Vladimir Druzhnikov: biography, filmography, personal life, photo

Vladimir Druzhnikov is a famous Soviet actor from the 40s-50s. Films with his participation were watched with delight almost by every citizen of the Soviet Union.

Favorite director and audience

What contributed to such huge popularity? Perhaps, his fateful choice for the main role in the film "Guilty Without Guilt".

Film director Vladimir Petrov - the creator of the film "Peter the First", was looking for his future work, based on the play Ostrovsky, a man who can truly play Grigory Neznamov. The choice fell on Druzhnikov, who was at that time a second-year student at the Moscow Art Theater School and did not even think about such happiness.

How it all began

The native Muscovite was born in a well-to-do military family in 1922. His father dreamed that his son would follow the same path, but his love for the theater and reincarnations turned out to be stronger: Druzhnikov chose actor's skills and after school became a student at the Central Children's Theater. Next, there was a school studio at the Moscow Art Theater, where the future actor got completely by accident. Vladimir Druzhnikov played along to the friend who came to this institution and liked the admissions committee very much.

The training in acting coincided with the beginning of the bloodiest war in the history of the country of the Great Patriotic War. Classes in such a harsh time had to be combined with duty during night raids of enemy aviation. Since 1942, after the defeat of the fascists near Moscow, the capital has become much calmer, and the training sessions have resumed.

The first role - and success!

The tempting offer of Vladimir Petrov about the filming of the film "Without Guilt for Guilt" meant an exception from the school, the rules of which did not welcome students in the walls of the institution who combined their studies with another type of activity. The friends did not hesitate for long, agreed to the main role and was right. In addition, his partners on the set were such masters as Alla Tarasova, Pavel Massalsky, Viktor Stanitsin, Alexei Gribov, Boris Livanov. Film on the screens of the country came out in 1945 and immediately became the leader of the rental. And Vladimir Druzhnikov, as they say in the people, the next day woke up famous.

Even critics noted that the image he embodied was very close to Neznamov, whom the author of the work would like to see - A.N. Ostrovsky.

At the peak of popularity

Druzhnikov's bright debut lightning opened the door to him in a big movie. Many directors were happy to see him in their productions, but the young actor chose the role of Danila-master in the film-tale of Alexander Ptushko's "Stone Flower" and again did not lose. Popularity and demand for it grew every day. To play his contemporary - this is what the actor Vladimir Druzhnikov, who was loved by the audience and directors, dreamed about. This opportunity was granted to him in late 1945 by the Soviet cinema's master Ivan Pyryev. This was the role of Andrei Balashov in the painting "The Tale of the Siberian Land", which immediately after the release of the screens took the third place in the box office. A year later the creators of the film and the Druzhnikov also received the Stalin Prize - the first official award, followed by several more.

In the role of Konstantin Zaslonov

In 1948, as Druzhnikov as Konstantin Zaslonov, a war hero, the directors of the film studio "Belarusfilm" V. Korsh-Sablin and A. Fainzimmer made their bid. Their film "Constantine Zaslonov" about the brave partisan, who died in 1942, immediately became the leader of the film distribution. Why did the choice of directors fell on this actor? There are two reasons: Vladimir Druzhnikov, whose filmography was characterized by brightness and success, was very similar to the life prototype and, of course, wildly popular.

They were played four major roles in four films, which have become undoubted leaders in film distribution. Of the nine films shot from 1945 to 1950, eight became laureates of the Stalin Prize. There were no such achievements in any Soviet actor! Perhaps this was understood by Vladimir Druzhnikov himself (his photo in the images from the screens are given in the article), who rejected in the early 50s the offer of director Nikolai Okhlopkov to play Hamlet on the stage.

The creative achievements of the 1940s and 1950s were intertwined with successes on the personal front. His wife was the actress Nina Chalova. Everything went so smoothly that it seemed, it will always be so.

The period of creative decline

The end of the 50's and 60's in the actor's film career turned out to be less productive. For the most part, Vladimir Druzhnikov, whose personal life has always remained outside the zone of public attention, played the role of the second plan.

Here are just some of the pictures with this talented and charismatic actor:

• "Bonfire of immortality";
• "Without the right to make mistakes";
• "Ships storm the bastions";
• "Boots";
• "First Joy";
• "Admiral Ushakov";
• "Dangerous Paths";
• "Two lifes";
• "Unusual summer";
• "Three sisters";
• "Race Vertically";
• "Duel".

The middle of the 60s practically did not bring Druzhnikov new works. Perhaps the only director who remembered Vladimir was Arkady Koltsaty, who invited the latter to his film "The Mysterious Monk." Released on the screens in 1968, the film gained a huge audience success.

According to the memories of the People's Artist of the USSR Marina Ladynina, Druzhnikov was a very responsible person. In the last decade of his life he was practically not in demand; If it happened that some film director promised to give a role, then Vladimir could not leave his apartment for several days in anticipation of a decisive call from the studio. Sometimes, unfortunately, in vain. Times changed, the younger generation chose new idols for themselves.

last years of life

Virtually unclaimed Vladimir Druzhnikov was forced to look for other forms of earnings: he began to travel with concerts around the country, reading prose and poetry, periodically appeared on the radio, interestingly and qualitatively showed himself in dubbing. On the stage, the actor played Cherkun in "Varvara" and Paratov in "The Dowry".

The 70s were marked by the release of such paintings with the participation of Druzhnikov, as "Man in civilian clothes", "Officers", "Tavern on Pyatnitskaya", "Without the right to make a mistake". In the 80's, it was the work "Awakening" and "They were actors." However, the time of Druzhnikov's heroes is gone forever.

Vladimir Druzhnikov, whose biography is characterized by both ups and downs in the film career, and in 1992 buried his beloved wife, whose loss was greatly upsetting. In 1994, at the age of 71, Vladimir Druzhnikov himself passed away. His ashes are buried in the Troekurov cemetery. For all his lengthy cinematographic activity, Vladimir Druzhnikov, whose talent was characterized by brightness and versatility, starred in almost four dozen films.