Leonid Kharitonov (actor)
Encyclopedia
Leonid Vladimirovich Kharitonov (Russian
: Леонид Владимирович Харитонов) (1930–1987) was a Soviet actor whose stage name was Leonid Kharitonov. He was notable for his part in the films Private Ivan, Ivan Brovkin na tseline and Ulitsa polna neozhidannostey. He was awarded Honoured Artist of the RSFSR
(1972).
19 May 1930, USSR, and died in Moscow
20 June 1987, aged 57.
toured in Leningrad and offered auditions at his school. Kharitonov secretly attended, and was accepted.
in 1954. This was the Gorky Art Academic Theatre. After graduating from the studio school he continued working as an actor at the same theatre. He was an actor with the Academic Art Theatre in the name of M.Gorky, or Gorky Theatre
, from 1954 to 1962, but then he left this theatre and in 1962-1963 he performed with the Theatre of Lenin Komsomol and with the Pushkin Theatre. But in 1963 he returned to the Gorky Art Academic Theatre. He was a film actor from 1954: his first role was Boris Gorikov in the movie School of Courage, while he was still an acting student.
. Soldier Ivan Brovkin was followed in 1958 by Ivan Brovkin Na Tseline (see critical commentary below).
, as was the case during almost all his acting life.
school.
, he suffered a first stroke. Then, while filming From the Life of the Chief of Criminal Investigation on 4 July 1984 this was followed by a second stroke. His health could not bear the news of the crisis of the Moscow Art Theatre in the summer of 1987. On June 20, 1987, the day of its division into two parts which was a very hard and dramatic time for the theatre, Kharitonov died the same day from his third stroke which occurred in the drama theatre. He was buried in Moscow in plot number 50 of Vagankovskoye cemetery
.
The Forgotten Friend (1956) - Gosh
The Pickwick Papers
(1956) - Joe
The Lower Depths (1956) - Alyosha
The Devil's Disciple
(1957) - Christy
The road through the Sokolniki (1958) - Aleshka Vronsky - image
Three Fat Men (1961) - Dr. Gaspar
Mutiny (1977) - Caravan
So we will win! (1981) - Fist
We, the undersigned - Explorer
The Village Stepanchikovo - Evgraf Ezhevikin
Peace to the huts, war to the palaces
Days of the Turbins - Lariosik
Goodbye, boys - Sasha Krieger
Dead Souls
- Chichikov
House number 6
As he left, look - Fedor
The following is a selection of his films:
He was a supporting actor in Vasyok Trubachyov i yego tovarishchi (1955) and the romance Otryad Trubachyova srazhayetsya (1957). He played Fedul VI in Ogon, voda i... mednye truby (1968). He played the part of Dobchinsky in the comedy Inkognito iz Peterburga (1977). In 1979 he acted in Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears
(Москва слезам не верит), and Several Days of Oblomov’s Life (Несколько дней из жизни И.И.Обломова). In Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears he appears in cameo as himself, as part of the setting for the character Rudolf (Yuri Vasilyev) who is a television cameraman and first lover of the protagonist Ekaterina (Vera Alentova
). Kharitonov was at that time ubiquitous on Soviet
television, and therefore represented the contemporary celebrity media zeitgeist
. This cameo part is not unimportant, as director Vladimir Menshov
said: "The uniqueness of the movie Moscow does not believe in tears lies in the fact that there are no bit parts."
He played the Tsar in Along Unknown Paths or Tam, na nevedomykh dorozhkakh...(1982). He acted in: Iz Zhizni Nachalnika Ugolovnogo Rozyska (1983); Auktsion (1983); Postoronnim Vkhod Razreshyon (1986); Khorosho Sidim! (1986). He was also in the movie New Year's Abduction which featured the song Dark-Eyed Cossack Girl, publicised by his namesake and friend the bass singer Leonid Kharitonov
.
1954 School of courage (Boris Gorik)
1955 Vasek trumpeter and his comrade (counsellor Mitya Bourtsev)
1955 Soldier Ivan Brovkin (Russian
: Солдат Иван Бровкин) (Ivan Brovkin) - image
1955 Son (Andrew Goriaev) - image
1956 Good luck! (Andrey Averin)
1957 Next to us (laid off workers)
1957 Detachment Trubacheva fight (counsellor Mitya Bourtsev)
1957 Street full of surprises (Vasya Shaneshkin)
1958 Ivan Brovkin on Celina (Ivan Brovkin na tseline) (Ivan Brovkin)
1960 Let Light (TV film, Efimkov)
1961 Long day (Lesch, excavator)
1961 Two lives (shoemaker)
1962 How to make toast (short, Grechkin)
1962 Kapron network (Valka, captain of the river tug Swan)
1963 Pitiable fate (short)
1964 All for you (Vorobushkin)
1967 Places still here (naval)
1968 Fire, water and . . . copper pipes (Fedulov VI)
1969 Robbery (TV)
1969 New Year's Abduction (Новогоднее похищение)
1972 Fakir hour (Trofim)
1977 Incognito from St. Petersburg (Dobchinsky)
1978 Incidental passengers (companion to the mixed feed)
1978 Vanity of vanities (James A.)
1979 Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears
(Leonid Kharitonov)
1979 A few days from the life of Oblomov
(Russian
: Несколько дней из жизни И. И. Обломова) (Luka Savich)
1979 Father and Son (Dorofeyka)
1980 Houses for forest (Bogomolov)
1980 Gigolo and Gigoletta
1981 Charm with secrets (baleen whales)
1982 Young Russia (Longinov)
1982 Tam, on unknown tracks ... (King Makar)
1982 Charodei (Russian
: Чародеи) (Amatin)
1983 Auction (Yegorych)
1983 Eternal call (Yegor Kuzmich Dedyukhin)
1983 Quarantine (military in the zoo)
1983 From the life: head of criminal investigations (grandfather STEPAN)
1985 Bagrationi
1986 Sitting good! (grandfather)
1986 Inside allowed (neighbour Professor)
of the composition. The pictorial style predates the complementary colourist Andy Warhol
's first exhibition of 1962, and demonstrates that it was part of the source-culture for that artist's work, which he called "artificial colour". The idea of re-working printed portraiture with gouache paints goes back to the previous century to such artists as Degas
. The greyed-out sketch of the supporting actors in the top half of the poster serves to represent and encourage the audience's pleasure at seeing the Brovkin character on screen again. The poster contains another compositional joke or trick, as it appears to ignore the rule of thirds
on the vertical axis, while actually fulfilling that visual requirement on the horizontal axis, although discreetly. This cleverness again parallels Kharitonov's clever but hidden acting skills.
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Леонид Владимирович Харитонов) (1930–1987) was a Soviet actor whose stage name was Leonid Kharitonov. He was notable for his part in the films Private Ivan, Ivan Brovkin na tseline and Ulitsa polna neozhidannostey. He was awarded Honoured Artist of the RSFSR
Meritorious Artist
Meritorious Artist , also translated as Merited Artist, Deserved Artist or Distinguished Artist or Honorary Artist or Honorable Actor) is an honorary title in the Soviet Union, Russian Federation, Union republics, and Autonomous republics, also in some other Eastern bloc states, as well as in a...
(1972).
Life
See image. He was born in LeningradSaint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
19 May 1930, USSR, and died in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
20 June 1987, aged 57.
Training
In early life he was ambivalent about an acting career. Although he took part in amateur productions, and in the ninth grade applied to theatre school, he nevertheless chose to study law for a year at university, while continuing theatrical performance in his spare time. "In the play The Inspector, he rocked the entire city of Leningrad; he played Bobchinsky and it was after this role that he again seriously considered an acting career." That summer, the Moscow Art SchoolMoscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
toured in Leningrad and offered auditions at his school. Kharitonov secretly attended, and was accepted.
Overview of acting career
He graduated from the Nemirovich-Danchenko studio school at the Moscow Art TheatreMoscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
in 1954. This was the Gorky Art Academic Theatre. After graduating from the studio school he continued working as an actor at the same theatre. He was an actor with the Academic Art Theatre in the name of M.Gorky, or Gorky Theatre
Tovstonogov Theater
Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater , formerly known as Gorky Bolshoi Drama Theater , often referred to as the Bolshoi Drama Theater and by the acronym BDT , is a theater in Saint Petersburg, that is considered one of the best Russian theaters...
, from 1954 to 1962, but then he left this theatre and in 1962-1963 he performed with the Theatre of Lenin Komsomol and with the Pushkin Theatre. But in 1963 he returned to the Gorky Art Academic Theatre. He was a film actor from 1954: his first role was Boris Gorikov in the movie School of Courage, while he was still an acting student.
Early career and characterisations
In 1955 Kharitonov became a public idol after Soldier Ivan Brovkin was screened throughout the country. He was the object of much fan mail, and appeared privately to many local audiences in clubs, schools, factories and stadia. "His fame was such that the actor could not walk down the street." Kharitonov was a multi-dimensional performer who created a new type of Russian cinematic character: the charming bad egg, which he developed in his characterisations of Brovkin, the policeman Vasya Shaneshkin and his later heroic characters. "It was skill, hard work, professionalism and above all perception which allowed this sophisticated actor to play so convincingly this simple country boy, Brovkin." Much of this was the effect of his training with the psychological acting school of MATMoscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
. Soldier Ivan Brovkin was followed in 1958 by Ivan Brovkin Na Tseline (see critical commentary below).
Later career
With age, Kharitonov appeared in fewer films; he did not relish playing older men. However sometimes he does appear in later movies grey and stout. For this reason of gradual absence from movies, in the 1980s Leonid Kharitonov was almost forgotten as a film actor although he continued performing at his native Moscow Art TheatreMoscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
, as was the case during almost all his acting life.
Private life
In private life he was said to live modestly. He was married three times, first to Svetlana Kharitonov the character actress of the 1950s and 60s. He met his second wife, the actress Gemma Osmolovskaya, on the set of The Street is Full of Surprises, and they had a son Alexei Khartionov who is now a scientist-programmer. His third wife was his student at the Moscow Art TheatreMoscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
school.
Illness
In later years Kharitonov was seriously ill. In the summer of 1980, during the Moscow Olympics1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
, he suffered a first stroke. Then, while filming From the Life of the Chief of Criminal Investigation on 4 July 1984 this was followed by a second stroke. His health could not bear the news of the crisis of the Moscow Art Theatre in the summer of 1987. On June 20, 1987, the day of its division into two parts which was a very hard and dramatic time for the theatre, Kharitonov died the same day from his third stroke which occurred in the drama theatre. He was buried in Moscow in plot number 50 of Vagankovskoye cemetery
Vagankovo Cemetery
Vagan'kovskoye Cemetery , established in 1771, is located in the Krasnaya Presnya district of Moscow...
.
Theatrical performances
The following is a selection of Kharitonov's theatrical roles:The Forgotten Friend (1956) - Gosh
The Pickwick Papers
The Pickwick Papers
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...
(1956) - Joe
The Lower Depths (1956) - Alyosha
The Devil's Disciple
The Devil's Disciple
The Devil's Disciple is an 1897 play written by Irish dramatist, George Bernard Shaw. The play is Shaw's eighth, and after Richard Mansfield's original 1897 American production it was his first financial success, which helped to affirm his career as a playwright...
(1957) - Christy
The road through the Sokolniki (1958) - Aleshka Vronsky - image
Three Fat Men (1961) - Dr. Gaspar
Mutiny (1977) - Caravan
So we will win! (1981) - Fist
We, the undersigned - Explorer
The Village Stepanchikovo - Evgraf Ezhevikin
Peace to the huts, war to the palaces
Days of the Turbins - Lariosik
Goodbye, boys - Sasha Krieger
Dead Souls
Dead Souls
Dead Souls is a novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. Gogol himself saw it as an "epic poem in prose", and within the book as a "novel in verse". Despite supposedly completing the trilogy's second part, Gogol...
- Chichikov
House number 6
As he left, look - Fedor
Filmography
He was a supporting actor in Vasyok Trubachyov i yego tovarishchi (1955) and the romance Otryad Trubachyova srazhayetsya (1957). He played Fedul VI in Ogon, voda i... mednye truby (1968). He played the part of Dobchinsky in the comedy Inkognito iz Peterburga (1977). In 1979 he acted in Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears
Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears
Moscow Does not Believe in Tears is a 1980 Soviet film made by Mosfilm. It was written by Valentin Chernykh and directed by Vladimir Menshov. The leading roles were played by Menshov's wife Vera Alentova and by Aleksey Batalov. The film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in...
(Москва слезам не верит), and Several Days of Oblomov’s Life (Несколько дней из жизни И.И.Обломова). In Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears he appears in cameo as himself, as part of the setting for the character Rudolf (Yuri Vasilyev) who is a television cameraman and first lover of the protagonist Ekaterina (Vera Alentova
Vera Alentova
Vera Valentinovna Alentova is a Soviet and Russian theater and film actressmade famous for her leading role in the famous 1980 Soviet drama Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears.-Awards:...
). Kharitonov was at that time ubiquitous on Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
television, and therefore represented the contemporary celebrity media zeitgeist
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...
. This cameo part is not unimportant, as director Vladimir Menshov
Vladimir Menshov
Vladimir Valentinovich Menshov is a Soviet and Russian actor and film director. He is noted for depicting the Russian everyman and working class life in his films. Like many other Russian filmmakers, he studied acting and directing at the state film school VGIK, the world's oldest educational...
said: "The uniqueness of the movie Moscow does not believe in tears lies in the fact that there are no bit parts."
He played the Tsar in Along Unknown Paths or Tam, na nevedomykh dorozhkakh...(1982). He acted in: Iz Zhizni Nachalnika Ugolovnogo Rozyska (1983); Auktsion (1983); Postoronnim Vkhod Razreshyon (1986); Khorosho Sidim! (1986). He was also in the movie New Year's Abduction which featured the song Dark-Eyed Cossack Girl, publicised by his namesake and friend the bass singer Leonid Kharitonov
Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov
Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov is a Russian bass-baritone singer, born 18 September 1933 in the village of Golumet, Irkutsk Oblast. He has been honoured with: People's Artist of Russia and Honoured Artist of Russia. In the West he is noted for his 1965 video of the Song of the Volga Boatmen.-...
.
Full filmography
1955 Vasek trumpeter and his comrade (counsellor Mitya Bourtsev)
1955 Soldier Ivan Brovkin (Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Солдат Иван Бровкин) (Ivan Brovkin) - image
1955 Son (Andrew Goriaev) - image
1956 Good luck! (Andrey Averin)
1957 Next to us (laid off workers)
1957 Detachment Trubacheva fight (counsellor Mitya Bourtsev)
1957 Street full of surprises (Vasya Shaneshkin)
1958 Ivan Brovkin on Celina (Ivan Brovkin na tseline) (Ivan Brovkin)
1960 Let Light (TV film, Efimkov)
1961 Long day (Lesch, excavator)
1961 Two lives (shoemaker)
1962 How to make toast (short, Grechkin)
1962 Kapron network (Valka, captain of the river tug Swan)
1963 Pitiable fate (short)
1964 All for you (Vorobushkin)
1967 Places still here (naval)
1968 Fire, water and . . . copper pipes (Fedulov VI)
1969 Robbery (TV)
1969 New Year's Abduction (Новогоднее похищение)
1972 Fakir hour (Trofim)
1977 Incognito from St. Petersburg (Dobchinsky)
1978 Incidental passengers (companion to the mixed feed)
1978 Vanity of vanities (James A.)
1979 Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears
Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears
Moscow Does not Believe in Tears is a 1980 Soviet film made by Mosfilm. It was written by Valentin Chernykh and directed by Vladimir Menshov. The leading roles were played by Menshov's wife Vera Alentova and by Aleksey Batalov. The film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in...
(Leonid Kharitonov)
1979 A few days from the life of Oblomov
Oblomov
Oblomov is the best known novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, first published in 1859. Oblomov is also the central character of the novel, often seen as the ultimate incarnation of the superfluous man, a symbolic character in 19th-century Russian literature...
(Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Несколько дней из жизни И. И. Обломова) (Luka Savich)
1979 Father and Son (Dorofeyka)
1980 Houses for forest (Bogomolov)
1980 Gigolo and Gigoletta
1981 Charm with secrets (baleen whales)
1982 Young Russia (Longinov)
1982 Tam, on unknown tracks ... (King Makar)
1982 Charodei (Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Чародеи) (Amatin)
1983 Auction (Yegorych)
1983 Eternal call (Yegor Kuzmich Dedyukhin)
1983 Quarantine (military in the zoo)
1983 From the life: head of criminal investigations (grandfather STEPAN)
1985 Bagrationi
1986 Sitting good! (grandfather)
1986 Inside allowed (neighbour Professor)
Reviews and critical commentaries
Von Geldern review
"Honor of being the first film to break postwar taboos went to the far more modest The Soldier Ivan Brovkin (1955), directed by Ivan Lukinskii and ignored by film historians. Essentially a story about a nice young Russian boy drafted into the war, the film de-elevated the war film to a level accessible to common viewers, without challenging them to confront its pain. Played by Leonid Kharitonov, whose lyrical performance of several songs from the movie made him an all-Soviet heart throb, Brovkin opened the way for more adventurous films. Similar in story line but very different in treatment was the 1959 film Ballad of a Soldier, directed by Grigorii Chukhrai, which uses the tale of a young soldier on leave from the war to convey its futility and tragedy."James von Geldern
Critical commentary on Ivan Brovkin Na Tseline poster
The 1958 poster on the left illustrates the innocent face of the Brovkin character as performed by the sophisticated actor Kharitonov. It does this by contrasting the bland expression of the face with the shockingly modern (for 1958) complementary coloursComplementary color
Complementary colors are pairs of colors that are of “opposite” hue in some color model. The exact hue “complementary” to a given hue depends on the model in question, and perceptually uniform, additive, and subtractive color models, for example, have differing complements for any given color.-...
of the composition. The pictorial style predates the complementary colourist Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's first exhibition of 1962, and demonstrates that it was part of the source-culture for that artist's work, which he called "artificial colour". The idea of re-working printed portraiture with gouache paints goes back to the previous century to such artists as Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
. The greyed-out sketch of the supporting actors in the top half of the poster serves to represent and encourage the audience's pleasure at seeing the Brovkin character on screen again. The poster contains another compositional joke or trick, as it appears to ignore the rule of thirds
Rule of thirds
The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design.The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important...
on the vertical axis, while actually fulfilling that visual requirement on the horizontal axis, although discreetly. This cleverness again parallels Kharitonov's clever but hidden acting skills.
External links
- Russian Wikipedia page for Leonid Vladimirovich Kharitonov: includes filmography in Russian
- Filmset photos of Kharitonov in Soldier Ivan Brovkin and Son
- Youtube: Kharitonov in "Street is full of surprises" (1957)
- Youtube: Kharitonov in "Kak rozhdajutsja tosty" (1962)
- Narod.ru: unofficial website for Leonid Kharitonov in Russian