What happened to the daughter of Alexey Batalov. Alexey Batalov left an inheritance only to his youngest daughter because he felt guilty all his life
For the first time, he openly talks about his first youthful marriage with Irina Rotova and about his eldest daughter Nadezhda, with whom the actor almost failed to maintain a relationship...
All fans of Alexei Vladimirovich know about the family of Alexei Batalov - daughter Masha and wife Gitana, with whom the actor has been married for more than half a century. But in his youth he had another family, and in that marriage he also has a daughter. In an interview with 7D, the actor honestly spoke for the first time about how he got married at 16 and why he failed to save his family.
- Alexey Vladimirovich, you got married for the first time at the age of 16.
Please tell us about this...
We knew our first wife since childhood. With the family of the artist Konstantin Rotov, Ira’s father, my stepfather Viktor Ardov had dachas nearby, in the writer’s village on Klyazma. Ira and I are the same age, so we had common company: we ran and played together. I remember how impressively I appeared in front of everyone on a white horse. Irina remembered this. Although it all happened by chance. The water carrier allowed me to ride on horseback, but the horse was quite old. This was shortly before the war. My entire pre-war childhood seems so carefree and sunny. I remember how I once met Ira at the skating rink at the Dynamo stadium.
She skated expertly, which was rare at the time, and it impressed me. She was small in stature, dark-haired, mischievous character. And then the war separated us. I was taken for evacuation to Chistopol, and Ira to Alma-Ata. We met again when, returning from evacuation, I went to visit my friend, Petya Petrov. Ira also looked there. We were 16 years old, although adults still considered us children. For me great value had that she was one of our own, proven by many years of friendship. After all, I was very timid with girls. I couldn’t marry someone else’s girl; it was difficult for me to even approach a stranger! So, most likely, it was just a youthful hobby that stemmed from my shyness. In a word, Ira and I began to communicate again, to walk together. They literally walked the streets. At that time there were no cafes, and if there were, we couldn’t afford them.
Still even ration cards was not cancelled, it was not uncommon for people to be malnourished. No, this is not the kind of courtship that today's young people imagine. And they didn’t sell flowers - they could only be picked somewhere on the sly. And I couldn’t give any gifts at all! And I dressed in what the hell... I remember I had an overcoat, soldier’s boots and naval trousers. And no socks - it was impossible to get them at all back then! To prevent my legs from turning white under black trousers, I painted them with wax.
- Why did you and Irina decide to get married? Isn't it scary to start a family in such conditions?
In those years, people did not think like that, because everyone was poor. But the young people still wanted to love and create families.
Marrying the girl you loved was normal. But of course, if we started asking our elders for advice, no one would allow us, schoolchildren, to get married. Therefore, after waiting until the age approached, we fled to the registry office secretly.
We went in and signed. True, we had a ring - one for two, we bought it by borrowing money from Nikolai Pogodin's housekeeper. Such a small gold ring, on inside we asked to engrave: “Alyosha + Ira = Love.” I remember that at the registry office they told us that we were the youngest couple, but they still signed and presented us with a marriage certificate. It was with him that we went to our parents, who had no idea that the “children” had gotten married! Of course they were horrified. We haven’t finished school yet, we don’t work anywhere, we don’t have any housing, and suddenly - a husband and wife... Two crazy people!
They didn’t pay attention to our friendship, they thought that we were still small. Well, they visit each other and visit each other, and then suddenly these “guests” received documentary evidence. However, nothing could be done about us, and they met us halfway. There was, however, nowhere to get a separate room for us. Our stepfather, mother, two brothers lived on Ordynka, and Anna Akhmatova often came and lived in my room. I freed her for this time. Irochka also didn’t have any extra footage. Therefore, we somehow moved around, living either with me or with her. Soon after our wedding, Irina’s father, the artist Konstantin Rotov, returned from the camp. The fact is that he was a very good artist, and out of envy someone wrote a denunciation that he secretly painted some portraits of Stalin. And Konstantin Pavlovich was imprisoned, he served several years. And when he returned, Irina introduced me to him in a new capacity.
And we quickly found common language. Moreover, it was Rotov who first began to teach me how to draw! It happened by accident. Konstantin Pavlovich worked in the magazine “Crocodile”, he needed nature. And so he used me: he asked me to stand in one position or another and made sketches. It turns out that I worked as a model for him. Well, since I was nearby, I started mixing colors and helping with something else. And so gradually Konstantin Pavlovich began to teach me how to draw. By the way, thanks to Rotov, who at one time received an order for illustrations for Mikhalkov’s “Uncle Styopa,” Uncle Styopa acquired my face. The father-in-law explained: “After all, Lesha, your feet are size forty-five. And Uncle Styopa too! So, that means you look alike.” Now I can no longer prove to anyone that I was Uncle Stepa, but it really is so!
- How did your mother-in-law treat you?
My relationship with my mother-in-law, Ekaterina Borisovna, did not work out from the very beginning. She herself was a playwright, the author of several plays and books for children. At the same time, she didn’t like at all that I wanted to become an actor. But I didn't consider any other options. After all, I was literally born and raised in the theater. When I was very young, my mother and I lived right in the Moscow Art Theater building, in the former janitor's room. To go out into the yard, I only had to step over the windowsill. And there are scenery all around and people wearing makeup in wigs, beards and different costumes. I accepted all this as reality. Until I was five years old, they didn’t take me outside at all; I only played in this yard and took it quite seriously as the whole city. This was my world, and I sincerely thought that all the people in the world worked in the theater!
How did we play? It’s summer, the theater is on vacation, you can run around the stage. We crawled under it on our bellies and took the cats out from under the stage. In those years there were an abyss of cats in the Moscow Art Theater building. During the performance, whenever they wanted, they went on stage, and no one even laughed, it was so commonplace before. And so we got these cats. So there was no doubt: the theater is my home, and I should be here.
- It is not difficult to assume that when you came to the Studio School, where your relative Viktor Stanitsyn taught, conversations began: “Well, of course, they asked for this!”
No one would bother for me. This was not accepted in those years. And if someone helped me get into School-studio, then Galina Khristoforovna.
This amazing woman, a teacher, was a friend at home and began to study with me, seeing how ignorant I was. After all, during the war, my mother, two brothers and I lived God knows where. My father and stepfather went to the front, and we drove along the route Sverdlovsk - Ufa - Kazan - Bugulma. This is now Bugulma big city, and in 1941 it was a real village. There, I, a well-bred home boy, for the first time saw a horse, a cow and a peasant hut, where, in fact, we were settled. I had to work a lot around the house, and then get a job as a stagehand at a local theater. There was no time and nowhere to study. Therefore, when I returned to Moscow, I felt like a dropout among my comrades and was embarrassed about it. Often I simply skipped classes, and therefore the question of my expulsion arose. Then my parents sent me to a school for working youth, and I somehow made it through.
So Galina Khristoforovna took pity on me and began to come specially to study with me. I owe her everything! Well family ties I was even somewhat constrained. I felt that behind me was the shadow of my uncles, including Nikolai Batalov, whose name thundered in the thirties. I couldn’t let my relatives down; it would be unacceptable if they were told: “Your Alexei is getting kicked out there!” So at the institute I tried to keep a low profile and behaved very modestly. Maybe that’s why at first he didn’t make an impression on the teachers and didn’t prove himself. I had an attitude in my head: “Don’t exhibit! I'll be like everyone else. As it should be for me!” Even when, after the graduation performance, Olga Knipper-Chekhova herself came up to me and offered to sign the diploma, I initially refused. She listened to me, listened, and then finally signed and said: “Take it, you fool!
Then you will understand." So I graduated from the Studio School. Finally it was possible to go to great life, to do something... But my plans ended abruptly - I was completely unexpectedly drafted into the army. I thought that this would no longer affect me. We studied military affairs at the institute, and now I have become a certified actor... But then it suddenly occurs to Stalin that war could start again. And he issues a special decree according to which all young people of our age are drafted, no matter what. I could well be sent to serve somewhere in the Far East.
It was a miracle that I stayed in the capital! There were not enough conscripts for extras at the Red Army Theater. These are not even actors, but soldiers who are used in performances, and I must admit that they used us a lot, in almost every performance.
And when the performance ended, we also dismantled the scenery, and at night we took turns guarding the theater. This is where I ended up. But I was still happy: after all, I could play something. In more major roles I was busy in two performances with which we toured the garrisons.
- After the army, you became an actor at the Moscow Art Theater, but less than three years passed before you made a choice in favor of cinema. It was a bold step...
When I joyfully told the theater that I needed to go to the next filming, I heard the answer: “This is impossible! If you go, I’ll have to fire you.” To leave the theater, where there are relatives all around, where I was literally born...
It was incredibly difficult! And scary. Theater is stability, constant income, a career ladder, then everyone respected and knew the Moscow Art Theater artists... But in the cinema there is complete confusion: today you are needed, tomorrow you are not. They show a film with your participation, and you are already sitting at home without work, and it is not known when they will call you next. Therefore, everyone was surprised, to put it mildly. The theater administration tried to persuade me to stay, but they didn’t let me go to filming either. It was necessary to choose. And I wrote a letter of resignation, which, according to the old-timers, was almost the only one in the history of the theater’s founding. Therefore, it was then kept for a long time as a relic... For the sake of filming, every now and then I had to leave my young wife, because there was no way to take her with me, for example, to Leningrad, where the film “ Large family».
I think they took me there not because I showed off my talent during the auditions, but because I simply matched the main characters: Boris Andreev, Sergei Lukyanov. needed youngest son, similar to them - with blue eyes, snub-nosed. Fifteen people tried there, and in the end Joseph Kheifits chose me. This is how our acquaintance began...
- Why couldn’t you take your wife with you to the shooting?
Because I was going to a completely foreign city, without money, and I had no one there. Do you know how I lived in Leningrad? At one time I rented a bed from the house manager - he had a room opposite Lenfilm. It was only later that Kheifits, thank God, invited me to live with him, and I slept there on a cot. At the film studio the wages were very small, it was barely enough to feed oneself.
So I was literally poor. There wasn’t a single decent suit, I wore whatever I could find. Later, when I needed to go to my first film festival, they made me a suit on loan. I wrote a receipt that money would be deducted from my next fee.
- Did you miss your family?
Of course I missed you! In Leningrad, at first I felt alien and lonely. I’m used to the fact that in Moscow everything is native, everything is familiar. Here is the theater, here is my mother, here is my stepfather, a writer. Everyone knows you, everyone is ready to help. And there you are a stranger - both at Lenfilm and everywhere else, no one knows you. At the same time, I understood that now my whole fate was being decided, and everything depended on how I would work on camera. I didn't do anything else except work.
Tried my best! Even if I wasn’t filmed that day, I came to the film set and watched the masters. I watched how they played, what they did. And then, Kheifitz and I just rehearsed day and night. Late in the evening the shooting will end, we get into his car, I drive. And even on the road we still discuss some kind of role. We come home and rehearse until late. And I lived in this mode all the time. The same thing happened with Mark Donskoy on the set of the film “Mother”. I lived in his office, that is, I literally slept there. As soon as you get up - rehearsal! He didn't let me go. So these people, and above all Kheifits, are a hundred times more to me than directors!
- What about your family? After all, over time, your daughter, Nadya, was born. Did you somehow participate in her upbringing?
I had no involvement in this. Of course, I remember how Nadya was born, how I held her in my arms for the first time. It was interesting... But for Nadya I became just... Sunday dad. Appeared when there were some breaks in filming. I remember Nadya was three years old. And on my next visit to Moscow, I was tinkering with the car and came up with a device thanks to which the car itself moves in a circle, and the steering wheel is locked. I put my daughter behind the wheel, supposedly she was driving. He sat down next to him and called out to his mother and Irina. When they leaned out of the window, they were numb: a three-year-old girl was driving! I’ll be honest: I didn’t participate in everyday life, I didn’t know anything about it. And I didn’t want to do it. All family life was subject to my filming schedule. Filming was the most important thing, and I didn’t hide it.
- Did Irina work?
While she was married to me, no. And then, as far as I remember, I received the profession of a retouching artist.
- Why did you break up?
Gossip does a disservice here. Someone said to my mother-in-law that I started some kind of romance while filming in Kyiv. And she was already sure that acting was not a serious profession, and she believed it... But the main thing, probably, was that my wife did not have enough of my attention. We started quarreling. The collapse of the family occurred gradually. Here there is a failure, then there... That’s how it happened. As far as I remember, officially in 1961. In those days, the tradition of publishing divorce announcements in “Evening Moscow” was still preserved. And then one day information appeared there about Irina and me. But, in fact, we broke up much earlier, because I started actively filming.
Just then, the film “The Cranes Are Flying” was being filmed in Moscow, and I spent day and night on the set. After our divorce, Ira later married again. And now she is no longer in the world.
- To be honest, do you consider yourself guilty before that family?
Yes. Guilty, of course, there can be no doubt about it! And above all, in front of my daughter. She was very little, she didn’t decide anything here at all... It was the elders who fought and made decisions for her. She couldn’t understand or say anything then, that’s the whole point...
- You were also very young when your parents divorced.
For me, my parents' divorce went unnoticed. Moreover, I was lucky: Viktor Ardov became my stepfather. He took this very seriously. I was not refused either advice or pocket money. True, I was always embarrassed to ask for money. And when he did this, he always started from afar: “Vitya, such a small anniversary is planned... We decided to go there...” He immediately interrupted me: “Don’t fool me! How much do you need? In general, for me Ardov was a squared father, a very close person! In addition, biological father he didn’t go anywhere, he was right there in Moscow, he worked with Stanislavsky, we all talked.
- Did you communicate with your daughter after the divorce?
Certainly. My mother, Nina Antonovna, generally loved her very much. Ira and her daughter often visited her in her house on Ordynka.
And I met my daughter. True, as my films came out and I began to be recognized more and more on the street, it became more and more difficult. One day we went to the zoo and were unable to walk there because of the surging crowd. Such cases always confused me. And Nadya began to come to my garage, where I liked to tinker with the car. I never interfered in matters of her upbringing. But he could put on a show. Once I asked her when we were walking along Ordynka: “Will you love me when I’m old and crooked?” Nadya answered without hesitation: “Of course!” And then I pretended - I began to fall on one leg, squinted my eyes... But this is Ordynka, everyone knew us there: neighbors, janitors. And that was the most important thing - that there was an audience. My daughter, of course, felt ashamed of me, she asked: “Dad, don’t!” But the main thing is that I didn’t give up. So she ran after me down the street.
- Why do you hardly communicate with her now? After all, in addition to your eldest daughter, you also have a granddaughter and even a great-granddaughter...
Life turned out that way. After all, Nadezhda grew up in another family, and she is now on her own... She works as a translator. Graduated from college foreign languages specialty " English language" That's not the point! I'm just admitting that I was a lousy father to her. That's it.
- Alexey Vladimirovich, when we're talking about Actors often regret their youth years: I wish I could drink less and do more work! I've never heard anything like this about you...
Well, I physically couldn't drink. The fact is that during the war I was seriously ill, something with my liver.
Then, when I got older, I tried to drink alcohol several times - and immediately the pain rolled in, girdling, unbearable... I remember when I drank a little on my birthday as a student, and the next day I barely made it to school. Since then I have never drank at all. It’s true that I’ve been smoking since I was 13, and I continue to smoke, there’s nothing you can do about it. In general, in student years we had very little time for pampering. You see, we, yesterday’s boys, having not completed our studies, not knowing anything, came to the Studio School, and here they made people out of us! The teachers were serious, the subjects were interesting - for example, she taught us good manners a real princess Volkonskaya, from the former. They showed us how to give a hand to a lady, how to get into a car - but we didn’t know how to do any of this.
- Why did you start smoking?
Elementary: to suppress hunger! There was such a way during the war: if you smoke shag, you don’t seem to want to eat as much. It was easy to get it, because even in the rear there were military men all around. My mother and I went to hospitals and performed. I helped her, I could read a poem. And he looked with horror at the crippled people: some without arms, some without legs, some with half their faces bandaged... It was scary. But gradually the fear passed, because when we started performing, these people smiled... They became alive, close. I understood that they gave their lives and health for us. Therefore, I returned to Moscow changed, matured... Unfortunately, it is simply impossible to convey the atmosphere of the forties and fifties, no matter how many films you make about them. It was a different time, completely different people. This will never happen to anyone again. And I was especially lucky with the people.
Some miracle always happened to me. That Anna Akhmatova was in my life, that people like Joseph Kheifits and Mikhail Romm met on my way, that Vladimir Menshov directed me in “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.” After all, they all later entered the history of cinema. The fact that I worked with them was absolute happiness! And it is important that there are not many films with my participation - five or six real ones. I’ll be honest: I myself refused a lot. All my life I have striven not to betray myself and to be obligated to no one. But sometimes you had to pay very dearly for this.
Courtesy: AO Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House Alexey Batalov
IN recent years life Alexey Vladimirovich was most worried about future fate youngest daughter Maria, who has been disabled since childhood. Another burden on the actor’s heart was pain because of his eldest daughter from his first marriage, Nadezhda. Even many years later, Batalov reproached himself that in his youth he was not a good enough father.
At the registry office - secretly
© Provided by: AO Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House Alexey Batalov in his youth. Source: Globallookpress.comFor the first time, Alexey Batalov got married early - at the age of 16. He had known Irina Rotova, the daughter of the artist and cartoonist Konstantin Rotov, since childhood; the dachas of her parents and Batalov’s stepfather, the writer Viktor Ardov, who raised the boy from the age of five, were nearby. As children, Irina and Alexey played in the same company, and then met again, having already returned from evacuation. As the actor recalled, in adolescence he “was very timid” with girls; even approaching the girl he liked was difficult for him. Subsequently, recalling his first marriage, Batalov said that it was a “youthful passion” that “stemmed from his shyness.” Alexey and Irina did not inform their relatives that they were going to get married. They simply waited until they turned 16 and went to the registry office. The actor’s relatives, who considered his meetings and walks with Irina to be simple friendship, were, of course, shocked. But nothing could be done. The young family lived with some parents, then with others; they could only dream of such luxury as a separate room. Alexey did not have a good relationship with his mother-in-law, writer and playwright Ekaterina Borisova. But on the contrary, he became very friendly with Irina’s father. Konstantin Pavlovich, who then worked at the Krokodil magazine, often asked the young man to pose for the next sketch, and then began to teach Batalov himself how to draw.
Work and family
In 1953, the young actor was cast in the film “Big Family” by Joseph Kheifits, filmed in Leningrad. For her sake, he had to sacrifice a place at the Moscow Art Theater, from where they did not want to let him go to filming, and part with his wife for a long time: Batalov had nowhere to live in a foreign city, at first he rented a bed in an apartment not far from Lenfilm, then he lived with Kheifits on a cot.
Then filming began in the films “The Rumyantsev Case” and “Mother,” and this was only the beginning of an endless working marathon that stretched for years. The actor rarely saw his daughter Nadezhda, born in 1955, and appeared at home when there were breaks in filming. Many years later, Alexey Vladimirovich will say sadly: it so happened that due to constant filming for Nadya, he became a “Sunday dad.” The couple began to quarrel, Irina was not satisfied with her husband’s constant absence from home, she lacked attention, she wanted his contribution to family life. Gossip also played a role: someone told Alexei Batalov’s mother-in-law, who already didn’t like him, that during the next filming the actor allegedly started an affair. As a result, Irina decided to leave her husband. Batalov was informed about this by his mother - and the actor even cried. But glue broken relationship it was no longer possible.
© Provided by: AO Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House Alexey Batalov and Tatyana Lavrova in the film “Nine Days of One Year”, 1961 Source: Globallookpress.com
They officially divorced in 1961. Years later, Alexei Batalov admits that he is very guilty before his first family, especially his daughter. Soon after the divorce, Irina married again. Batalov, coming to Moscow, periodically saw his daughter, but as she grew up, the relationship between them became cooler. “Life turned out this way,” the actor once sadly admitted in one of his interviews. And with his characteristic increased demands on himself, he added that, alas, he was bad father for his eldest daughter, due to constant filming and traveling, he could not give her as much attention as required. In the last years of Batalov’s life, they became close again, Nadezhda, who became a translator, visited Alexei Vladimirovich in the hospital in recent months his life. But at the same time, as some relatives noted, their relationship still could not be called very close, with their granddaughter and great-granddaughter famous actor haven't seen each other.
Pain for life
The actor, incredibly passionate about his work, was lucky: he met a kindred spirit. Batalov met the hereditary circus artist Gitana Leontenko in the early 1950s in Leningrad: after filming, a friend dragged the actor to the circus, in the arena of which Batalov saw Gitana performing her signature act - on a horse.
Both Leontenko and Batalov had a common passion - work. As Gitana Arkadyevna admitted, she did not want to get married in those years, the circus was the main thing in her life, but at the same time she really liked Alexey. “He was amazing,” she recalled. The couple married in 1963. The couple did not think about any improvement in their everyday life: the actor continued to disappear on set, his wife went to the circus arena every day.
In 1968 they gave birth to long-awaited daughter Masha. The happy event that the couple had been waiting for turned into a tragedy: the girl became disabled. Gitana Arkadyevna said more than once that if she had had a caesarean section, as she had asked, everything most likely would have been different, everything would have been fine with Masha’s health, but on the night when she gave birth, for some reason the surgical sister sent home. What the girl has serious problems with health, it did not immediately become clear. When the parents, concerned that their daughter was moving poorly, went to the doctors, the doctors conducted an examination and issued a verdict: cerebral palsy. Alexei Batalov’s wife left her job. “Of course, we hoped that our daughter would recover. They didn’t want to give up,” the actor recalled. When Masha reached school age, Gitana ensured that teachers came to their home; together with her mother, she worked a lot with the girl herself. Batalov’s daughter successfully graduated from school, then, remotely, she joined the screenwriting department of VGIK, became a member of the Writers’ Union, published a book, and wrote several scripts.
Two daughters of a famous father
The actor was always proud that his daughter grew up to be a very educated person. And he proudly admitted that Masha had read ten times more books than him. But at the same time, Alexey Batalov was terribly worried about her fate, and the older he got, the more worried he was, thinking about what would happen to Maria when he was gone. And until the end of his life, the actor suffered because on that turning point day for their family, he was not nearby, in Moscow, but on the set. “Alyosha suffered greatly all his life. I reproached myself that when I gave birth, he was working and was far away, he couldn’t help,” said Gitana Arkadyevna.
© Provided by: AO Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House Alexei Batalov’s daughters Nadezhda (second from left), Maria (second from right), and Valentina Tereshkova’s daughter Elena Nikolaeva-Tereshkova (far right) during a civil memorial service for the actor, 2017. Photo: Miail Frolov/ KP Archive
According to the actor's will, his youngest daughter Maria became his main heir. When, some time after the death of Alexei Batalov, articles began to appear in the press that famous artist allegedly “deprived” his eldest daughter, the actor’s widow explained that all these rumors were groundless, and Nadezhda herself was not offended by her father’s act and understood perfectly well why he did this. Gitana Arkadyevna and Nadezhda Alekseevna have been friends for many years. “In Nadya, I am absolutely sure that she will not leave Masha,” assured the widow of Alexei Batalov.
Alexey Batalov – famous person Soviet times. After reading our article, you will become familiar with his biography, personal life, children (photo). It will be an interesting journey!
Among the constellation Soviet artists Alexey Batalov was remembered by the public for his courageous image. His talented works as a screenwriter, actor, artist, epistolary author and director became examples for young followers. In addition to the title of a brilliant artist, Batalov acquired a reputation as a talented teacher. In this way, he realized his need to pass on his knowledge and experience to a new generation.
Alexey Batalov in his youth: photo
The famous actor was born in the city of Vladimir on November 20, 1928. His parents belonged to the creative intelligentsia and worked at the Moscow Art Theater. This led to the hero’s special awe of everything related to the theater. Among the relatives there were others creative people. Famous actors of that time were his father's brother Nikolai and his wife O. Androvskaya. When Alexey was still a child, his parents, V. Batalov and N. Olshevskaya, divorced, and the three-year-old boy remained with his mother. Soon his mother put the ring on for the second time. Alexei’s stepfather was V. Ardov, a worker in the epistolary genre.
Batalov himself warmly mentions his mother’s new husband. The stepfather treated his stepson as a natural child and raised him to be a highly moral person.
Family of Alexey Batalov
A few years later, the young family managed to purchase a separate apartment in the house of writers. It was important event, since the previous housing was located in close proximity to the place of residence of Ardov’s first wife, which brought a lot of trouble to the new unit of society.
The biography of Alexei Batalov was influenced by the personal life of his mother and children numerous photos, who are Alexei's brothers.
The child's cultural growth was ensured by numerous eminent guests of the parents: Anna Akhmatova, Ilya Ilf, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Boris Pasternak, Evgeny Petrov. In the family archives you can find a lot of photographic evidence of the future great actor’s communication with the bohemians of that time.
The actor’s childhood can hardly be called cloudless, but the war that came in 1941 forced the boy to finally grow up. Alexey and his mother were transported to Bugulma. And here the theatrical spirit did not leave the family. The actor's mother created her own mini-theater. At the age of 14, the boy gladly helped his mother in organizational matters, and over time they began to trust him with episodic roles. This is how Batalov’s development as an actor began.
Professional development and education of Alexey Batalov
Thanks to its popularity, the biography and personal life of Alexey Vladimirovich Batalov became of interest to the general public. But once he was just a child, by chance born and raised surrounded by famous artists and writers. Alexey's profession was predetermined by itself. The eminence of the representatives of the closest circle of people was not a guarantee of talent, but the boy was lucky and the cherished spark burned in him from infancy.
After the war, the hero returned to the capital, where he graduated from school. He continued his studies at the Moscow Art Theater and upon graduation was in the theater for three years Soviet Army. The first role went to Alexey Vladimirovich in 1944. Then he appeared on the television screen while still a student. He took part in Leo Arnstam's film Zoya. The plot told about the fate of the famous war heroine Kosmodemyanskaya.
Alexey Batalov graduated from the Moscow Art Theater
Further, the biography and personal life of Alexei Batalov does not develop so rapidly. I had to wait a whole decade for my next role. After leaving the Army Theater, Batalov took part in the work of I. Kheifits “Big Family”. Here he appeared before the viewer in the role of a worker. Subsequently, the director invites the hero to play roles in several more of his films. Judging by the actor’s filmography, this collaboration can be considered productive.
Stills from the film “Big Family”
In 1957, the dramatic film “The Cranes Are Flying” was released. Her appearance at the Cannes Film Festival caused a storm of positive comments. The result was first prize and the Palme d'Or. Batalov's partner in the film was Tatyana Samoilova. The war melodrama made Batalov a movie star of the time and significantly increased his army of fans.
Stills from the film “The Cranes Are Flying”
The versatility of the hero's talent allowed him to play diverse roles: students, workers, military personnel. The images had one thing in common - masculinity and intelligence, characteristic of Alexei Vladimirovich himself.
In the image of Gurov from A.P. Chekhov’s work “The Lady with the Dog,” Batalov was magnificent. The film received praise from the most famous critics of that time and received a lot of awards. This film adaptation of the story was considered the most successful.
Alexey Batalov: l personal life of an actor
Personal life and first wife, as well as the biography of Alexei Batalov, are of interest general public. The actor's marriage happened at the age of 16. So early marriage caused the fragility of the marriage. The hero’s bride was the daughter of the painter Konstantin Rotov, who had known Batalov since childhood. Alexey Vladimirovich believes that the reason for the marriage was not love, but childhood affection and friendship, tested over the years. In addition, the actor, endowed with natural shyness, rarely communicated with the opposite sex. Irina was an exception. This is how a wife appeared in the personal life of actor Alexei Batalov at such a young age.
Irina Rotova - the first wife of Alexei Batalov
Alexey Batalov and Irina Rotova had a daughter, Nadezhda. Pounded popularity and rapid career growth did not allow the husband and father to spend enough time at home. As a result, after 3 years a completely predictable divorce took place. Alexey Batalov and his daughter do not communicate, which is clear from the biography, descriptions of his personal life and his photo in the public domain. The artist himself openly admits that he considers himself a terrible father for Nadezhda, which was the reason for his cool relationship with ex-family. Several years ago, publications appeared that the actor bequeathed all his property to his wife and youngest daughter. Alexey Vladimirovich responded to the indignant remarks by saying that Nadezhda has her own life and that he does not participate in it. Meetings with the eldest daughter are rare; they occur no more than once a year.
Batalov’s second wife was a circus rider from the age of 4. Gitana Leontenko amazed the actor with her masterly performance of the number. After a long period of fleeting meetings, the lovers decided to get married, which happened in 1963. Thus, more children appeared in the biography and personal life of Alexei Batalov.
The appearance of the baby did not bring the expected happiness: little Masha had cerebral palsy. As the girls' relatives suggest, the reason terrible disease was a medical error.
Gitana ended her career and completely devoted herself to caring for the child. Soon the father himself reduced his social circle and tried everything free time spend with family.
Gitana Leontenko - the second wife of Alexei Batalov
Increased care for the youngest daughter brought results. She was able to become a full-fledged member of society. Alexey Batalov himself is an honorary member of the board of an organization that helps disabled people with cerebral palsy. Maria Alekseevna actively participates in the lives of disabled children, which happened in the personal life and biography of Alexei Batalov important fact. Because this indicates that all his efforts were not in vain. Maria studied at VGIK to be a screenwriter, wrote a book, and created a script based on which the film was made. After which she became a member of the Writers' Union.
Milestones in an actor's career
The versatility of Alexey Batalov’s personality did not allow him to stay within one profession. In the early 60s successful actor I decided to try myself as a director. His list included:
- 1959 – “The Overcoat”;
- 1966 - “Three Fat Men”;
- 1972 - “The Player”.
The most striking and memorable was the film “Three Fat Men”. In it, the hero acted as an actor and director at the same time. The creator paid utmost attention to the actors' lines. In addition, the film is full of stunts performed without safety equipment. Batalov appeared before the audience in the form of a tightrope walker. He himself performed a very dangerous stunt, which delighted those around him.
Stills from the film “Three Fat Men”
Radio shows occupy a separate niche in the hero’s career. His voice has been used to voice famous radio plays: “Hero of Our Time”, “Cossacks”, “Romeo and Juliet” and others. In 1974, Batalov became interested in dubbing animation. Now the heroes of the cartoons “The Frog Traveler”, “Hedgehog in the Fog”, “Keys of Time” spoke in his baritone voice.
Teaching activities famous actor dates back to 1975. He began working at VGIK, and in 1980 he was awarded the title of professor. During this period he was the head of the university department. Batalov was also thin for a long period. head of the faculty acting this educational institution.
Alexey Batalov was awarded the title of professor at VGIK in 1980
Thanks to such versatility, Alexey Vladimirovich Batalov is recognized as one of brightest stars Soviet era.
The film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” filmed in 1979, became a triumph for the hero. The characters' lines turned into catchphrases. No one expected such success from the average melodrama, of which there were a lot on the screens at that time. Vladimir Menshov, as the director of the film, carefully auditioned the actors and chose the main character with particular passion. Of the numerous applicants, only Batalov met all the criteria. The role of a mechanic who shamelessly meets the woman he likes on the train suited the actor. His character and habits merged with the image of Gosha, who managed to make the ladies of the entire Union fall in love with him. Any imbalance in intonation or facial expressions would make one look like an open hard worker ordinary boor. The film again captivated foreign audiences and, 35 years later, won an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category. At this stage, no one doubted the genius of the picture.
Stills from the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”
Soon Batalov's film career lost its intensity. He devoted himself entirely to teaching and voice acting. animated films. Some of his later works as an actor include the following films:
- "Speed";
- "Poltergeist-90";
- "Umbrella for newlyweds."
Achievements, awards, recognition...
Of course, the biography, personal life and photos of Alexei Batalov’s children are of great interest to the public. But his achievements in his main activities still come to the fore.
Alexey Vladimirovich became an honorary representative of a charitable foundation created to care for sick children cerebral palsy. He is also on the board of trustees of the Marfo-Mariinsky Society on a charitable basis.
Alexey Batalov created charitable foundation for sick children
Batalov held the position of secretary for a long time governing body Union of Cinematographers. He was a member of the Peace Committee and similar foundations and associations. For 6 years, the actor was the head of the Nika Academy.
Now Batalov creates scripts, poems and fairy tales. His hobby is still painting. Batalov’s first book, “Fate and Craft,” was published in 1984. In addition, he wrote the book “Dialogues at Intermission” and became the author of a chapter in the publication “Legendary Ordynka”.
Batalov’s first book “Fate and Craft”
This person's participation in cultural life society assessed a huge amount all kinds of awards. Among them is State. RSFSR Prize, Lenin Komsomol Prize.
Alexey Batalov is People's Artist USSR and Hero of Socialist Labor. He was awarded the USSR State Prize and the State Prize Russian Federation. The artist’s collection includes 2 Lenin orders, the Slavic Order of Culture “Cyril and Methodius”, the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” of the second degree; Juno, Kinotavr, President of the Russian Federation awards and much more. His charitable and literary activities were also recognized with awards.
On November 20, the actor will turn 89 years old. The biography of Alexei Batalov, his personal life and photos are still of interest to viewers.
Since 1991, he has not accepted a single invitation to be involved in films, explaining this by the fact that he does not feel for any of the heroes offered to him. This year Batalov faced new challenges: he broke his femoral neck. The operations performed made it possible to restore bone function. For a full recovery, doctors recommend that the actor quit smoking and take care of his blood vessels.
A. V. Batalov was hospitalized with a hip fracture
But it still remains open and a bright person, extremely similar to each of his heroes. He is deeply convinced that every character should teach people the high moral principles of life.
These qualities made Batalov one of the country's favorite actors. Now he is immersed in writing his memoirs, which will be entertaining for true fans of such a bright and extraordinary talent.
— ideal father. For the sake of my 45-year-old daughter Masha, suffering from cerebral palsy, the actor is ready for anything! He himself has a “bouquet” of diagnoses: problems with the heart, bronchi, and blood vessels of the brain. Batalov sees almost nothing, but continues to work. But he is already 85 years old!
- I must live! - says Alexey Vladimirovich. “The thought of what will happen to Mashenka when my wife and I are gone terrifies me!” The girl does not have her own family. And no one else needs it except us. Masha, alas, cannot do it without outside help. She doesn't get up from wheelchair. But as long as I breathe, I will take care of her! This is my child, my little blood, my great love.
But Batalov has another daughter, Nadya. Only the actor doesn’t even... communicate with her! Why?
Worthless father
... Alyosha Batalov knew Irochka, the daughter of the artist Konstantin Rotov, “from the potty” - their parents’ dachas were nearby.
“And then our childhood friendship grew into love,” says Alexey Vladimirovich. - And one day we got married, secretly from the adults! We were 16 years old then. The relatives were horrified: “The children are crazy!” But the job was done. And we began to live with some parents, then with others.
In 1956, the couple had a daughter, Nadya.
“But I wasn’t a good father for her,” the actor repents. “I started filming one after another, and Nadya saw her dad only on weekends, and even then not always. To be honest, the most important thing for me at that moment was my work.
Ira is tired of this strange family life: she seems to be married, but her husband is not around. Quarrels ensued.
“Then my mother-in-law added fuel to the fire,” recalls Batalov. “She kept instilling in her daughter that actors are people... frivolous.” And she convinced me! Ira became jealous, scandals began. And then my mother-in-law also passed on some gossip to her daughter: as if I had an affair while filming in Kyiv!
As a result, the Batalovs divorced in 1961.
Almost immediately the actor married again. On a beautiful circus performer who is 12 years younger than him. Leontenko Batalov had his eye on Gitana for a long time, but while he was married, he did not dare admit his feelings. In 1968, their daughter Masha was born. And Gitana had to leave the circus - the sick girl constantly required care.
“I rarely saw Nadya,” Batalov sighs. “My mother loved her very much.” Nadenka often visited her grandmother.
And they were glad to see her at her father’s house! Not a single Masha’s birthday passed without her sister’s participation. However, after the death of my grandmother in 1991, my father’s communication with eldest daughter came to naught.
Strangers
“Well, this is how life turned out,” Alexey Batalov shrugs. “I feel very guilty towards Nadezhda.” I was preoccupied with my work and my sick child. And Nadya grew up in a different family; her mother also got married. And it so happened that the eldest daughter became on her own, and I became on my own. And nothing can be fixed. Nadya now has her own family, she has a daughter, Katya, and granddaughters. It's too late for us to try to improve relations. We have been strangers to each other for a long time.
Well, is it really possible, Alexey Vladimirovich? Why don't you even try? Find your daughter, repent and make peace! Before it's too late. Look, then Masha won’t be left completely alone without you.
Based on materials from: taini-zvezd.ru
06.03.12 01:26Legendary actor Alexei Batalov usually flatly refuses to talk about his personal life. And even more so about his main pain - about his daughter Masha.
Pakhomova Angelica
But in a conversation with a reporter, the actor was unusually open. He denied the rumors and speculation hovering around his name, he said earlier unknown details many events.
– Alexey Vladimirovich, in a year you and your wife will celebrate golden wedding! How did you meet her?
– In 1953, I was in Leningrad filming the film “The Rumyantsev Case.” One evening, actor Sergei Lukyanov says to me: “Listen, let’s go to the circus, the gypsies have arrived!” That's where I saw mine for the first time future wife. She performed a complex number, danced on a running horse. Gitana worked in the circus arena from the age of four and performed tricks that no one in the world can still repeat! In the evening we went to dinner at a restaurant, where I again saw Gitana at the next table. My friend and I dared and expressed our admiration: “Well done, we saw you!” That's how we met. And then we parted, because the circus went on tour, and I continued filming in Leningrad. Our next date took place only six months later. Coincidentally, we were filming in Riga and the circus just arrived there. Having learned about this, I rushed to Gitana’s hotel in the same dirty truck in which I was filming! But even after the second date we parted ways again. different cities.
– And it’s not surprising, you were married, and two years later your daughter was born.
– Yes, I got married to the daughter of the artist Konstantin Rotov, Ira, very early, we were 16 years old. And all because that's who I am strange man, shy, afraid of women all his life! I never went on dates or courted girls. I didn't have any experience.
– But wasn’t it because you signed with Ira that you already had a close relationship?
- Well... Hmm... It all didn’t matter anymore, because I decided to get married, and that’s it. He reasoned like this: “It’s still necessary someday,” and Ira was the closest. We've known each other since kindergarten, our parents have been friends for many years. I brought her to parents' house, where I had a six-meter room.
– And when your daughter Nadya was born, did you somehow participate in her upbringing?
– Yes, I didn’t participate at all, I was just not physically present in the family. I had already started acting in films and lived for six months in Leningrad and Kyiv. Basically, I was a Sunday dad. Yes, I remember this feeling when I took the child in my arms, it was interesting. But I didn’t see all these baby diapers. And when Nadya was three years old, Ira and I divorced.
– Why did this happen?
- And I was slandered! When I was filming the film “Mother” in Kyiv, someone told my wife that I had an affair there. And this simply could not happen, because I lived in the director’s office and rehearsed day and night. I didn't even have a hotel room. Nevertheless, Ira’s mother, who did not like me, inspired her that actors always have affairs on the side. With this conviction, she left me.
– After the divorce, did your wife allow you to see your daughter?
– Of course, especially since my mother loved Ira very much and she often came to her with the child. For Nadya I will remain like this forever visiting father. Now she is an adult and has children herself. But we see each other extremely rarely.
– So, you turned out to be a free man... And you immediately married Gitana?
- No, no... For many years, Gitana and I met sporadically and parted for a long time - without mutual obligations. For example, I still don’t know if she had anyone at that time... Of course, she had a sea of fans! Sometimes some rich man would come backstage to “have fun with the gypsies.” But fortunately, Gitana’s mother was always next to her, helping her perform the numbers, and she had a whip in her hands that she could use!
– By the way, they still write in books about Nikulin that he had an affair with circus performer Gitana Leontenko.
- Nikulin adored her! But it’s unlikely they had an affair, otherwise we wouldn’t be friends with Nikulin’s families. And in general, although Yuri Vladimirovich was really not indifferent to women, his wife Tatyana always strictly followed this. And they were friends with Gitana.
– Another rumor: that Gitana’s gypsy relatives did not love you and cursed your marriage. Because of this, a disabled child was born.
- No, this couldn’t have happened, because from the very beginning I had established great relationship with my mother-in-law, she then lived with us for many years.
– Were you jealous of Gitana’s fans?
– I never claimed that Gitana would remain faithful to me and would not communicate with anyone. And he never competed with her fans. This didn't happen to me. I am absolutely convinced that if a woman needs to be kept and protected, then this woman is not needed.
In short, exactly ten years passed between our acquaintance and wedding! I proposed to her in 1963, when we were both in Baku - she was on tour, I was filming. We have already signed in Moscow. There was no evening suit, no dress, no rings, just like when I got married for the first time. True, we had a wedding. We invited friends from the Sovremennik Theater to a room we rented on Gorky Street.
– Of course, just like Gosha from “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” you didn’t allow your wife to earn more?
“What are you talking about, we wouldn’t have anything to pay for the room if Gitana didn’t give two or even three performances a day and didn’t get a good rate.” I didn't have much money at that time. Our life together for the first five years I was, as they say, “out of my suitcase.” Gitana toured a lot, I filmed. Our life began to improve little by little only when I got my first apartment in Leningrad.
– It is known that gypsies are very jealous, and actors, as you know, like to “wag their tail”... Was she jealous of you?
- First of all, I didn’t wag my tail in front of her! (Laughs.) And secondly, while on set, I always lived with someone in the family, for example, at the dacha of director Joseph Kheifits, and was visible.
– Is it true that there was a case when you kissed an actress on camera, and when your wife saw it, she fainted?
- Yes, maybe she could have been offended. Of course she was jealous. But I myself am not a jealous person, so I don’t understand this.
– If you compare photographs of your first wife Irina, Gitana and the ballerina Olga Zabotkina, with whom you had an affair, you see: all these women are very similar in appearance...
- Yes, indeed. Perhaps the whole point is that my favorite teacher, whom I met at the school for working youth, was the same - black-haired, with burning eyes. After all, I didn’t reach the eight-year mark because during the war I lost all my knowledge. I studied disgustingly! And in the end I ended up in a school for working youth. It was there that this teacher with the appearance of a movie star, and her nationality is Armenian, pulled me out. We students adored her! And I was even in love with her.
– In 1968, you and Gitana had a daughter, Masha. Why did it happen that she became disabled?
– I can’t tell you in detail how my wife was expecting a child and how the birth proceeded. I'm afraid of all this and can't even listen to it! I impressionable person. It had not yet become fashionable for husbands to be present at childbirth, but I still would not have agreed, I would have fainted. I only remember that Gitana went to give birth in Moscow, in one of the best institutions, because it was expected that the birth would be difficult. She has muscles like steel, trained over the years. Now they would do it to her right away C-section, and everything would be fine.
- Why didn’t the doctors do this?
- Because the doctor released the surgeon that night. And as a result, the birth was carried out incorrectly. If I had found this rubbish, I would have hit her over the head with a chair right now! They pulled on a completely healthy girl with forceps and squeezed everything that was possible. She was healthy - legs, arms, head, everything worked fine. And they hurt her.
– Did you find out right away that the child was sick?
- No! Only a few months later... The whole meanness is that in a newborn it is not so visible. And the doctors didn’t tell us anything, but simply prescribed Gitana. I was not at all aware of what happened, because at that time I was filming in Leningrad, and my family lived in Moscow.
– How did you understand that your daughter suffers from cerebral palsy?
– The disease appeared vilely - gradually. A few months later, we noticed that Masha was not moving well, and we turned to the doctors. Of course, it is impossible to convey what grief this was in the family. The wife and mother-in-law cried day and night. I had a desire to go and destroy everything in my path, to find that doctor... If I had realized immediately after the birth of the child what had happened, this would probably have happened. But I lived in another city and found out about everything too late. Sue? And what will this change? I stopped myself with these thoughts. I realized that this would not make anyone better.
– Have you been offered to send your daughter to a boarding school?
– They probably told their wife about this. But he and his mother-in-law began to love the girl a hundred times more and treat her more attentively. They focused their entire lives on it. I also felt contact with her, and, on the one hand, it was joy, and on the other, the thought that her life was ruined poisoned everything. Gitana and her mother, like birds, circled over the child, but she was motionless, and it was scary to watch...
– Did you hope to cure the child?
- Of course, we began to fight! Masha was taken to a special sanatorium in Crimea, then somewhere else. Gitana left the circus forever, which was her life’s work. But the circus comrades did not forget our house for a long time; I remember how the Lilliputians came to entertain Masha.
As the years passed, and as she grew older, the degree of organ damage increased, Masha did not move at all. At the same time, her brain worked normally, and we contributed in every possible way to her development. I don’t know when or how she realized that she was not like everyone else. This probably happened back in preschool age, when we began to invite her peers to the house, or maybe somewhere in a sanatorium, where she saw healthy children. She probably wanted to ask us: “Why do they run, but I can’t? What's happening to me? But she couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t eat or drink without a special drinking bowl.
– But now Masha, although with difficulties, still speaks, knows how to type, and reads a lot. Who taught her all this?
“It was her grandmother who began to learn words with her, to practice. It was only thanks to her mother and grandmother that she was able to receive a secondary education at a regular school. Due to illness, she had to study in a special school, where the program was very meager. We had to prove that our daughter had normal mental development. Teachers came to Masha’s home, and she learned to read, write, and mastered science. For a healthy schoolchild this is easy, but every day she had to overcome herself and overcome the pain.
– Masha never had moments of despair when she would say: “That’s it, I’m tired of it!” I can’t take it anymore...”?
“The fact of the matter is that we had such moments, but she never had them.” It was a Herculean effort on her part. For many years she performed special exercises, trying to move. Thanks to these exercises, she now has movement in one finger, which has huge benefits! On a special keyboard, she types with this finger, slowly, one letter at a time.
So Masha wrote a whole book of fairy tales, which is called “Both Facts and Fables.” I made the drawings for this book. Masha accepts her illness with more humility than we do. Gitana is still unable to talk about the birth of her daughter, about how it all happened - she immediately begins to cry. That's why she has such nerves - she had to go through a lot... I can't help but feel a huge feeling of pity when I see my daughter. And Masha herself never upsets us, under no circumstances does she complain. She is a man of steel! The only thing my daughter can’t stand is quarrels between my wife and I, which, like in every family, happen.
– Who will take care of your daughter when you are gone? After all, you are almost 85...
“That’s what worries me.” But I hope Gitanka will live and take care of her. In addition, I supported Masha financially. I bequeathed everything I have to her long ago.