Love from the first frame. Faces and roles: legends of our cinema

The lives of the great Soviet actors and directors were dramatic, with rare exceptions. The superstar of Stalinist cinema, Ladynina, hated her age and angrily refused to act in the 80s: “Play an old woman? Never!” Green played offensively little in films: “Everyone said: “Rina! Rina!”, but other actresses were filmed.” Mironov suffered from an illness, due to which it was sometimes difficult for him to move, and in the frame he had to dance, portraying frivolous heartthrobs. Kramarov dreamed of leaving the USSR, where they almost stopped filming him, and wrote a letter personally to President Reagan. Gundareva struggled with excess weight all her life and never decided to have a child. Menshov called the period after the release of “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” one of the hardest in his life, although the film became a box office champion. Bondarchuk, having read an article about himself on the plane, wanted to open the door and get out of the airliner “into outer space.” And yet they all found a place in life for pranks and adventures, romances and partings. Bykov, Nikulin, Gurchenko, Myagkov, Leonov and many other stars “with character”. You definitely know all the characters in our book, but you probably don’t know much of what you read in it.