Riga, August 14, 1987. Opera theatre. Give "The Marriage of Figaro." On the stage in the role of Figaro, the brilliant, as always, Andrei Mironov, whose filmography and theatrical work has more than a dozen diverse characters. The action continues exactly according to the plan. Until the fifth picture begins in the third act.
Figaro-Mironov pronounces his text, when he suddenly steps back, rests his hand on the gazebo and slides on it to the floor. Earl Shirvind takes it and takes it backstage to the deafening silence of the auditorium. “Shura, headache” - the last words of the great actor.
An ambulance took him to the clinic. The best doctors tried to save the life of a darling of the whole country for two days. On the morning of August 16, he passed away. The cause of the death of Andrei Mironov is an extensive hemorrhage in the brain.
A gift for all women
On the eve of International Women's Day, a son was born in the family of the famous pop artists of the Soviet Union, Maria Mironova and Alexander Menaker. But mother decided to write down his birth date on March 8, because this strong and intelligent woman was always sure that her son, a boy kissed by God, would be the best gift to all women of the USSR on their holiday. And after many years he really became such a gift: few of the young ladies could resist the Mironovsky charm. But all this later …
His father's career began with musical feuilleton. Later, Alexander Semenovich tried to combine his performance and direction. Mother performed in the 2nd Moscow Art Theater and in the Moscow State Music Hall.
Parents met in the newly created in the pre-war capital Gosteatra pop and miniatures. Then they worked there and it was then that their famous pop duet was invented. And three years later their son was born. Maria Vladimirovna took to the stage right up to the time of birth, and her fights began immediately during the performance. Andrei Mironov, whose filmography was replenished with each new film played, was born in a maternity hospital on Arbat.
Childhood and war
Andryusha was only three months old when the Great Patriotic War began. A miniature theater in which his parents served. was evacuated to Tashkent. In this city, the boy became very ill. Doctors were convinced that his strange disease was tropical dysentery. The baby had a hard time, and her mother listened every minute: did the baby have breathing or not. Andrei was lying on the floor, on newspaper scraps, and he did not have any strength even to cry. His eyes did not close. The wife of the famous pilot Gromov, who was able in those difficult days, managed to get the necessary medicine, provided invaluable help at that difficult time.
T-shirt under a torn sackcloth
The year 1948 has come. Seven-year-old Andryusha (at this age still Menaker) went to first grade. Two years later, the bells of “doctors' affairs” sounded like thunder from a clear sky. Parents made an important decision: the boy changed his name. Now his name was Andrey Mironov. The roles of this one of the best actors of our time have been loved by his fans for many years.
His childhood years were no different from the childhood of boys and girls of those years. He loved to run with the ball, with pleasure ran to the cinemas to watch movies, loved ice cream. His childhood hobby was collecting icons.
In school, he was a very playful boy, Andrei was recognized as a leader among classmates. He studied medium, exact sciences were not included in the priority of his interests. With all this, when Andrei Mironov, whose filmography a few years later began to grow at an insane pace, celebrated his 11th birthday, a story happened that could provide him with a film debut. Director Ptushko began shooting the fairy tale "Sadko". For extras he needed children. Among the selected was Andryusha. A small role of a beggar was intended for him. But Mironov’s skate all his life was incredible cleanliness, so he did not dare to pull a holey sackcloth on his naked body and put it on a fashionable t-shirt in those years. Noticing this, the director screamed and the boy was asked to leave the set. The debut of the future actor did not take place.
“What will I be? Only an actor! ”
In childhood, Mironov Andrei Alexandrovich, whose filmography is of interest to every viewer, spent almost every summer in Pestov, where the recreation center of the Art Theater was in those years. He was familiar with the famous Moscow Art Theater. And at school Andryusha with great pleasure participated in all kinds of theatrical productions. In 1958 he entered the Shchukin Theater School on the course of I. Rapoport. He was well-fed, pimpled and polite, he didn’t especially shine with talents - on that course were completely different leaders. But he really wanted to get a red diploma. He studied quite diligently and immediately retook any four. From the other classmates he was distinguished by accuracy, which sometimes even seemed a little inappropriate.
First role
Students, under pain of exclusion, were strictly forbidden to act in films. But many, making every effort to do this, tried to get into the crowd. Everyone except him. So, Andrei Mironov. The filmography of this unique actor in Soviet cinema began in the fourth year, thanks to Julia Raizman. He invited him to his film "And if it is love?". Oddly enough, but no one beginning actor did not scold. Perhaps due to the fact that Andrei was at school in good standing. Perhaps a very influential family of Andrei Mironov stood up.
Debut role in the theater
In 1962 he received a diploma. His dream of working at the Vakhtangov Theater did not come true, which plunged the impressionable Mironov into the abyss of frustration. Now he could not figure out which theater to go to work. He was helped by an absolute coincidence in the person of Pluchek, who invited him to his place.
Mironov allowed themselves to be a little prankish, but came to watch. And his debut soon took place: the play “24 hours a day”, the character - Garik. After this, the roles fell like a cornucopia. But he became a real star of the theatrical stage, embodying the role of Tushkanchik on the stage (the play "Convent"). And now for those who recall his game, talented and unique, the cause of Andrei Mironov’s death seems like some kind of ridiculous and woeful accident, an evil joke from heaven. After all, he was always so real, so funny, so lively …
Screen star
By the beginning of the seventies, in the baggage of film roles of the actor was the first quite serious role of Alexander Zakhri. Soon after, the audience was able to see the film directed by G. Hovhannisyan "Three plus two." The character of Mironov in this comedy - the veterinarian Roman - brought him a certain fame. For the next few years, he starred with enviable regularity, but not very often. 1965 year. Received an offer from Ryazanov to come to the screenings. The role of the scoundrel and sly Dima Semitsvetova was recognized by critics as one of the best in the film. Moreover, the director himself said that this character was written out a bit slurred, so such a masterful reading was obtained precisely thanks to the skill and talent of Andrei Mironov. Then there were a few more pictures, until, finally, the shooting of one of the best Gaida comedies, “The Diamond Arm”, began. It was in this film that Mironov first sang on the screen. Despite the fact that his character is a crook Gennady Kazadoev named Graf, Mironov is loved by millions of viewers. The actor was so charming, sincere and easy to play the role of a scoundrel that everyone who watched this picture was imbued with involuntary sympathy for him. Although later in an interview, Andrei Mironov shared with some sadness his feelings that he was very painful and incomprehensible that for a huge number of viewers the highest point of his talent was this comedy. He really wanted to play with serious directors - Mikhalkov, Tarkovsky, but they did not see in him the heroes of their paintings.
1971 year. "Property of the Republic". In this film, the actor was lucky to play one of his most romantic roles (the character is a former court fencing teacher, nicknamed the Marquis). It’s practically him himself - charming, passionate, modest, gentle, kind, at heart - a maximalist who gives himself all in the name of justice. In just a second, his hero becomes the idol of the boys of the seventies, and the song sung by him became a hit.
There were also the roles of a criminal henchman in The Old Man-Robbers and the smart and handsome lieutenant of Ugro in The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia. Incidentally, in the last picture, all the tricks, even the most difficult ones, were performed by Mironov himself, without the need for help from understudies and stuntmen. After this film, he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
He was loved even by children. Andrei Mironov was impossible not to love, not to admire him.
In the 80s, the most difficult in the life of an actor, he still starred, despite the disease. Back in 78, he had his first hemorrhage, but after only two months he was again on stage. In the early 80s, terrible boils began to appear on his body, very painful and almost incurable. Nothing helped, except for ointments, which only slightly alleviated the condition. He decided to try lymphadenectomy - the removal of lymph nodes with a chronic infection. After the operation, he felt much better. He continued to act in film.
Worthy works of that period are the paintings “Be My Husband” in a duet with Elena Proklova, “My Friend Ivan Lapshin”, “The Tale of Wanderings” and “The Man from Kapucin Boulevard” in the company of eminent actors of Soviet cinema - Karachentsev, Tabakov, Boyarsky, Kvasha. It was the role of Fest that became the last in the life of Andrei Mironov (director - Alla Surikova, who started work only after the actor agreed to play in her picture). Success exceeded all expectations. It was as if they had returned a couple of decades ago to the “Diamond Arm”.
