Leonid Kharitonov (actor)

Leonid Vladimirovich Kharitonov (russian: Леонид Владимирович Харитонов; 1930–1987) was a Soviet and Russian actor. He played in the films ''Private Ivan'', ''Ivan Brovkin on the State Farm'' and '' Street Full of Surprises''. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1972).

Life

He was born in Leningrad on 19 May 1930, and died in Moscow on 20 June 1987, aged 57.

Career

Training

In early life he was ambivalent about an acting career. Although he took part in amateur productions, and in the ninth grade applied to theatre school, he nevertheless chose to study law for a year at university, while continuing theatrical performance in his spare time. "In the play ''The Inspector'', he rocked the entire city of Leningrad; he played Bobchinsky and it was after this role that he again seriously considered an acting career." That summer, the Moscow Art School toured in Leningrad and offered auditions at his school. Kharitonov secretly attended, and was accepted.

Overview of acting career

He graduated from the Nemirovich-Danchenko studio school at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1954. This was the Gorky Art Academic Theatre. After graduating from the studio school he continued working as an actor at the same theatre. He was an actor with the Academic Art Theatre in the name of M. Gorky, or Gorky Theatre, from 1954 to 1962, but then he left this theatre and in 1962–1963 he performed with the Theatre of Lenin Komsomol and with the Pushkin Theatre. But in 1963 he returned to the Gorky Art Academic Theatre. He was a film actor from 1954: his first role was Boris Gorikov in the movie ''School of Courage'', while he was still an acting student.

Early career and characterisations

In 1955, Kharitonov became a public idol after ''Private Ivan'' was screened throughout the country. He was the object of much fan mail, and appeared privately to many local audiences in clubs, schools, factories and stadia. "His fame was such that the actor could not walk down the street." Kharitonov was a multi-dimensional performer who created a new type of Russian cinematic character: the charming bad egg, which he developed in his characterisations of Brovkin, the policeman Vasya Shaneshkin and his later heroic characters. "It was skill, hard work, professionalism and above all perception which allowed this sophisticated actor to play so convincingly this simple country boy, Brovkin." Much of this was the effect of his training with the psychological acting school of MAT. ''Private Ivan'' was followed in 1958 by ''Ivan Brovkin on the State Farm'' (see critical commentary below).

Later career

With age, Kharitonov appeared in fewer films; he did not relish playing older men. However, sometimes he does appear in later movies grey and stout. For this reason of gradual absence from movies, in the 1980s Leonid Kharitonov was almost forgotten as a film actor although he continued performing at his native Moscow Art Theatre, as was the case during almost all his acting life.

Private life

In private life he was said to live modestly. He was married three times, first to Svetlana Kharitonov the character actress of the 1950s and 1960s. He met his second wife, the actress Gemma Osmolovskaya, on the set of ''The Street is Full of Surprises'', and they had a son Alexei Khartionov who is now a scientist-programmer. His third wife was his student at the Moscow Art Theatre school.

Illness

In later years Kharitonov was seriously ill. In the summer of 1980, during the Moscow Olympics, he suffered a first stroke. Then, while filming ''From the Life of the Chief of Criminal Investigation'' on 4 July 1984 this was followed by a second stroke. His health could not bear the news of the crisis of the Moscow Art Theatre in the summer of 1987. On 20 June 1987, the day of its division into two parts which was a very hard and dramatic time for the theatre, Kharitonov died the same day from his third stroke which occurred in the drama theatre. He was buried in Moscow in plot number 50 of Vagankovskoye cemetery.

Theatrical performances

''The following is a selection of Kharitonov's theatrical roles'':

* ''The Forgotten Friend'' (1956) – Gosh
''The Pickwick Papers'' (1956) – Joe
''The Lower Depths'' (1956) – Alyosha
'' The Devil's Disciple'' (1957) – Christy
''The road through the Sokolniki'' (1958) – Aleshka Vronsky �
image

''Three Fat Men'' (1961) – Dr. Gaspar
''Mutiny'' (1977) – Caravan
''So we will win!'' (1981) – Fist
''We, the undersigned'' – Explorer
''The Village Stepanchikovo'' – Evgraf Ezhevikin
''Peace to the huts, war to the palaces''
''Days of the Turbins'' – Lariosik
''Goodbye, boys'' – Sasha Krieger
'' Dead Souls'' – Chichikov
''House number 6''
''As he left, look'' – Fedor

Filmography

''The following is a selection of his films'':

He was a supporting actor in ''Vasyok Trubachyov i yego tovarishchi'' (1955) and the romance ''Otryad Trubachyova srazhayetsya'' (1957). He played Fedul VI in ''Fire, Water, and Brass Pipes'' (1968). He played the part of Dobchinsky in the comedy '' Incognito from St. Petersburg'' (1977). In 1979 he acted in ''Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears'', and '' A Few Days from the Life of I. I. Oblomov''. In ''Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears'' he appears in cameo as himself, as part of the setting for the character Rudolf (Yuri Vasilyev) who is a television cameraman and first lover of the protagonist Ekaterina (Vera Alentova). Kharitonov was at that time ubiquitous on Soviet television, and therefore represented the contemporary celebrity media zeitgeist. This cameo part is not unimportant, as director Vladimir Menshov

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