Klenov from The Broken Circle and Grishka Otrepyev from Boris Godunov, Handsome from the Green Van and Edward Morr from the film On the Pomegranate Islands, Vladimir Petrovich from The Baby by November and Andrei from the Women's Club. All these heroes have one thing in common: they were embodied (and simply great - it is impossible not to notice) by the Soviet actor Alexander Solovyov. He seemed to be an occasional guest in this great life. Perhaps, in the wide corridors of this life, he with particular diligence was looking for the door he needed, but by some accident or an incomprehensible combination of circumstances, he pressed the wrong handle. He became curious: what is there, in that silence and fog? So he crossed the threshold and stepped a few steps. And when he looked back, there was no turning back. And he walked through this life, absolutely sincerely surprised at the cynicism, cruelty and anger that were present in it. And left this life: misunderstood and forgotten by contemporaries ...
Mother's healing love
Northern village near Norilsk. August 19, 1952. A little boy appeared in the family of the repressed. He was very, very tiny, weighed only one and a half kilograms, because Alexander Soloviev was born seven-month-old. Living conditions in these parts were quite severe, and the baby had very few chances to stay alive. But a loving mother tried to do everything in her power, she made every effort to go out her beloved son. The woman nursed him very reverently, wore it in a warm down scarf. When the neighbors noticed a small bundle in her arms, when she went out with her son to the street, they were sure that there was a kitten or puppy in the bundle.
As a child, Sasha cherished his dream of becoming an adult like Oleg Popov. He wanted to amuse all people so that not a single tear would drip from the eyes of his native people and he was completely unfamiliar. It was a very bright and kind child. He managed to save his qualities for his entire, albeit short, life.
After the death of the leader of all nations - Joseph Stalin - the Solovievs family moved to Norilsk. It was in this city that the future actor lived in childhood.
Young man not burdened with complexes
No one from the family was in doubt that Alexander Solovyov would become an artist. He was always very mobile, enjoyed talking with friends and neighbors. Shurik every time actively, with pleasure, amused all the people around. In high school, he enters a drama circle, because for many years he has been dreaming of an acting profession. And then came the year 1969. Schooling is completed. Sasha is leaving for Moscow.
With incomprehensible ease, Alexander Solovyov, whose photo flooded the pages of Soviet magazines, entered GITIS. He very much surprised the admissions committee by appearing on exams before teachers in shoes worn on bare feet. When asked why he did this, Sasha directly answered that the socks were drying because he washed them.
Yes, shyness and some kind of diplomacy were absent from him completely. This often presented Alexander with unpleasant surprises, because he could absolutely sincerely say that the play was staged by a completely mediocre director, not worrying that he would be fired tomorrow. He gave himself the right to be independent of everyone and everything, and in his profession, in the acting environment, this is very rare. Alexander Solovyov was an exceptionally talented person, but he was in no hurry to build a career.
And talent manifested itself literally in everything, not only in the ability to enchantingly play on stage and in front of cameras, but also in the ability to touch movingly, surrendering to this feeling completely; and in the boundless breadth of his soul, which contained a lot - the pain and problems of loved ones, his friends, friends and casual acquaintances.
Student time
Sasha was lucky to study on the course of Andrei Goncharov. Together with him, the future stars of Soviet cinema, Igor Kostolevsky and Alexander Fatyushin, appeared on the course. All three made friends very quickly, in addition, Goncharov distinguished them from the whole course, because their potential was the undoubted advantage of the guys.
A little later, when the thesis was staged on the works of Vasily Shukshin, Alexander so talentedly and inimitably played in it characters that were completely different in character and life positions, that he received sincere praise from the author himself.
Among the many people around him, he was a fairly prominent person: friendly, cheerful, very loving life, open to all. Sasha always aroused hearty sympathy among classmates, being among them a real ringleader.
First love
While still a student of GITIS, Sasha met his first wife. In the third year, a great feeling came to him in the person of freshman Luda Radchenko. Since he surrendered to all his emotions without a trace, then love happened all-consuming. Soon, the entire educational institution was aware of what was happening with the future actor. The feeling was so strong and stormy that the girl could not resist. After some time, they got married. At first they “prepared” for the appearance of the heir, reading aloud to each other a book donated by Igor Kostolevsky about family relationships. In 1972, they had a son, who was named in honor of the pope - Alexander. By the way, over time, Alexander Alexandrovich Solovyov became, like his father, an actor, also a stuntman.
Whirlpool of the second love
In 1973, Alexander graduated from GITIS. Andrei Goncharov invites him to work at the Theater. Mayakovsky. Unfortunately, the aspiring actor had to play in extras, because just at that time the theater troupe was not crowded with celebrities: Alexander Lazarev, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Evgeny Leonov, Tatyana Doronina. With such a cluster of stars, it was quite difficult for Alexander to break into the stage. He survived only a year. And during all this time I was thinking about what to do next. A year later, he left the theater.
In 1974, the actor already serves in the Central Children's Theater and does not regret his choice at all. And this was understandable, because the main role of a cute mischievous person, similar to himself, was received by him, Alexander Solovyov, whose filmography in the future consisted of several dozen diverse and interesting roles. The partner in the play was the then-famous actress Lyudmila Gnilova. According to the director’s idea, they played lovers, but ... Alexander did not know how to stop halfway. He was not stopped by the fact that Luda, who was older than him, had a family and a child, and he himself was not divorced. Sasha talked with her husband, telling the stunned man that he loves his wife and wants to marry her. This situation lasted for three years (and the last couple of years he almost moved to the porch where Luda lived, where she spent the night on the windowsill between the floors), until all sides of these strange and painful relations got together and decided that it was better to give way to Alexander, because that they were afraid that a tragedy might happen.
In 1977, they created a new family, in which their common son Mikhail was born (later he also became an actor, as a father, and a director), and after some time they even got married. We lived in a fifteen-meter room, where there was always a bucket of flowers. Ordinary household troubles did not interfere with their happiness at all.
Heady Angel
But, unfortunately, black stripes were also advancing. Alexander Solovyov was very cocky and hot-tempered. The biography of this talented actor contains such sad facts. His acquaintances often said that when he was sober, he resembled an angel, but when he drank, he became like a demon. The farther, the more and more often he was intoxicated. At the request of the leadership, he quit the theater, and rarely filmed in the cinema during this period, because no one wanted to endure the actor’s hard character when it was possible to pick up wordless and compliant ones.
Now only the wife brought money to the family, and Alexander felt a sense of humiliation from such a situation. Hard drinking became more and more frequent. His character did not change for the better: he could become the instigator of a fight or start a small romance, disappearing from home for weeks. However, he always begged Luda forgiveness. It was then that his determination to recover from alcoholism grew stronger and she arranged her beloved husband in the best clinics.
From this began the collapse of their family. Once there was a meeting between Alexander Solovyov and Irina Pechernikova. Previously, they were only familiar, but this time the last romance in the actor’s life began. Their acquaintance took place many years ago, back in 1969. Pechernikova was already a famous actress, and Solovyov’s career was just beginning. And in Feodosia, in 1991, the third great love of Alexander happened.
The final move to Irina took place in August 1997, when the son with Lyudmila became an adult. Alexander’s second marriage lasted 22 years, and the romance of their relationship has long evaporated. In recent years, they were rather the closest to each other people. Gnilova tried to understand and forgive her husband, and let him go into another love whirlpool.
The friends of Sasha and Ira were fully confident that this relationship would not last long, because their common ailment - alcoholism - would destroy everything at some point: both their love and their life. But, no matter how strange it may seem, in spite of all the forecasts, the lovers began to build their cozy little world. Alexander gradually renovated their home. He even built a house in the village, because the "young" decided to spend as much time as possible in the fresh air. There was very little time left before the tragedy.
The denouement took place on the eve of 2000. At the end of December (on the night of the 26th) of 1999, Alexander Solovyov was discovered on the street with a head injury. A passerby reported to the police station about a bloody decently dressed man lying on a flower bed. Soloviev was registered as an “unknown” and sent to the Sklifosovsky Institute, where, without leaving a coma, he died of a brain hemorrhage on January 1, 2000. And only after the end of the New Year holidays, when two weeks had already passed, the duty officer at the police station, remembering the open case, realized how he knew the face of this man.
Alexander Solovyov was recognized only on January 21, three weeks after his death. And all these days, Irina unsuccessfully tried to find him: with friends, acquaintances, in hospitals. Unfortunately, he was found only in the morgue ...
So Alexander Solovyov repeated the story of the death of his father, who also loved to drink and died under very strange circumstances, lying after his death for a month in his apartment. The neighbors sounded the alarm, sensing the corresponding smell ...
The actor was cremated on January 25. Irina opposed the burial of the urn with ashes at the Novodevichy cemetery, determined to keep it with her at home.
So the Soviet and Russian actor Alexander Solovyov lived his short life . The wives of this cheerful and impressive man brought love, care, tenderness to his heart. He gave them all himself, without a trace. But only for a while ...