The last year of the actor's life was incredibly intense, he seemed to try to catch up, to do what he did not have time to do.

Having played dozens of roles in cult comedies, Anatoly Papanov became an idol of adults, and children fell in love with him after the release of the animated series "Well, wait!". The kids recognized the Wolf on the street, and the artist generously signed autographs, communicated with little fans on equal terms. But he confessed to his relatives more than once: "This Wolf has gnawed my biography." The directors perceived Papanov as a genius comedian, and he wanted more, dreamed of drama. One of the most significant roles the artist had a chance to play in last year life. It was a generous parting gift from fate ...

Anatoly Papanov came to GITIS straight from the front, he was demobilized after a serious injury and partial amputation of his foot. Lame, with a speech impediment, he did it by a miracle - there were almost no guys at the institute, and the teachers were condescending to those who came. They did not lose: the thin, unsightly boy turned out to be a talented artist, and the lisp became the "highlight" of the images he created.

He was constant and loyal, acting temptations bypassed him. “I have one wife and one theater for life,” said Anatoly Papanov, who served 40 years in the Theater of Satire and who lived for 42 years with his beloved wife. Nadya Karataeva was his classmate, she also returned from the front, she also wore a tunic every day, because there were no other clothes ... They immediately found mutual language and very quickly realized that they loved each other.

Popularity came to Papanov quite late, he played his best roles after forty. He dreamed about it for many years, but when they began to recognize him on the streets and persecute him in his own entrance, he realized that this burden was heavy. The artist was ashamed of fame, was ashamed of the money he earned, did not want to stand out. When he got his own car, a luxurious Volga at that time, he never drove it to the very entrance to the theater, he left them a couple of blocks away.

Papanov always dressed very modestly, in worn jeans and inconspicuous shirts. His wife bought him weekend suits, decent shoes, but all this was gathering dust in the closet for years. The artist pulled a battered cap over his head, covered his eyes with dark glasses - he disguised himself from annoying admirers.

Anatoly Papanov was a wonderful father and grandfather, he doted in his granddaughters, whom his only daughter Elena gave him. He played with them for hours, and before going to bed he read not fairy tales, but something from the classics, for example, his beloved Eugene Onegin. He said that granddaughters are his best medicine, as well as a summer cottage where he loved to ride a bicycle and walk alone in the forest.

However, Anatoly Dmitrievich never complained about his health, and, although his heart sometimes tingled, he did not pay attention to it. Was sure: healthy image life and willpower work wonders. The artist did not smoke, suddenly gave up alcohol, went in for sports and swam in the country until November, when the water froze in the lake. And yet, by the age of 60, he felt that his strength was not the same. True, he did not want to admit this either to himself or to those around him.

The years 1986 and 1987 for Papanov were literally overflowing with events, which was especially striking against the background of the previous lull. Indeed, since the beginning of the 1980s, the artist has been filmed very little, and nothing interesting has happened in the theater. And then - as if a dam had burst! He was invited to teach at GITIS, main director The theater of satire finally entrusted him to stage the play, he went on tour, participated in creative meetings.

When in 1986 he brought home two screenplays at once, Nadezhda Yurievna became alarmed and angry:

Do you want to burst? You are not enough students and theater ...

She saw that her husband was tired, that he needed rest. But it was impossible to dissuade him from filming. True, Papanov agreed to only one film - "Cold summer of the fifty-third." The tragic story about the fight between political prisoners and bandits touched the artist to the quick.

When the shooting was over, Papanov approached the director Alexander Proshkin and asked:

Show me my grave.

He began to deny, they say, you don't need it ... But Anatoly Dmitrievich insisted. His hero, the political exiled Kopalych, is killed according to the plot, and the grave is shown in the frame - a modest mound with a cross.

Papanov was not superstitious and no presentiments of imminent death seemed to torment him, but, finding himself on "his" grave, his face changed. He grew gloomy, hunched over and walked away with a quick step.

True, he later said to fellow artists:

I played my death, so I will live long.

Unfortunately, this prophecy did not come true.

After filming, Papanov had to go to Riga, where his native theater toured and where his wife was waiting for him. But he decided to make a detour - to drop in to Moscow, to help his students with settling in a hostel. Anatoly Dmitrievich was rooting for them with his soul, he knew that if he did not appear, they would not get far the best places, and some may even end up on the street.

It was the first week of August, it was incredibly hot outside, and the asphalt was literally melting in Moscow. Anatoly Dmitrievich returned home tired. The only thing he dreamed about was to take a shower. Climbing the stairs, I met a janitor. He told him that the hot water was turned off.

Papanov reacted calmly to this, he always liked to cool off under an ice shower, said that it gives him strength and health. But this time everything went wrong.

Cold water, combined with overheating and fatigue, accumulated after months of filming, dealt a fatal blow to the actor. There was a vasospasm, and the artist's heart stopped when he was standing under an ice shower. Anatoly Dmitrievich fell, lost consciousness, and cold water continued to pour on his unfeeling body... If someone was there, if the ambulance arrived quickly enough, it is possible that Papanov could be saved. But by a fateful coincidence, at the most critical moment of life, no one was next to the artist. The wife was in Riga, the daughter with her family was at the dacha. He died alone, under a cascade of icy water, unable to move and call for help.

Papanov's wife was worried when he did not fly to Riga. She had no anxious forebodings, she was absolutely sure that now her husband would descend from the plane, embrace her, tell in paints how he fought for the hostel ... But the plane flew in without him. At that moment, a growing fear settled in her heart.

She began to call her home phone, neighbors, acquaintances - no one saw Papanov. Already realizing that something bad had happened, Nadezhda Yurievna contacted her daughter. She and her husband rushed from the dacha, the man climbed through the window through the neighbors' balcony and found a terrible picture: Anatoly Papanov's body was lying in the bathroom, streams of icy water poured on him. More than a day has passed since the attack occurred ...

The film "Cold Summer of 1953" became a requiem for the actor. "I really want to live ... and work!" - says the hero Papanova a few minutes before his death. At the premiere of the picture, the audience could not hold back tears at these words, and during the final shots everyone stood up and escorted their favorite artist with applause.

In Russia, there are only 21 full Cavaliers of this order like him. Among them, for example, artistic director theater "Lenkom" where Bronevoy works - Mark Zakharov. And Galina Volchek, with whom Bronevoy once studied at the Moscow Art Theater School. And also Irina Antonova, Galina Vishnevskaya, Maya Plisetskaya, Yuri Temirkanov ...

This is a very rare award, says Bronevoy, not without pride. - They gave it to me for my 85th birthday. The presidential decree was signed a year ago. But I was sick so I couldn't get it sooner. They say that he looks gorgeous: a huge star, which is hung on the chest on the right, a silk ribbon and also an order - under the chin. We'll have to wear a light gray suit to the Kremlin. Dark clothes are inappropriate for the day's ceremony, - says Bronevoy about the upcoming event. And I can hear in his words the intonation of the duke from the movie “That Munchausen”, who also strictly followed etiquette and fashion. Do you remember his words: "Nobody fights in a single-breasted uniform anymore"?

“IF THE VIEWERS SEE HOW I WALK, THEY ASK - WHY HAS HE COME TO MARRY?”

After a long break, you returned to the stage of Lenkom in the play The Cherry Orchard". How did the audience receive you?

They are well received. But the performance is also very good. Believe me, I have seen a lot of "Cherry Orchards" in my life. Mark Anatolyevich feels the classics, puts it modernly and briefly. Sasha Zakharova plays there wonderfully, she became a serious, real actress. Lots of good young actors ...

- Do you get along easily with young people? Or is your authority overwhelming them?

Young people don't ask me anything. They are very confident people. Yes, and I do not bother with comments. I try not to offend anyone. But you don't have to love everyone either.

Mark Anatolyevich always emphasizes that you are the artist of his theater. He really wanted you to return to the stage.

If not for his persistence, it would have been more difficult for me to do it. He says he wants to go on another adventure - preparing for me a role in a classic play, perhaps Ostrovsky. And I will gladly play in another of his performances. Perhaps it will be "Forest" or "For every wise man ...". He is looking for a play that is in tune with the present day. Zakharov has excellent command of both form and content - this is a rare gift from God.

- When do you plan to return to other performances - "Royal Games", "Marriage"?

In The Royal Games, I play the Duke of Norfolk and have to wear high boots by role, while my leg hurts. Even in winter, in the snow, he was forced to go outside in slippers. Other shoes are not suitable. Doctors say that this is due to blood vessels. I walk with a stick. Well, okay - Firs is in The Cherry Orchard, he, like me, is many years old. But to play the groom Agafya Tikhonovna ?! If the audience sees me walk, then the first thing they ask is why this old fool came to marry? Zbruev and Singers are funny playing the other two suitors. They are strange, ridiculous, stupid, but at least not sick.

"I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THE UKRAINIANS FIRED AT OWN"

Yes, I had a severe heart attack on tour in Kiev. I did not even understand how it happened, lost consciousness, was in intensive care for a long time. They operated on me there. There are very good doctors in Kiev. Professor Boris Mikhailovich Todurov, cardiac surgeon, director of the Kiev Heart Center, made an excellent clinic. In my opinion, there are no such clinics in Moscow. They made my heart well. True, they said that another operation was needed in a few years. But I quit smoking, not a single cigarette in two years. Before that he smoked for 70 years, since the war. Sometimes, you know, I want a cigarette, but I won't allow it. I still have to live ...

- You have relatives in Kiev, what is the situation there?

There were no relatives left, although I was born in Kiev. Even under Yanukovych, I was even awarded the title of People's Artist of Ukraine, although I did not understand why, I never worked there. “But you were born here,” they told me. - Your parents' apartment was taken away here, your father was arrested in 1937, and you and your mother were sent into exile. We all remember. " Well, thanks.

- Doesn't it feel like Ukraine?

Not anymore. Why are they killing each other, how long can this last ?! I do not understand who is to blame for this whole story: they, we, or America and Europe. Everyone is probably to blame. But it is impossible for the Ukrainians to shoot at their own people! I don't want to blame the West for incitement, but the reactionary West is probably happy with what is happening. Unfortunately, there are fears that this will not end soon. And we, too, can be dragged into this war. Therefore, we need to look for a compromise, hide our national pride, so that the confrontation ends by any means.

"IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO PLAY A Fascist LIKE BRONEVOY PLAYING MULLER"

- Now some of the theater artists of your generation have begun to sing. Such thoughts do not occur to you?

Many famous artists try to sing, and the audience is ready to endure it - even if they sing poorly. I used to do a lot of concerts and sometimes sang. I can't say which is good, but I accompanied myself on the piano. At the Moscow Art Theater School, I studied vocal, even at the exam I sang "Amid the Noisy Ball" ... And I sang at the "Pokrovsky Gates". Mikhail Kozakov and I wrote the lyrics, picked up the melody.

They say that in Mark Zakharov's films you also came up with witty lines for your characters, improvised ...

No, there I stuck to Gorin's text. “I saw their Italy on the map. A boot with a boot ... "" The head is a dark object, not subject to research. " “Would you like to have a bite, doctor? You can have a bite, if the doctor is full - and the patient feels better, "- Vlet quotes Bronevoy text from the movie" Formula of Love ", where he played the doctor. - Wonderful text by Grisha Gorin. Why spoil it with improvisation?

- Do you still remember him literally?

I remember all my roles. Even the role of Lenin, which he played half a century ago on the stage of the Voronezh Academic Theater.

- In the series, for example, would you like to play?

I played in "Seventeen Moments of Spring" - there are twelve episodes.

- So this is not a TV series, this is a masterpiece.

Now the series is filmed without rehearsals. Although real directors rehearse with actors for months. Lioznova tormented us with rehearsals. But what a film it turned out! And to shoot a movie from 8 am to 10 pm, one episode a day, for this you need bull health. And for what? To earn money for medicine or for your own funeral?

- Maybe for other needs, for example, for an apartment.

My wife and I have a two-room apartment, and we don't need any more. The Soviet government taught us to be content with what we have. On the one hand, it's terrible. On the other hand, less hassle. Any move is like an earthquake, it is associated with a lot of hassle.

- Do you watch films with your participation?

I can't watch. I have so many remarks, first of all to myself, but nothing can be fixed - and then I catch myself thinking that Bronevoy is very similar to his hero - an elderly slightly capricious actor from Popogrebsky's film “Simple Things”. - Have you seen this movie? It was there that I liked myself, although I had to rework my role, I finished writing the text along the way. Do you know why I liked this role? Because I didn't have the strength to try. You should never try. When a person tries, he sweats in a hail, it's disgusting to look at. There should be ease of communication, intonation.

- So this ease is even in your Müller, chief of the Gestapo. Is this your natural gift?

Mark Anatolyevich Zakharov also believes that this is natural. He says he still can't figure out how I play Muller in Seventeen Moments. He cites this role as an example to his student. I was even accused by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, Viktor Mironenko, that because of me new fascist organizations appeared, they say, you can't play a fascist like Bronevoy plays Mueller. And I had to answer him through the newspaper that you can't blame everything on art. I played Muller according to Stanislavsky's principle: look for good in evil, and evil in good. On the set we had a state security general. And one day Lioznova tells me that the general has comments on me: “Your Muller turns out to be humane good person... And he is still our enemy. I propose to add a little scene where you torture the general. " I ask: "Which general?" He told me: "Of course, the Soviet, taken prisoner." “Your organization is better at torturing a Soviet general than I am,” I replied rather sharply. - I won't do that. But if you insist, give me a German general who seems to have attempted to assassinate Hitler. " The result is an idiotic scene where I interrogate a German officer in a white shirt ... Although the film is not about that at all.

"Seventeen Moments of Spring" categorically did not like the "gray cardinal" Mikhail Suslov and the head of the political department of the Soviet army, General Epishev. Suslov did not like the fact that the leading role of the Communist Party was not felt in the film. And Epishev believed: it was necessary to show that the people won the war. But the film really liked the Minister of Defense Marshal Grechko and the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov. They defended the film, said that it was about the victory of the Soviet counterintelligence, and one intelligence officer was worth an entire army. Nevertheless, the picture was not given the USSR State Prize. A few years after the release, when Brezhnev watched Seventeen Moments, we were given the State Prize of the RSFSR named after the Vasiliev brothers. Slava Tikhonov was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. Tatyana Lioznova was awarded the Order of the October Revolution, and Tabakov and I were awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. But with this award there was a terrible casuistry: they wanted to present Lioznova for the title of Hero of Socialist Labor - she deserved this award no less than Tikhonov. But in order not to give her a Star, one word was replaced in the presentation for the award: instead of writing "for making a film," they wrote "for participating in the film." It's about the director! Lioznova was very worried about this. It was shameless and not beautiful.

Actor's Winged Phrases

And you, Stirlitz, I will ask you to stay.

("Seventeen Moments of Spring", Müller).

The head is a dark object and cannot be examined.

("Formula of Love", Doctor).

If there is no objection, the positive difference between the amount sufficient to support this announcement and the total amount of donations received will be used to help others in need of the same category of requests.

Tamara Vasilyevna Zelenina from Moscow is 79 years old. She has not left the house for 4 years. Need help buying an electric wheelchair

Tamara Vasilievna puts on woolen socks and slippers in any weather, puts on a bathrobe in any weather. “For 4 years now she has not left the house - before she could move in a street wheelchair with a manual
driven, but her hands are weakened and now she only has access to a wheelchair. In this wheelchair you will not go out into the street - the house has a narrow elevator and an unsuitable ramp, ”says Larisa Goryacheva, a volunteer of the Orthodox help service“ Mercy ”.

Tamara Vasilievna had problems with her legs when she was still young. Relations with the first husband did not work out - he beat her, the second husband drank. So she was left alone with two children. To feed them - sometimes worked at night - as a watchman at the factory, went to work
even in cold and damp conditions. Several times I caught a bad cold, my legs began to fail. I got to the hospital, was treated there for a long time - about 4 months. Over time, the condition worsened - she received a disability.

“Ten years ago, I was assigned a manual wheelchair. The use of such a wheelchair led to the fact that my hands were weakened, the attending physician stated partial paralysis, - says Tamara Vasilievna. “I can’t use the street carriage anymore, I don’t appear on the street for a long time.”

Several years ago, when Tamara Vasilievna could still go out, she was given a free ticket to a sanatorium. There she saw that many disabled people live interesting life, can go wherever they want, to the forest, to the city, for a walk.

“It turned out that they have electric carriages, and they do not know grief in movement. I had to sit in one place all day, because you can't go far with my stroller. Once I rented an electric stroller. What happiness it was! - Tamara Vasilievna recalls. - Move and travel long distances, wherever you want, without disturbing anyone!

Volunteers of the Orthodox help service "Mercy" tried to help Tamara Vasilyevna get such a wheelchair free of charge. But the bureau of social and medical examination was refused with the wording: "such wheelchairs are issued only to young disabled people and people with complete paralysis of the hands (when only fingers work)."

But in the case of Tamara Vasilievna, complete paralysis of the hands cannot be allowed! After all, this will lead to the fact that she will not be able to take care of herself on her own. “And I will end up in a nursing home. For health reasons, children cannot take proper care of me, they live separately on small pensions, "adds Tamara Vasilievna.

The cost of an electric carriage with an electric drive OttoBock A-200, which will suit a grandmother (goes into a narrow elevator and easily folds) She and her relatives do not have such money. The pension is 17,000 rubles, the children help with whatever they can, mainly with food.

“And I still want to live: go for a walk on the street, like everyone else ordinary people, just get some air, go to the park, ”shares Tamara Vasilievna.