Konyukhova was born in 1931 in Tashkent. Father was the director of a small factory. Mother is a housewife. Young Tanya arranged concerts in the evenings, which delighted her neighbors. At school age, the girl began to dream about Moscow. She was fascinated by the chiming clock, and she was sure that when she grew up, she would certainly go to the capital and become an artist.
Debut
Adolescence of the future actress took place in the Baltic states. After graduation, she came to Moscow, entered the VGIK the first time.
As a second year student, she was noticed by Alexander Rowe, a famous Soviet director. He needed a performer for the main role in the film based on the story of Gogol. So began the acting career of Tatyana Konyukhova.
Each actress dreams of such a debut. The main role in the film "May Night, or the Drowned Woman", which was released in 1952, glorified a student at VGIK throughout the country. However, it was then that the first creative failure of Tatyana Konyukhova happened - in the Row film, her character was voiced by another actress.
Second year student
In 1952, an incident occurred that entered the history of the Institute of Cinematography. Student Konyukhova came to the rector and demanded that he leave her for the second year. This has never happened before. The young actress perceived the inadmissibility of voice acting very painfully, and therefore decided that in an extra year she should fill in the gaps in acting.
At the peak of fame
However, the directors in Konyukhovaya were happy with everything: the acting, the voice, and the bright appearance. After the release of the film "May Night, or the Drowned Woman", a lot of offers fell from them. For three years, the actress played in six films. The most popular was the film "Different Fates." Tatyana Konyukhova received hundreds of letters from the audience. However, these messages came in the name of her heroine - Sonya Orlova.
"Different Fates" - a melodrama about love, betrayal, the search for happiness. In the first months of the film, more than thirty million people watched the film.
Unplayed Roles
Tatyana Konyukhova became the favorite of the public. She was admired by the most respected critics. When the director Kalatozov offered her the main role in the film "Cranes Are Flying", she refused - the actress was busy filming another film.
In 1967, Tatyana Samoilova, who played a major role in the movie “Cranes Are Flying,” went to the Cannes Film Festival and became a world star. Colleagues said Konyukhova: "It could be your triumph." But she never regretted the missed film work. Tatyana Georgievna even now claims that this is not her role, and she would not have been able to play her as brilliantly as Samoilova.
Around the same time, the novice director Eldar Ryazanov suggested that Konyukhova play the main character in the film "Carnival Night". The actress again refused and offered instead of herself the still unknown Lyudmila Gurchenko.
Depression
She scattered star roles not by chance - she was promised the role of Dasha in the film "Walking through the agony", which was even written about in the newspapers. But at the last moment, the director’s wife convinced him to change the actress, claiming that Konyukhova’s face “became familiar”.
The first black streak in the work of the young actress began. As can be understood from the biography of Tatyana Konyukhova, her personal life was also not developing in the best way. There was no one to support in difficult times. Upon learning that another actress will play the role of Daria in a book based on the novel by Alexei Tolstoy, Konyukhova fell into a prolonged depression.
"I do not forgive betrayal!"
The salvation for her was the film "Oleko Dundich." Specially for Konyukhova, Leonid Lukov wrote in the script a heroine whom he called Dasha.
And Roshal, the director of the film "Walking through the agony", subsequently more than once offered the actress roles in his paintings. But she refused. And once she said: “Even if I don’t have a job at all, I’ll never agree to be removed from you. You betrayed me, but I do not forgive betrayal.”
Oleg Strizhenov
Konyukhova’s life improved. She again acted in films, and from the fans, of course, there was no end. For some time, the actress was courted by the main handsome of the fifties Oleg Strizhenov. It was a short romance. Strizhenov was married.
He wanted to leave the family, made her an offer, but she refused. Tatyana Konyukhova never built her personal life on someone else's misfortune.
She did not change her principles in her youth. On the set of the film "The Fate of Marina," Konyukhova met a young actor Leonid Bykov. She was 22 years old. He is 25. A modest, pleasant guy looked at the rising star as a deity. Konyukhova stopped all communication with Bykov after she saw his wife, who was expecting a baby at that time.
"Dima Gorin's career"
The premiere of this picture took place in 1961. Tatyana Konyukhova played the main female role. Dreamer and romance Dimu Gorin was played by Alexander Demyanenko. On the set of this film, the actress found out that she was pregnant.
Vladimir Kuznetsov
By the time the picture "Dima Gorin's Career" was released, Konyukhova was married for the third time. The first two husbands were related to cinema and believed that children were only a hindrance to their careers. The athlete Vladimir Kuznetsov, the third husband of the actress, really wanted a son. Tatyana Konyukhova also dreamed of a quiet family life.
Vladimir Kuznetsov was an athlete, a four-time Olympic champion. They met in Sochi, and their first meeting was random. They were thirty years old. Love flashed instantly. Nevertheless, Kuznetsov had a long time to get the hands of the famous actress.
Before meeting with the third and last husband, Konyukhov does not like to remember about personal life. The first marriage lasted only ten days. The second is three years. The actress found happiness only with the father of her son.
Nevertheless, Konyukhov and Kuznetsov quarreled quite often and loudly. In 1968, the actress played in the film "And I'm Leaving Home," the thesis of the novice director Nikita Mikhalkov. During the filming of the picture, there was a scandal that almost led to a divorce. Where Tatyana Konyukhova appeared, many of her fans immediately appeared. And the actress’s husband, Vladimir Kuznetsova, was very jealous.
"Moscow does not believe in tears"
In the first place for Tatyana Konyukhova was a family. For the sake of her son and husband, she refused many roles. In the seventies, the actress played in films such as "It’s not yet evening," "Chronicle of the Night," and "The Secret of the Ancestors." But these were secondary roles. Many have forgotten about it. Nobody shouted after her: "Oh, Konyukhova!"
And suddenly, Vladimir Menshov received an offer to star in his film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears." The director managed to persuade the actress to appear in his film for only a few seconds.
A fifties star flashed on the screen in a luxurious fox stole. It was rumored that his actress was given out during the filming. In fact, the thing belonged to Konyukhova. It was a gift from her husband. Palantin presented the Olympic champion to his wife when she gave birth to his son.
Tatyana Konyukhova lived with Kuznetsov for more than a quarter of a century. She did not regret the unplayed roles. She liked spending more time with her son and husband. Kuznetsov coached the Soviet team, he provided for the family. Behind him, the actress felt like behind a stone wall.
Husband's death
In 1986, Vladimir Kuznetsov turned 55 years old. After the birthday, the actress left for another city for several days, and when she returned, an attack occurred with her husband. At the hospital, the actress, the doctor said that her husband survived a clinical death. And that he is mortally ill. It was a fourth degree cancer.
Vladimir Kuznetsov died on August 29, 1986. He was buried at Kuntsevsky cemetery.
After the death of her beloved husband, Tatyana Konyukhova lost the meaning of life. For a while she was in prostration. In the late eighties, she played several episodic movie roles, but hardly even the most devoted fans of her talent remember them today. The actress did not marry anymore.
90s
In 1995, 64-year-old Konyukhova starred in the film "A Quiet Angel Flying ...". The next time she appeared on the screen only after seven years.
The 90s became a difficult period in the life of Tatyana Konyukhova, however, as in the lives of many actors. Son and daughter-in-law were students. The actress was born a granddaughter. All worries about the family fell on the shoulders of a woman who for 25 years relied on a reliable husband in everything.
Tatyana Konyukhova got a job at the Center for Folk Art, where she worked with children for about ten years. At that time, another forgotten star of Russian cinema - Larisa Luzhina, with whom the heroine of this article has strong friendship, was working in the same institution.
Tatyana Konyukhova today
The actress teaches at the University of Culture. She managed to graduate more than one course, she treats her students as native children. Tatyana Georgievna teaches acting five times a week, in addition, plays in the theater.
With her only son, an employee of the Foreign Ministry, Sergei Kuznetsov, her relationship is complicated. The blame for everything, as the actress admits, is her explosive character. With her beloved granddaughter, Olga Vasilyeva, Tatyana Georgievna has a very warm relationship. True, the daughter of Sergei Kuznetsov lives in Indonesia, it happens infrequently in Moscow. Olga looks very much like a grandmother, but, like her father, she did not acquire an acting profession.
In the two thousandth Tatyana Konyukhova starred in 12 films. Among them: "Nostalgia for the future", "Village", "Long-awaited love", "Princess and the pauper." From time to time performs with the author's concert program - reads verses by Tsvetaeva and Akhmatova. On November 12, 2018, the legend of Soviet cinema turns 87 years old.