Gaft brothers. People's Artist of Russia Valentin Gaft. Kingdom of the little ones. Adventures of Murzilka and the forest… Anna Khvolson

Russian channels buried the famous actor Valentin Gaft. Now the “buried” but not buried cult actor is preparing lawsuits against TV people.

“The cult actor Valentin Gaft died, he was overcome by Parkinson's disease.

In one of the programs of Channel One, the TV presenter asked the audience to honor the memory of deceased artists. Photos of screen stars of past years crawled across the screen. Valentin Gaft was buried ahead of schedule by NTV. The actor himself answered the spreaders of terrible rumors.

In September 2013, Gaft said: “In general, I am cool about television. But I really didn’t like it when they said on NTV that I was sick and would die soon. They took me to the hospital, where I underwent a routine examination: how I pour myself water and spill it past the cup - it happens to everyone. But on NTV they said that my coordination of movements was impaired. Already I would like not to look for "fried", but to show and write the truth. I am alive, healthy in age and in relatively good creative shape.

He directly told reporters: “Love develops the best human qualities, it purifies. This is especially clear when your life has passed, when you understand more and feel more acutely. Love shortens the road to faith - like religion. You know, if you want to say all this out loud from the stage, you have to feel love yourself. Valentin Iosifovich himself said about his sores in an interview: “I have one disease - old age! And she is not cured. But I don't want to lie in the hospital and wait for the end. I still have a lot to do.”

Coming from a family of hereditary Jews, one of the most famous actors of Soviet and Russian films, on whose account there are about a hundred roles in feature films, a true professional in his field, Valentin Gaft, a true role model for any self-respecting actor.

He was born on September 2, 1935. WITH early years an active participant in school amateur performances, a graduate of the Shchukin School and the Moscow Art Theater, he played his first role in the theater at the famous Mossovet Theater. Actively worked in the theater on Malloy Bronnaya and the Theater of Satire.

The roles of Valentin Gaft fascinated and continue to fascinate the viewer. The actor first appeared in films in 1956, interesting fact that he mainly played the role of the French, or villains. Geverinz from Seventeen Moments of Spring and the butler Brasset from the movie Hello, I'm your aunt, these are his first notable appearances in a big movie.

Both in the profession and in his personal life, Gaft could not achieve harmony for a long time. He was married three times before he met a woman with whom he could find happiness. This woman was the actress Olga Ostroumova, writes the portal rosregistr. They met on the set of the film "Garage", but in those years both were not free. And therefore, their relationship began only after many years.

Many people know the beautiful Olga Ostroumova from her roles in popular films: “The Dawns Here Are Quiet”, “We'll Live Until Monday”, etc. The actors got married right in the hospital where Valentin was after surgery. The last marriage significantly influenced the life of the actor. Beloved woman was able to resurrect a perishing soul.

He is happy, despite what he had to endure.

Gaft's daughter made several suicide attempts. The latter turned out to be "successful" ... The actor found out about Olga's death late in the evening, after the next performance. The death of his daughter Valentin Gaft experienced extremely hard. And a few years after Olga's death, he learned that he already had a fully grown son, whose existence he had no idea.

National artist RSFSR (1984)
Laureate of the Tsarskoye Selo Prize (1993)

Childhood

Before the war, the Gaft family lived in Moscow, in a five-story building on Matrosskaya Tishina Street. The Gafts lived more than modestly, in a communal apartment, like everyone else. They had one room and everyone was happy. Valentin's parents had nothing to do with the theater. Father, Joseph Romanovich (1907-1969), was a lawyer by profession. He was surprisingly modest, but a strong and proud man. From his mother, Gita Davydovna (1908-1993), Valentin learned organization, she instilled in him a love of order.

Very well, a day that could become fatal in the fate of the family crashed into Valya's childhood memory. On June 21, 1941, they had to go to Ukraine, to the city of Priluki. However, for some reason, the parents changed the tickets for Sunday the 22nd. The next day, Molotov spoke on the radio with a message about the beginning of the war ... I remember the farewell to the front of my father, then my cousin. My father went through the entire war, ending it as a major.

The very first impression of the theater came to him in the fourth grade while watching Sergei Mikhalkov's play "Special Task" in the children's theater. He believed everything that happened on stage. But by his own admission, there was no desire to become an actor then. It appeared a little later, and he began to participate in school amateur performances, where Valentin had to play exclusively female roles because there were only boys in the school then.

Moscow Art Theater

But even playing in school performances, Valentin was embarrassed to admit to someone that he wants to become an artist. Therefore, he decided to act in secret from everyone. Valentin decided to try his luck at once both at the Shchukin School and at the Moscow Art Theater School. Two days before the exams, Gaft accidentally met the idol of all moviegoers, Sergei Stolyarov, on the street and asked to "listen" to him. Stolyarov was surprised, but did not refuse. Lessons famous actor were not wasted. True, he passed only the first round at the school. But Valentin entered the Moscow Art Theater on the first attempt, passing the exam with excellent marks. When they accepted him, he was shocked, he could not believe what was happening.

Like all students of the Moscow Art Theater, Valentin Gaft dreamed of immediately getting into the cinema. Once (this was in 1956) he was invited to join the film crew of the film "Murder on Dante Street", where Mikhail Kozakov was approved for one of the main roles, and they gave an almost wordless role. So the debut of Valentin Gaft in the cinema took place. In the same year, he appeared in a cameo role in the romantic drama The Poet.

Parents reacted in a peculiar way to the artistic activity of their son. When he studied at the Moscow Art Theater School, his father told him: "Valya, what kind of artist are you? Look at Misha Kozakov - he has both a suit and a bow tie, and what are you? That's what an artist should be." Mother, seeing him in the play "The Marriage of Figaro", said: "Valya, how thin you are!"

Theater

After graduating from the Moscow Art Theater School in 1957, Gaft could not get a job for a long time, he was not taken to any theater. The famous reader, Dmitry Zhuravlev, helped. With his light hand, Gaft ended up in the Moscow City Council Theater. However, a year later he left the theater during the tour - he did not like the roles that were offered to play.

After some time, Erast Garin offered him a job at the Satire Theater. The debut failed, he was kicked out, but a few years later, on the same stage, Valentin Gaft played one of his best roles - Count Almaviva in Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro, who was subsequently played by Alexander Shirvindt for many years.

For some time, Gaft worked in the theater on Malaya Bronnaya. Then new transition- to A.A. Goncharov, who then headed a small theater on Spartakovskaya Street.

In 1964, after working at the Goncharov Theater, Gaft came to Anatoly Vasilyevich Efros at the Theater named after Lenin Komsomol. This is a special page, because it has become perhaps the most important in his artistic biography. The best performances of the Efros Theater have forever remained theatrical classics. Gaft worked for Efros for a relatively short time and did not play so many roles. But it was this experience that formed the foundation of his skill.

He came to Sovremennik at the invitation of Oleg Efremov in 1969. Many of his roles in this theater are associated with the name of the chief director of the theater Galina Volchek. Gaft's whole life is now connected with this theater, and he considers it his home.

Among his best roles: Glumov ("Balalaikin and K"), Lopatin ("From Lopatin's Notes"), Gorelov ("Hurry to do good"), George ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"), Rakhlin ("A Medium Fluffy Home Cat ").

Difficult road to the cinema

To the cinema long years Gaft played only episodes or inexpressive roles. And although by the end of the 60s he increasingly appeared on the silver screen, there were practically no bright, memorable roles.

Valentin Gaft himself explains it this way: “The cinema did not spoil me. Not only was my type not the same. Non-Russian, strange appearance. In those days, the hero had to be different. This is natural. was not suitable for any role, with rare exceptions. Most often it was like this - they did screen tests, and it seemed that they were about to take on the role, but then someone came, and they didn’t shoot me in the picture. "

Only in the 70s did the first notable roles begin to appear, such as Stewart in the political drama Night at the 14th Parallel (1971), Lopatin in the television production of the play From Lopakhin's Notes (1975), Brasset in the comedy Hello, I your aunt!"

Even then, Gaft's creative manner manifested itself, distinguished by intellectualism, subtle psychological study of the image, freedom and sharpness of the plastic drawing, and subtle humor. In each character, he revealed the depth of feelings and inner experiences, this even applied to small or ironic film roles: Kramin ("For the rest of my life" - 1975), Znamensky ("The Tale of an Unknown Actor" - 1976), fellow traveler ("Almost a funny story" - 1977), Georges ("Circus Boy" - 1979).

Cooperation with Ryazanov

However, real popularity came to Gaft only after collaborating with Eldar Ryazanov. The roles played by Gaft in the films of this outstanding film director became the best in the actor's biography.

In 1979, he played the chairman of the garage-building cooperative Sidorkin in the comedy Garage. The character is rather grotesque, farcical and ironic, thanks to Gaft's artistic flair, he was played in such a way that he made it possible to translate the entire film into the realistic direction the director needed.

In 1980, Gaft starred in Eldar Ryazanov's tragicomedy "Say a word about the poor hussar ...". Father-commander, selfless brave man, noble colonel, who conquered many cities and women, run wild from barracks life, but with a heightened sense of honor, lonely, without a family and home, a warrior who bows neither to bullets nor superiors, dashing cavalryman, hussar , devoted to the homeland - this is how the hero of Gaft Pokrovsky appeared to the audience.

Odinokov turned out to be completely different - the hero of Gaft from Eldar Ryazanov's painting "Forgotten Melody for Flute" (1987). The actor surprisingly juicy created the image of a bureaucrat and campaigner from the Ministry of Free Time. With a great sense of humor, he performed the song of a bureaucrat laid off from work.

Finally, in Ryazyanov's tragicomedy "Promised Heaven" (1991), Gaft managed to create an integral pure character of the leader of the homeless, nicknamed "President", for whom it is clear what is mean in life and what is noble. His hero is a truly intelligent and educated person, tender to friends and intolerant of bureaucrats.

Popularity

Many interesting roles were played in the 80s by other directors. So in the detective film by Alexander Muratov "Vertical Racing" (1982), he appeared as a recidivist thief Alexei Dedushkin, nicknamed Baton. The psychological duel of the investigator (A. Myagkov) and the charming thief keeps you in suspense throughout the film.

No less interesting role went to Gaft in another detective series "Visit to the Minotaur" (1987). Another psychological duel, this time between an investigator played by Sergei Shakurov and Ikonnikov, who is suspected of stealing. Gaft's character, a musician in the past, who never became the first violin, not resigned to the second role, switched to breeding snakes.

Also, notable roles were played by Gaft in the musical comedy "Magicians" (1982), the tragicomedy "On the Main Street with an Orchestra" (1986), the action movie "Thieves in Law" (1988), "The Lady's Visit" (1989), "Night Fun" (1991), "Anchor, more Anchor!" (1992).

In 1994, Valentin Gaft played Woland in the film The Master and Margarita, which was never released.

An actor of a wide creative range, Valentin Gaft is distinguished by freedom and naturalness of stage and screen behavior, inner nervousness. With a recognizable voice and expressively sharp facial features, he is fluent in a variety of genres in the profession. As stated in the theatrical encyclopedia, "Gaft is characterized by a sharp and accurate embodiment of the image of a modern intellectual, a combination of analyticity and temperament, the depth of revealing a dramatic conflict, and an attraction to major problems and characters."

Epigram Master

In parallel with the acting takeoff, another fame came to Gaft. He became famous as the author of sharp, sometimes poisonous epigrams. At the suggestion of Oleg Efremov, Gaft suddenly, quite unexpectedly, both for himself and for others, began to compose epigrams. It was irony over himself, over others. He did not want to offend, rebuke or quarrel anyone. I just wanted to tell my own truth in this way.

THE OLD JEW WAS COMPLETELY OUT OF MIND

AND PUTIN HAS BEEN HIGHER AND NOBLE
Congratulated Gavt in response to his rudeness on his anniversary

Gaft has no mind.
He spent it on Epigrams.

SON OF A LAWYER

“Valya, what kind of artist are you?!” - Gaft-father said to his son, a student of a theater university. Valentin Gaft, who comes from a family that is not at all theatrical, recalls: “One night the thought occurred to me - there is a profession where you don’t need to know anything, neither mathematics nor physics! And just go on stage and say: "Dinner is served." And you will be in business, and even the money will be paid.

Valentin Gaft was born in Moscow in 1935. in a Jewish family from the Poltava province (Priluki). His father, Iosif Ruvimovich Gaft (1907-1969), a front-line soldier, worked as a lawyer in the Legal Advice Office on Leningradsky Prospekt; mother, Gita Davydovna Gaft (1908-1993), was a housewife.

Like the entire liberalist ZhIDVA of the Russian Federation, Gavt, in the national liberation war of the Novorossians, firmly took the side of the Nazi Bandera, who are carrying out Nazi de-Sovietization and dismantling of monuments to the soldiers-liberators of the Red Army. Wearing a St. George ribbon in dill can now cost a life.
Here is such a Jew Valya Gavt, the son of a front-line soldier.

It remains to be regretted that his mother Gita Davydovna did not have an abortion on time, and his father, a front-line soldier, a major, wounded 4 times in the war, did not live to see this shameful moment. He himself would have shot him with his own hand, like Taras Bulba of the traitor Andriy.

But if the Gavt family had not moved from Poltava Pryluky to Moscow in time, then it would not have been guaranteed to escape the Bandera holocaust. If they fell into the hands of the Bandera people, they would have shown 6-year-old Valentin Iosifovich how to love Nenko Ukraine.

Very well, a day that could become fatal in the fate of the family crashed into Valya's childhood memory. On June 21, 1941, they had to go to Ukraine, to their homeland in the city of Priluki. However, for some reason, the parents changed the tickets for Sunday the 22nd. The next day, Molotov spoke on the radio with a message about the beginning of the war ... I remember the farewell to the front of my father, then my cousin. My father went through the entire war, ending it as a major.

Now the people of Novorossia, who do not want to become a victim of the Bandera genocide and are desperately resisting, provoke animal rejection in Gavt, and Putin, who defends the Russians, causes gag reflexes in him.
The old Jew has completely lost his mind.

PRILUKY BABIY YAR

The Jewish ghetto in Priluki existed from September 1941 to May 20, 1942.
It is no coincidence that the Pliskunivsky bridge was appointed as a gathering place for Jews for the so-called “resettlement to Palestine”. More precisely - a small bridge thrown over the river Pliskunivka. Literally a few hundred meters from the bridge, the Nazis discovered a small but deep ravine (yar), bordered on all sides by hills. The steepness of the slopes is such that not every athlete will climb them. In the upper part of the ravine, the slopes parted, forming a wide sloping entrance, through which you can even enter by car. In the lower part between the steep slopes there is a narrow entrance, where a foundation pit was dug in advance. From the place of gathering of the Jews there was a road to the ravine... In front of the entrance to the ravine, on the lower side, there is a small green lawn located behind the hill, so that it is not visible either from the bridge or from the ravine, where a mass grave had already been prepared for the still living, but doomed .
The Germans gathered Bandera policemen from all adjacent areas. On the night of May 20, 1942, no one slept in the ghetto, except for small children, trembling anxiously in their last dream. Early in the morning from the fourth school - the center Jewish ghetto, people rushed from the adjacent streets and lanes towards Lenina Street, the main and longest street in the city, which led directly to the Pliskunivsky Bridge. Old men, women and children walked in families with babies in their arms, carrying bundled belongings. Fearing resistance and riots, the Germans exterminated all adult and healthy men. The street became crowded with shuffling, exhausted and exhausted people walking along the pavement.
During the eight months of their stay in the ghetto, people turned into ghosts, no one knows where they drew strength for their last way. Only the crying of hungry children and the pleading of old people were heard.
We walked along the carriageway of the street, and on both sides of the sidewalks we watched the funeral procession of those going to their deaths. locals.
Some of the doomed believed in the coming migration to the homeland of their ancestors, or convinced themselves of this, and walked humbly. Most knew what they were going to and what awaited them at the end of the road, but they moved doomed, unable to resist either physically or morally. My mother was with them. The thin blanket that she wore instead of a scarf fell down and barely rested on the edges of her lowered shoulders, exposing her whitened early gray head. She walked and prayed. Her face was focused. In her passionate appeal to the Almighty, she whispered:
“Lord, I don’t ask you for anything for myself, let everything be as you please, I beg only one thing, save my son. Take him out of this hell, give life to my son Yosenka. You are omnipotent, I have you in mine last request I beg you, do as I ask! In the name of his life, I give you my life. Just save and protect him."

Behind the ominous Pliskunivsky bridge, the Germans, together with Bandera, blocked the street, the front rows stopped, and the rear ones, approaching, formed a disorderly crowd.
This is where the worst began. The police separated a group of people and chased them around the turn into a green lawn. Here, hidden around the corner of the hill, the defenseless Jews were suddenly attacked by Bandera with batons. They mercilessly beat everyone in a row, ordering everyone to strip naked. Naked people were driven into the ravine, to a pre-dug pit. Sonderkommandos began their usual "work".

Having finished with the first batch of the doomed, the police drove the next group to the ill-fated site.
This massacre went on for a whole day. As the Nazis promised, assistance was provided to all the disabled: they were loaded into cars specially equipped so that the exhaust gases from the engine were discharged into the body. These gas chambers drove in from the top of the ravine to unload the corpses.

On May 20, 1942, the Nazis massacred the entire Jewish population of the city. As far as I know, more than five thousand people were shot here. My own mother, along with all the Jews of Pryluch, passed away into eternity.
I'm already in old age, and I appeal to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren: I ask you to remember and not forget that non-humans in human form cannot be forgiven.

Vladimir Entin, Hadera

***

Almost every region of Ukraine occupied by the Nazis has its own Babi Yars. According to the same scheme, the extermination of Jews took place in large and small cities and towns. However, mass executions were by no means the only method of exterminating Soviet Jews. Already in the first weeks of the war, people were burned alive in Galicia and other regions of Western Ukraine. As practically and throughout the territory Soviet Union, in Ukraine, the occupiers used the most barbaric methods of killing people, especially young children. The Nazis threw them alive into the grave, threw them into the air and caught them with bayonets, tore them apart, smeared their lips with poison. Jews were drowned in rivers, swamps, wells, thrown into mine shafts, walled up alive, sawn into pieces.

The number of Jewish victims - citizens of Ukraine was the largest in the territory of the USSR. They made up at least half of the Soviet and about a quarter of all the dead Jews in Europe - over 1 million 400 thousand people.

Only in summer months In 1941, about 95,000 Jews were exterminated, in the autumn - over 320,000; in the winter of 1941/42 - over 180,000.

In the spring of 1942, less than 120,000 were destroyed here. It should be noted that neither in December 1941 nor in January 1942 were fewer Jews exterminated than in any of the spring months of 1942. Therefore, there is no need to speak of a "winter pause".

The following features of the Holocaust in Ukraine can be distinguished. Both German and Romanian occupation troops participated in the extermination of Jews here (at the same time, the Hungarian troops who occupied part of Galicia did not kill Jews). They were actively assisted by local nationalist armed formations and police units. It was in Ukraine that the total extermination of Jewish communities began in August-September 1941 major cities, including Kyiv. Most of the ghettos were created on the territory of the republic.

Only the Jews of Ukraine (from the district "Galicia"), as well as prisoners of some ghettoes in Western Belarus, were sent to death camps in Poland. At the same time, the territory of Ukraine was the first to be used for the extermination of Jews from the Czech Republic and Hungary.

It was here that already in 1941 more than half a million Soviet Jews were exterminated - the largest number in this period in the occupied Soviet territory. Ukraine has lost more than 60% of its pre-war population.

FOR SURE ALL OF HIS RELATIVES DIE IN PRILUKY, but he is a liberal and supports the Ukronazis for ideological reasons.

An outstanding theater and film actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR (1984), Laureate of the Tsarskoye Selo Prize (1993) Valentin Iosifovich Gaft was born in Moscow on September 2, 1935, in the family of lawyer Joseph Romanovich Gaft. Neither father nor mother Valentina Gaft had anything to do with the theater. Mom, Gita Davydovna, managed to instill in her son a love of order and organization, and his father conveyed such character traits as pride and strength, but at the same time modesty. Valentin spent his childhood in a communal apartment. The Gafts lived modestly, but they were not at all embarrassed by crowding, since mutual understanding and love reigned in the family. Valentin first got acquainted with theatrical art when he was in the fourth grade. The guys were taken to Sergei Mikhalkov's play "Special Assignment". Valentin was fascinated by the action taking place on the stage, he believed everything. However, at that time the desire to become an actor had not yet appeared, it came a little later, in high school, and Gaft decided to take part in school amateur performances.

But in his youth, Valentine was a little shy about his desire to become an actor, so he acted secretly from everyone. He immediately submitted documents to the Moscow Art Theater School and the Shchukin School, on the first attempt he entered the Moscow Art Theater, which was extremely surprised, until the last he did not believe his luck. I must say that a few days before the exams, Gaft met Sergei Stolyarov on the street, and turned to him with a request to audition. Stolyarov gave the purposeful and courageous young man several lessons, which later helped Gaft a lot when he entered.

Valentin performed his debut film role as a student at the Moscow Art Theater School. This was a role almost without words in the 1956 film Murder on Dante Street, where one of the main roles was played by Mikhail Kozakov. In the same year, Gaft starred in an episode of the romantic drama Poet. Thus began a gradual and steady ascent. talented actor to the heights of the film career. Gradual - because for a long time Gaft was offered only minor and episodic roles. The actor himself explains this with his "strange, non-Russian" appearance. At that time, other types were required. The first notable roles began to appear in the 70s - for example, Brasset in the comedy Hello, I'm Your Aunt. But Valentin Gaft received true popularity and popular love when he began collaborating with director Eldar Ryazanov (Garage, Say a Word About the Poor Hussar, Forgotten Melody for Flute). In the 80s, the actor began to receive many interesting offers and from other directors. In total, Valentin Gaft starred in more than a hundred films, and continues to be a sought-after actor, and is currently being filmed.

In 1957, Valentin Gaft graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School, and for some time he could not get a job in any theater. Finally, Dmitry Zhuravlev, a well-known reader, helped the young man. So Valentine ended up at the Mossovet Theater. Here he did not like it too much - in particular, he did not like the proposed roles. In the early 60s, Valentin Gaft worked at the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, then with A.A. Goncharov, in a small theater on Spartakovskaya Street. In 1964, Gaft came to Lenkom, to Anatoly Vasilyevich Efros. He worked here until 1969. Lenkom became milestone in the life of Valentin Gaft, perhaps the most significant in creative biography actor. After all, Efros staged amazing performances that immediately became theatrical classics. In Lenkom, y, Gaft received colossal valuable experience, which then turned into a solid foundation for his magnificent acting skills. In 1965, Valentin Gaft played the role of Evdokimov in the play "", in 1966 - the Marquis d'Orsigny in the production of "Molière" based on the play by M. Bulgakov. In 1969, Gaft, at the invitation of Oleg Efremov, moved to Sovremennik. This theater became a second home for the actor, it was on his stage that he performed many brilliant roles, the best of which are George ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"), "Lopatin" ("From Lopatin's Notes"), Glumov ("Balalaykin and K" ), Gorelov (“Hurry to do good”), Rakhlin (“Home cat of medium fluffiness”).

Anastasia 2011-06-29
Great actor!

Petr Stanislavovich 2010-05-19
Valentin Gaft is a talent, no... TALENT! Size, uniqueness in everything, whatever he undertakes, whether it be roles in the theater, cinema or his brilliant epigrams. There are fewer and fewer such actors and personalities like him, and people and artists are getting smaller ... And in Gaft there is an innate nobility, intelligence, spiritual depth and wisdom. I live in Kursk, and at the end of 2009, Valentin Gaft came to us with Olga Mikhailovna. My wife and I were at their show. The audience did not want to let Gaft off the stage, and then I thought that the years had no power over this great man. Yes, Valentin Iosifovich is already an elderly actor - but you look at him, listen to him and every time you fall in love anew, and you don’t notice these past years. We love, appreciate, admire!

It is probably difficult to list all the films and wonderful roles for which the viewer remembers him. Each role of Valentin Gaft was unique, thanks to his game, and it is unlikely that anyone would have taken up the embodiment of these images. Although now Gaft no longer needs to play so much - the audience will clap even when he enters the stage once.

THE EARLY YEARS AND THE ROAD TO THE THEATER

Your pre-war childhood Valentin Gaf t spent in Moscow. In those years, nothing foreshadowed his future acting career. Father, Joseph Romanovich, was a lawyer. And the mother, Gita Davydovna, always taught her son to be organized and keep order in everything, because then the family lived in a small room in a communal apartment on Matrosskaya Tishina Street.

June 21, 1941 - the day the war began, the family was supposed to move to the City of Priluki, in Ukraine, but due to the heavy workload of their father, they decided to change tickets a day later. And it became a fatal decision in their lives. On June 22, Molotov announced the beginning of the war on the radio. Father and cousin Valentina Gafta went to war. At the end of the war, Joseph Romanovich returned as a major.

Valentin Gaft in his youth

And for the first time, Valentin met the theater only in the fourth grade, when he was taken to the children's theater to watch Sergei Mikhalkov's play "Special Task". And though Valentin Gaf t was very impressed with what was happening on stage, but he did not yet have a desire to become an actor. The first thoughts about choosing an acting career appeared when he first appeared on the school stage himself. By the way, since the school was only for boys, Valentine had a chance to play many female roles.

And yet the profession of an actor was far from what others expected from him. Therefore, he decided to secretly submit documents to two universities at once - to the Shchukin School and the Moscow Art Theater School. Gaft later said that before the exams he was lucky to meet the actor Sergei Stolyarov. And then Valentine was not afraid, he asked the idol of the public to listen to him first and give some advice. The actor, although he was surprised by such a request, decided to help. And, although Gaft was able to go through only one round in Pike, he entered the Moscow Art Theater on the first try.

His parents reacted ambiguously to this. As he remembers Valentin Gaft, his father then said: “Valya, what kind of artist are you? Look at Misha Kozakov - he has both a suit and a bow tie, and what about you? That's what an artist should be." Then he did not imagine that the first film role in Valentina Gafta will be in the film with Kozakov. Then everyone dreamed of getting on the screen. And the first success in this area smiled at Gaft in the last years of the institute, although these were episodic roles, almost without words, in the films “Murder on Dante Street” and “Poet”.

First screen appearance in Murder on Dante Street

LONG SEARCH FOR "OWN" SCENE

But after graduating from the institute, they did not want to take Gaft to any theater. The famous reader, Dmitry Zhuravlev, helped in finding a job. Thanks to him Valentina Gafta took to the theater of the Moscow City Council. True, the actor did not stay there for a long time: during the very first tour, he left the troupe, as he did not like the proposed roles. After some time, Erast Garin offered him a job at the Satire Theater, but he was expelled from there after his first debut. Then no one knew that a few years later on the stage of this theater Valentin Gaft will perform one of his best theatrical roles - Count Almaviva in Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro.

Valentin Gaft - actor of the Sovremennik Theater

During this period, jobs Valentina Gafta are replaced one after another. First, he works in the theater on Malaya Bronnaya, then with A.A. Goncharov in a small theater on Spartakovskaya Street, and in 1964 Gaft got to Anatoly Vasilyevich Efros at the Lenin Komsomol Theater. And, although the actor also did not stay long in the latter, it was here that he gained experience that formed the basis of his subsequent career, because the theater played a lot of classical productions that helped Gaft find his talent.

Five years later, Oleg Efremov invites him to work at Sovremennik. And it was this theater that became dear to him and remains so to this day. Among the best roles played on this stage are Glumov "Balalaykin and K", George "Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Scene from the play "Balalaykin and K"

AND FINALLY A MOVIE

Career in cinema Valentina Gafta didn't go very well either. For a long time he played only in episodes. And even when, by the end of the 60s, the actor began to appear more and more on the screen, he still did not get interesting and memorable roles. As Gaft himself said about this: “The cinema did not spoil me. Not only that, my type was not the same. Non-Russian, strange appearance. In those days, the hero had to be different. This is natural. In the 50s, 60s, 70s, I was not suitable for any role, with rare exceptions. Most often it was like this - they did screen tests, and it seemed that they were about to take on the role, but then someone came, and it was not me who was shot in the picture.

In the 70s, luck began to smile Valentin Gaft, and he played his first bright film roles: Brasset in the comedy "Hello, I'm your aunt!" and Stewart in the political drama Night at the 14th Parallel. And even then his cinematic style began to develop. intellectual games, with a deep drawing of the image.

A frame from the film "Hello, I'm your aunt!"

But true popularity came to Gaft after meeting Eldar Ryazanov. It was with him that he played his classic roles. Their first joint work became in 1979 the film "Garage", where Valentin Gaft played the role of chairman of the garage-building cooperative Sidorkin. His game perfectly portrayed the ironic character in the spirit of the times.

This was followed by more than one role in Ryazanov's films: the father-commander in the tragicomedy "Say a word about the poor hussar ...", Odinokov in the film "The Forgotten Melody for the Flute", the leader of the homeless named "President" in the tragicomedy "Promised Heaven". Each of these roles was completely different from the previous one, and it was with Ryazanov that Gaft was able to show that he was able to play absolutely different heroes. In each of these films, the actor created a unique and memorable image for a long time.

Shot from the film "Garage"

After that to Valentin Gaft popularity came. In the 80s he was lucky to play many interesting roles. Among them are the roles of recidivist thief Alexei Dedushkin, nicknamed Baton, in Alexander Muratov's detective story "Vertical Racing" and a role in the detective series "Visit to the Minotaur." Also famous were the roles of Valentin Gaft in such films: “Magicians”, “On the Main Street with an Orchestra”, “Visit of a Lady” and “Anchor, more Anchor!”. And in 1994, Gaft played Woland in the film adaptation of The Master and Margarita directed by Yuri Kara, but the film was never released to wide screens.

Frame from the film "The Master and Margarita

LITERARY WORK OF VALENTIN GAFTA

But Valentin Gaft rich not only in his acting talent. One day, unexpectedly for himself, he began to compose epigrams. And then Oleg Efremov invited him to compose several such epigrams about famous actors. They were ironic and sometimes very caustic, but their purpose was not to insult colleagues, but simply a fun look at their work. Many of them have been frequently cited. Here are some of them.

Dzhigarkhanyan:

There are much fewer Armenians in the land,

Than films where Dzhigarkhanyan played.

Irina Alferova:

You won't be successful

After all, you, beauty, are not Piekha.

Make your success in bed -

Doing it on stage is a sin!

And among the most intimate pleasures

Irina is better b .... th of all.

Stop walking through the torments

Play with art you separation.

Mikhail Boyarsky:

Why are you yelling like that

Like a robbed Jew?

Do not disturb D "Artagnan,

He is a nobleman, not a plebeian.

By the way, already at that stage Valentin Gaft began to ascribe some lines written or spoken not by him. After that with epigrams Valentin Gaft quickly finished, but nevertheless decided to improve his poetic abilities. So today there are even several collections lyric poems Valentina Gafta. In addition to poetry, there are other books by Gaft dedicated to the theater and his life.

THREE WIVES OF VALENTIN GAFTA

Personal life Valentina Gafta ball much more eventful than you can imagine now, because in his youth he was considered enough interesting man. The actor entered into marriage three times, and his chosen ones were very attractive women. First wife Valentina Gafta became a fashion model Elena Izorgina. The second is the ballerina Inna Eliseeva. And although the couple had a daughter, Olga, they still divorced in the 80s.

One of the biggest tragedies in the life of an actor is connected with this marriage. After their divorce, the daughter took her mother's surname and stayed with her, but nevertheless maintained a warm relationship with her father. But the older Olga got, the more her relationship with her mother deteriorated. In September 2002, the girl unexpectedly committed suicide, blaming her mother in a suicide note. Inna Eliseeva, however, did not outlive Olga much, having died on January 31, 2003 from stomach cancer.

Valentin Gaft with his daughter

But with his third wife, actress Olga Ostroumova, he is happy to this day. But their relationship was not so easy. They first met on the set of the film "Garage", and, although Olga immediately liked Valentin Gaft, at that time she was married, and Valentin Iosifovich decided not to even try. “I felt so bad,” the actor said. - I realized that I was tired of lying, tired of hearing lies from others, I was tired of the contradictions in which I got confused. And suddenly Olya appeared on the screen - I just stared at the image, I could not take my eyes off her wonderful face. But soon Olga Mikhailovna broke up with her husband, and then the path to their happiness was open.

Valentin Gaft and Olga Ostroumova

In filmography Valentina Gafta to date, there are more than a hundred roles, many of which have become classics. But despite this, he always considered himself first and foremost theater actor. For more than 40 years he has been faithful to his temple, the Sovremennik Theater, on the stage of which he has played countless wonderful roles. In my 80s Valentin Gaft is still active. Soon the actor plans to stage his own play, in which he has invested everything he would like to pass on to future generations. As the actor himself says: “I think that each generation lives for the next. Life gives a person happiness and rewards him for the fact that he, with all the difficulties of life, remains a man.