This actor became known to the audience after performing only two roles - Kostya Inochkina and Dani Schusya. It was then that the boy literally "woke up famous." Despite the fact that during his life Viktor Kosykh played more than fifty characters, it was the image of Danka that became the main one in his acting biography.
Childhood and adoption
The future actor Vitya Kosykh (originally - Volkov) was born on January 27, 1950. His mother taught physics at school. Papa Viti died early enough. Mom got married a second time. The boy's stepfather was the famous actor Ivan Kosykh, who adopted him later. Being an adult 18-year-old boy, Victor Kosykh changed his middle name and last name. He did this consciously and of his own free will. From Vitya Volkov, he transformed into Vitya Kosykh.
The first steps on the set
When the boy was thirteen years old, a movie quickly burst into his life. Victor was in no hurry to meet new impressions. Everything happened by accident. Once the school, whose student was Viktor Kosykh, was visited by assistant director Elem Klimov. Her goal was simple: a woman needed to find a boy who was good at swimming. After all, the director was preparing to shoot a new film about the children's summer camp. Vitya decided to keep up with his classmates and also came to audition.
Later, with a smile, he recalled how very loudly, with bulging eyes, but with an expression he read to the director a poem. Viktor Kosykh, whose films are still watched with pleasure by millions of viewers, was then sure that he passed the tests very poorly, even worse than the rest of the guys. To his great surprise, it was he who was asked to stay. He played one episode.
From Marat to Kostya
First, the aspiring actor, it was decided to approve the role of Marat - the very boy jumping naked in the thickets of nettles. In general, Vitya was happy with everything except one: he did not want to act naked. At the time of his adolescence, this minute on the screen might have seemed to the guys something like this: at school they would have laughed at him, and classmates would have despised. That's why a little later, when the boy began to try on the role of Kostya Inochkina, who was also the main one in the film, Vitya tried to do everything in his power for the director to approve him.
He tried his best, if only he was not forced to jump into the nettle bushes. No panties. The boy did everything. Victor Kosykh was indeed approved for the main role. Only now he had to be exposed in one shot: according to the scenario, Kostya, after swimming in the water, stands with his back to the camera and squeezes the laundry.
In his film, Klimov managed to combine what, in general, it was not possible to combine. On the one hand, the system of life principles for a children's camp with a strange slogan above the entrance was very similar to a detachment-camp being under the strict guidance of the state and its attentive eyes. On the other hand, to a certain extent, the children's perception of the surrounding world of scriptwriters and the subtle instinct of the director himself, who afterwards never shot such funny pictures, helped to save the film from seriousness and pretentiousness. And yet, despite the apparent ease of the film, after the first few views it was removed from the box, calling it "anti-Khrushchevsky."
The Elusive Danka
In the same year, Victor Kosykh had another role in the drama "The Soldier's Father", where he worked with his stepfather. A year later, he starred with Alexander Mitta in the movie "They Call, Open the Door." By 1966, when he was invited by Edmond Keosayan to his new painting, the guy was already recognized. And the director Keosayan planned to make a story about the adventures of the young heroes of the Civil War. For Viti Kosykh, the role of the brave lad Danka Shchusya was prepared. Valya Kurdyukova played the Ksanku, Vasya Vasilyev, the gypsy Yasha, and Misha Metyolkin, the intelligent guy with glasses, played Valera.
Filming was already in full swing, and the name of the future masterpiece had not yet been invented. Then the director invited the actors themselves to reflect on how they would magnify this picture. Vitya and Misha came up with a name by which all viewers now know him - “Elusive Avengers”.
The film, in the story of which four children avenge the thugs of Old Man Burnash, was an extraordinary success. In the first year of rental, over fifty million people became its viewers. Of course, they decided to shoot a sequel: about the new adventures of adolescents, with the same actors. The 1968 film was just as successful. And here is another part of the trilogy - on the salvation of museum values - turned out to be frankly weak. Perhaps due to the fact that the main characters have grown up. What seemed interesting in the children's version, now looked at least strange.
Adult movie roles
Viktor Kosykh, whose biography does not resemble the history of a person spoiled by cinematic fame, was a student at the Moscow border school, and then at the acting faculty of VGIK. Having received the diploma of the latter, he often acted in films, as a rule, in secondary roles. Such "star" characters, like Danka or Kostya, he never had before. One of his most famous works is his roles in the films Cold Summer of the Fifty-Third, The Scarlet Frontier Dog, and Young of the Northern Fleet ...
After the restructuring, the actors were very rarely invited to the set. His colleagues on “Welcome” and “Avengers” got a job as janitors, plumbers, laborers ... Only Vasya Vasiliev managed to get out - he became a businessman. In the cinema, only actor Victor Kosykh and Mikhail Metyolkin remained, who later became the director of editing. To survive in difficult times, Victor had to travel around the country with creative evenings and talk about his roles in the movies.
In the personal life of the actor, two wives were present. Victor lived with his first wife for eighteen years. But realizing that they were tired of each other, in a good way, they parted quietly. For ten years he remained a bachelor, and then there was a meeting with Elena, who worked as an investigator. She was twice his junior, but that didn’t bother them. The couple married, and in 2001 they had a daughter, Katya.
The actor recalls with great warmth how much his life has changed with the advent of this baby, because he gained not only a second, but also a tenth breath. After a long period of time, he returned to the cinema, and one of his new transformations was the role of the party organizer of the theater in "Star of the era." And on December 22, 2011 at 12 o’clock Viktor Kosykh passed away from heart failure - cardiomyopathy.