Inna Gulaya - not a flaming star

It's amazing how different destinies sometimes develop for truly talented people! Some are experiencing tremendous success and world fame, others are leading a dead end, and, failing to cope with the setbacks, they fade away, never reaching their heights. Inna Gulaya - the greatest actress, who became an example of just such a sad life and creative history.

Childhood and youth

She was born not long before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, on May 9, 1940, in the city of Kharkov. Subsequently, the actress shared memories from her childhood, telling that she remembers well how difficult it was to restore the country in the post-war period. Gulaya Inna Iosifovna, like all peers, graduated from the regular school and decided to enroll in a theater studio at the Central Children's Theater.

In those days, in order to enter a theater college, it was necessary to first get a certain work experience, but Inna, while still at work in the factory in 1960, was lucky to star in her debut film "Clouds over Borsko." Then she noticed the famous screenwriter and director Vasily Ordynsky and invited to play the role of Oli Ryzhkova in this dramatic picture. Inna Gulaya recalled that all the comrades in the shop were surprised for a long time and did not believe that she was the one who shot the movie. However, such questions did not stop until Inna left the plant in 1962 and entered the Shchukin Theater School.

The beginning of serious work

But being a simple worker, Inna Gulaya managed to star in two more films, one of which - comedy melodrama "Noisy Day" by Grigory Natanson and Anatoly Efros. The second made her at that time really famous. It was a picture of 1961 "When the Trees were Big" directed by Lev Kulidzhanov. The actress so got used to the image of the village girl Natasha, that the elite of Soviet cinema, after watching the film, called Inna a real find and began to prophesy her great future.

Important roles in Inna's career can also be attributed to the image of Shura, Hasek's wife, in the Czechoslovak-Soviet film "The Great Road" and the role of Shurochka Soldatova in the tape of Sophia Milkina and Mikhail Schweitzer titled "Time, Forward!".

Meeting and life with Gennady Shpalikov

After some time after the first great success, actress Inna Gulaya gets acquainted with the famous poet, screenwriter (Zastava Ilich, "I walk around Moscow") and the beginning film director Gennady Shpalikov. Between them there are strong mutual feelings, and they decide to get married. Passionate in love, Inna believes the genius of his chosen one, does not pay attention to the fact that Gennady is not married for the first time, and on the rumors about his addiction to alcohol.

At the end of 1962, the couple marries, and March 19, 1963, the birth of their daughter Daria. However, in a new round of Shpalikov's career, a fatal event for the life of the couple happened. The fact is that at the meeting of the leaders of the Union with the figures of Soviet cinema held in the Kremlin, Gennady had the imprudence to sharply speak out against politicians and their work. After the incident, Shpalkov and his wife could no longer count on the successful continuation of their careers.

The only and last directorial work of Gennady was the film "A Long Happy Life", in which his wife Inna Gulaya played the main role. The family life of the spouses was heavy, full of hardships and troubles. Innu was also invited to play episodic roles, but Gennady's career seemed doomed, he fell into depression and began to drink heavily. In November 1974, he hanged himself at the writer's dacha in Peredelkino.

End of career and life

This tragedy inflicted a deep spiritual wound on the actress. Friends said then that the wonderful light in the depths of her eyes was extinguished, and, according to Inna herself, she continued to live only for the sake of her daughter. Since 1975, the actress has taken part in the filming of only four paintings, which included "The escape of Mr. McKinley" produced by "Mosfilm" and the melodrama "Kreutzer Sonata" in 1987. She became her last film work.

May 27, 1990 Gulaya Inna Iosifovna died at the age of 51 years. Death came from an overdose of sleeping pills. According to the most common version, the cause of her death was suicide.

Simple great actress

In her short life, Inna Gulaya, whose biography is full of tragedy, yet showed how profound, versatile and talented the actress she was. In her works she demonstrated her ability to get used to the role to the last cell, joining the image with all her heart.

Yuri Nikulin, Inna Gulai's partner in the film When the Trees were Big, talked about her as a man who made an indelible impression on others. She captured the audience with her sincerity and "huge, clean, soul-piercing eyes." It remains only to guess what an unprecedented contribution to the development of cinematography could have been made by this unflown star, if its fate had developed differently.