Elizabeth Dahl is primarily known as the wife and faithful companion of the People's Artist of Ukraine. She was with him for quite some time, especially supporting the actor in the last years of his life, when he had to deal with a creative crisis and alcohol addiction. Many of those who personally knew Elizabeth note that she was a kind, restrained and sensitive woman. It was precisely this that Dahl's indefatigable and ebullient nature needed, but even she could not save him from self-destruction and the ensuing death.
Childhood
Elizabeth Dahl was born on August 27, 1937. She was born in Leningrad. Her birth name was Elizabeth Eichenbaum. The childhood of the heroine of our article passed with her parents in a small superstructure to the house on the embankment of the Griboedov Canal in the Northern capital.
Her grandfather was a well-known literary critic in the Soviet Union. Boris Mikhailovich Eichenbaum had a doctorate in philological sciences, specialized in studying the theory of poetic language, and was considered one of the best representatives of this field in the country. The girl from childhood grew up in a creative and hospitable environment. There were always guests in the house, often a literary elite. Anna Akhmatova was friendly with Eichenbaum.
Leningrad blockade
The biography of Elizabeth Dahl is very difficult. When she was only four years old, the Great Patriotic War began. Together with her parents, she was practically locked up in the besieged Leningrad and steadfastly endured all hardships, hunger and cold, even though her mother Olga Borisovna then repeatedly remembered that the girl grew tearful. Apparently, a nervous and restless childhood left its imprint: Lisa cried literally for any reason.
When she grew up, the difficult blockade time in the family was rarely remembered. In the blockade, the sister of the heroine of our article, Tatyana, and her father, Alexei Alekseevich Apraksin, died. After the war, only Lisa herself, her grandfather and mother remained alive.
Education
After the war, the girl carefully chose a profession, tried to study diligently in school, so that she had more chances to enter a prestigious educational institution.
In addition, it was decided at the family council that she would take her father's last name, since it was very difficult to build a career in the Soviet Union with Jewish roots. So she became Elizabeth Apraksina.
After receiving a secondary education, Lisa realized that she was most attracted to the exact sciences, she even got excited about the idea to finish mehmat. But the competition in all universities in this area was too high, and guys were given an advantage. Many teachers simply could not believe that the girl would be able to successfully study at mehmat.
Having failed, Lisa enters the pedagogical institute. But she never gets a diploma. This profession seemed to her too boring, and she dropped out of school.
Labor career
After a failure at the Pedagogical Institute, Lisa finds a part-time job at the Zoological Museum, then studies at the Forestry Engineering Academy for some time, but she also understands at this university that this is not her vocation. She drops out of the academy in a year.
After working at the Zoological Museum, she was taken as an editor for Lenfilm. This work is significant in the biography of Elizabeth Dahl, because it was at the film studio that she was lucky to meet a man who became her fate and the main love of life. But before that, the heroine of our article had another chosen one.
First husband
The first husband of the heroine of our article was Leonid Kvinikhidze. Lisa's personal life with him frankly did not work out. It was a very unhappy marriage, the couple constantly quarreled and cursed. They found reasons for dissatisfaction with each other almost every day.
The only thing Lisa can be grateful to Kvinikhidze for is that it was he who arranged her for Lenfilm. Without him, a girl without education would hardly have been accepted to one of the largest domestic film studios.
Leonid himself was a famous screenwriter and director, also originally from Leningrad. He worked in the musical comedy theater in Odessa, Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk musical theaters. Among his films, all viewers know the political detective “Mission in Kabul”, the sci-fi drama “The Crash of Engineer Garin”, the musical comedy “The Straw Hat”, the comedy television movie “Sky Swallows”, the fairy tale for family viewing “Mary Poppins, Goodbye!”.
After a divorce from Leonid Lisa, who was always an impressionable nature, even promised herself that she would never marry again. But this word did not hold, probably never regretting it. But her ex-husband married a second time pretty soon, his chosen one was the then-famous Soviet ballerina Natalya Makarova.
Meet Dahl
The life of the heroine of our article literally turned upside down my acquaintance with Oleg Dal. They met on the set of the tragedy of Grigory Kozintsev "King Lear". Dahl played in this picture of the Jester, and Lisa worked as an editor. It was 1969 in the yard.
Dahl himself later recalled that when he first saw her for the first time in Narva, it was there that the picture was shot, he immediately thought: “This will be my woman.” Although he didn’t even know who she was and that they would be in the same film crew.
It is interesting that in Narva itself, the relationship between them did not start then, but when they returned to Leningrad, a real romance began. Lisa recalled that along with Dal, Sergey Dovlatov was visiting her, everyone drank, and the men wanted to sit out each other. Then she quietly told Oleg to leave together, and then he returned. He did not like it then. As the girl later found out, the actor was terribly principled, did not know how and did not like to trick, but still did as she asked. And the next morning, waking up in her bed, he immediately went to the future mother-in-law to ask for the daughter’s hands.
Elizabeth Dahl herself was surprised at such decisiveness and haste, believing that you can do without a stamp in your passport, at least for the first time. But Dahl was categorical. He said that in this country, living together without registration is humiliating, so they should go to the registry office. She agreed, despite the fact that more recently, after breaking up with Kvinikhidze, she promised herself that she would never want to live with her husband again.
Dahl's third marriage
For Dahl himself, this marriage was already the third. His first chosen one was actress Nina Doroshina from the Sovremennik Theater. She became famous for the role of Vasya’s wife, Nadezhda, in the lyrical comedy of Vladimir Menshov “Love and Pigeons”. They married Dahl in 1963, but the marriage soon broke up. Doroshina married a second time master of the world from the Sovremennik Theater, Vladimir Tyshkov.
Dahl entered into a second marriage with actress Tatyana Lavrova, who had lived in a civil marriage with the tragically dead Evgeny Urbansky for several years. Among her famous works is the drama by Mikhail Romm “Nine Days of One Year, ” in which she starred with Innokenty Smoktunovsky and Alexei Batalov. And she played the main character - Gusev’s wife, Lely.
This union also proved to be short-lived. The couple divorced after about six months. Lavrova married for the third time, now for football player Vladimir Mikhailov.
Both women have repeatedly admitted that their union broke up due to the very difficult nature of her husband, who was difficult to get along with.
Together with her husband
The years lived together with Oleg Dal became one of the most important and significant in the fate of the heroine of our article. Though life measured them quite a bit. It was hard at the same time, but Lisa felt that the person who was next to her was worth it.
She lived next to the brilliant artist of her time, who was known among friends and acquaintances as a wayward and impulsive person who does not accept compromises. Those around him believed that he was a classic image of a real creative person. He could suddenly leave the set, if he didn’t like something, cancel his own participation in the play or filming for a completely inexplicable reason. That is, he behaved like a real star who knows his worth.
Features of family life
And at home, Oleg Dahl's wife, Elizabeth Eichenbaum, often faced the fact that her husband was too irritable, just could not cope with the emotions that were pushing him. She tried to wisely extinguish all outbreaks of anger, always remembering that her husband really loved her.
Surprisingly, filming a movie was not the main source of income for Dahl. It was a world in which he strove to live dozens of lives daily. He could easily refuse any role if she did not suit him, not paying attention to what kind of a fee they promise for her and how things are in the family budget.
When Elizabeth met her future husband, she was 32 years old. Since they began to live together, they practically never parted.
The first time after the wedding they lived in an apartment in Leningrad, but then still moved to Moscow, having changed several places of residence in the Soviet capital. Their last refuge was an apartment on Smolensky Boulevard, where Oleg Dal's wife lived with her husband and mothers on both sides.
A woman should not work
Dal adhered to this principle in his life. When they all lived together on Smolensky Boulevard, only he worked in the house. Both mothers were already in retirement age, and he simply forbade his wife to go to earn money, sincerely believing that the main business of the actor’s wife should be waiting for him from the shoot, ensuring comfort and coziness. And she waited, doing everything as he wanted.
The apartment on Smolensky Boulevard Dahl really liked. He had his own office there with a beautiful view from the window; in it he liked to be alone with himself.
Home wife
At that time, the heroine of our article sincerely believed that she had found happiness in her personal life. Elizabeth Dahl was waiting for her husband from the set, devoting herself to her family and providing comfort in the house. The only thing that saddened her was the absence of children, whom the couple never had.
When Oleg died, Lisa realized that her family happiness had finally collapsed. Together with Dahl, she spent about ten years. For the rest of his life, the widow kept the memory of her husband, who passed away when he was only 39 years old, in the prime of life.
Dahl's death
Dahl died on March 3, 1981. Already a few years before this, his affairs had deteriorated greatly. Censorship banned the film "Vacation in September", which he considered one of his best works in recent times. In addition, he often refused eminent directors, believing that he was offered unworthy roles, he had many conflicts, as a result of which he had a reputation as a disgraced actor.
In 1980, Dahl with great difficulty was able to approve the main role in the drama of Leonid Maryagin "An Uninvited Friend". Then no one could have imagined that this would be his last role in the movie. Difficulties arose due to a conflict with the leadership of Mosfilm, which occurred with the actor just before the final samples. Dal was worried about him. His colleagues and friends noted that even outwardly he looked very bad, was physically and nervously severely exhausted.
In the last years of his life, Dahl began to abuse alcohol. Moreover, he understood that this was a serious problem, took measures, was treated. Since childhood, he had a weak heart, all this only worsened his general condition.
Hotel "Studio"
The actor’s death occurred in the room of the Studio Hotel. She is in Kiev. Dal came to this city on a creative business trip. He was preparing for samples in the film “Apple in the palm of his hand” directed by Nikolai Rasheev.
According to a common version, which was actively discussed in the media, the actor died as a result of a heart attack, which was triggered by a large dose of alcohol. It turned out to be fatal for Dahl, since he was being treated for alcohol addiction at the time: he was "sewn up."
Elizabeth categorically denied this, claiming that her husband died of cardiac arrest in a dream. He was buried in Moscow at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
