Ivan Lapikov - People's Artist of the USSR of the period of 50-60s of the XX century, who won the viewer's love for the believable images of a Russian person. Known for the films "Eternal Call", "The Return of Budulai", "Quiet Flows the Don", "They Fought for their Homeland."
Ivan Lapikov: biography
The family in which the future actor was born on July 7, 1922 was a peasant and lived in the Tsaritsin province (today the Volgograd region) in the village of Gorny Balykley. He spent his childhood and youth in the countryside and was first-hand acquainted with peasant life.
The Lapikov family in the 20s was considered strong and prosperous, because Ivan Gerasim's father knew how to manage the household. In the 30s, it turned out that the Lapikovs were subject to dispossession; put their younger brother Gerasim and his wife, the same fate threatened him. The Lapikovs moved to another village turned out to be a salvation from repression.
Years of youth … Years of war …
Studied Ivan Lapikov in Stalingrad, in the same city he studied at the factory Palace of Culture: played the balalaika in an amateur string orchestra and participated in a drama circle. In 1939 he became a student at the Kharkov Theater School, but managed to complete only two courses due to the outbreak of World War II. The young man was mobilized into the battalion involved in the construction of anti-tank barriers near Stalingrad. He was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" for the fact that during the Battle of Stalingrad, when the ground burned and burned underfoot, he transported the wounded on a fishing boat to the opposite bank of the Volga. More than a hundred saved fate on the account of Ivan Gerasimovich, who for the whole life remembered the terrible picture - dozens of dying and crippled people.
Ivan Lapikov: personal life
In 1941, Lapikov entered the Stalingrad Drama Theater, to which he devoted more than twenty years of his life. In the same place in 1947 he met his future wife - Julia Friedman, who was distributed by the Leningrad Theater Institute. The young man managed to win the heart of his sympathy with incredible charm; he even made a proposal in an original way: during a rehearsal he put on a wedding ring on Julia’s finger.
The first theatrical roles of Ivan Lapikov were wordless. Experienced actors comforted the young artist that he would really be in demand when he brought 300 trays to the stage. He tacitly endured and continued to study hard with professional actors the intricacies of theatrical art. On the account of Ivan Lapikov such performances as “Running”, “Idiot”, “Profitable Place”. Moreover, the actor always did makeup for his heroes himself.
Judging by his on-screen images, Ivan Lapikov seems to the viewer a serious and strict person. In fact, according to the recollections of his daughter Elena, he was very funny. He loved to play in productions of comedic old people (he got the roles of older people from the age of 20); look at his exits, to laugh until you drop, the whole theater came running.
At first, the Lapikov family was quite difficult with the material side of life: they spent the night in the theater, and their daughter Lena, born in 1950, was in a suitcase with a torn lid. Later they were given a room in the hut, and only after years the family moved into a new apartment. Due to the employment of parents, grandmother was engaged in raising Helen. Then a tragedy entered the family: the 35-year-old Julia, who played the main roles on the stage of the theater, suddenly began to lose her hearing. The reason for this was the shell shock obtained during the enemy bombing. At first, the young woman hid deafness, trying to read lips. But then the theater still had to leave. Julia, by nature being an impulsive person, in order not to lose her mind from the suddenly collapsed misfortune, decided to leave for Moscow. Ivan Lapikov, whose family had every chance of breaking up, spent another year in Stalingrad, and then moved to his wife.
The beginning of Lapikov’s film career
This was the impetus in his acting career. Julia, realizing that she could not continue to play on stage, essentially became Lapikov’s manager; she directed him to theaters and film studios. In 1961, the actor made his debut in the film "Business Trip", and since 1963 joined the troupe of the Theater Studio of the film actor.
Ivan Lapikov, whose filmography includes more than a dozen roles, became popular after the release of the movie "Chairman" by Alexei Saltykov with Ulyanov and Mordyukova, which thundered throughout the country. The role of Semen - the brother of the protagonist Yegor Trubnikov (Mikhail Ulyanov) - was played by Ivan Lapikov, whose biography is similar to the life and life of any ordinary person. The film was truly true, showing the feat of the Soviet people during the restoration of war-destroyed agriculture. This is an epic about the tragedy of the Russian people, for whom the war ended not in 1945, but much later. The disabled chairman and widows who lost their husbands in the war - these people, personifying the true possibilities and spirit of our people, in conditions of terrifying poverty, tried to return the crippled life to normal.
Not at all like the actor familiar to the viewer …
In 1966, the film “Andrei Rublev” by film director Andrei Tarkovsky was released. In this film, Lapikov got one of the key roles - the monk Cyril.
The cameraman filming this movie sometimes complained that it was not easy with Ivan Lapikov. The actor was so accustomed to the role and penetrated by it that he violated the shooting rules, often went beyond the frame - all this for the sake of truthful and reliable transmission of the material being shot. Indeed, Ivan Lapikov, a biography whose family has always been interested in the viewer, is a person whom the viewer begins to believe from the first minute. Outwardly solid village man, estranged from the cinema world and focused on something intimate, the actor completely did not look like an artist in the usual sense. The roles he played were ordinary people, peasants and workers, who embodied Ivan Lapikov capaciously and precisely on the screen — a man from the earth, from the roots in which the whole Russian essence was felt — was not difficult.
After the Eternal Call and Andrei Rublev, Ivan Gerasimovich was already a recognized master. Over 40 years of work on the account of Ivan Lapikov more than 70 paintings. Among the works most familiar to the viewer:
- the role of Boris Krajushkin in “Minute of Silence” - the patriotic-heroic drama of Igor Shatrov,
- Uncle Kolya in the movie "Our Home",
- in the movie novel "Eternal Call" - Pankrat Nazarov,
- Chekist in the adventure film "About Friends and Companions",
- blacksmith Zhemov in "Youth of Peter",
- foremen Poprishchenko in "They Fought for the Motherland",
- blind old man in the historical drama Boris Godunov,
- Grandfather Vasily in “The Return of Budulai”,
- General Ermakova in the television series My Destiny.
What was the actor like in life?
In everyday life, Lapikov was quite unpretentious: an avid fisherman, he spent all his free time on the river bank with a fishing rod. After the release of “They Fought for their Homeland”, all the actors were called to the “cabinet”, where they were offered material wealth. Someone asked for a cottage, a car, an apartment; Lapikov’s desire was fishing in forbidden places.
He was very sympathetic to others, knew how to tell a joke, made a funny joke, loved gypsy songs. During work, the whole closed in on himself, did not discuss anything with anyone.
Along with the material values of Ivan Gerasimovich, his own health was of little interest. He could endure pain until the last, without telling anyone about it. So he suffered a stroke, later a heart attack, half of his body was paralyzed. Lapikov flatly refused to go to the hospital, his wife left him in less than a year.
