Birth and family
Alla was born in Moscow on September 29, 1936.
Her father, Sergei Alekseevich Demidov, belonged to a dynasty of gold miners. In 1932 he came under repression, but then he was released under an amnesty. In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, he volunteered to go to the front and reached Warsaw, during the liberation of which he died in 1944.
Alla has almost no memories of her dad; she retains only a few moments in her memory. When she was still tiny and walked through a large room, and her father, opening his arms wide, ran up to her and grabbed her. The little girl then felt happy. Her last memory of her dad was when he came home from the front on leave and brought her a soft toy fox.
Mom, Alexandra Dmitrievna Demidova (maiden name Kharchenko), worked at the Faculty of Economics at Moscow State University as a research assistant.
Alla Demidova in childhood
Childhood
The actress does not like to remember her childhood years; they were the most difficult in her biography and were spent in poverty and hunger. The girl was not even five years old when the war began. She was sent to her grandmother on the outskirts of Vladimir in the village of Nizhneye Seltso. Grandmother was a believer and belonged to the Old Believer community. Alla remembered from this period of her life tea brewed from beet peelings, icons, prayers and various wanderers who, despite poverty, were always welcome in the house.
After the war, my mother took her daughter to Moscow, but she worked constantly, then she got married a second time, and the girl had to be at school for five days, and spend the whole summer in pioneer camps. There were no holidays in Demidova’s childhood life, only continuous gray everyday life, worn out old clothes, and they didn’t even celebrate her birthday. When Alla was sick, no one really cared about her. The girl felt unwanted and abandoned. Books were her only joy.
Demidova’s dream of being an actress, and a great one at that, appeared at the age of five; this is how she answered the question of adults - what does she want to become when she grows up? At school, Alla immediately enrolled in a theater club, but she rarely got female roles; more often she had to play some animals or Bakula the Bean. Nevertheless, she stubbornly intended to enter drama school and prepared an excerpt from L. Tolstoy’s story “Anna Karenina” and Katerina’s monologue from “The Thunderstorm” by A. Ostrovsky.
Alla Demidova at school in the theater club
Instagram and Wikipedia Alla Demidova
Alla is a Soviet-style woman; for her, social networks are a waste of time. She doesn't like it. Demidova is a very cheerful, positive, active person. Therefore, it is not possible to find Alla Demidova’s Instagram and Wikipedia, because they simply do not exist. Everything you need to know about it can be found on the Internet easily and simply. When you ask any question, you will find an answer about this wonderful actress.
Fans, of course, really want to learn about her first-hand, but she does not understand such communication. Everyone knows that people of this age, almost all of them, do not recognize social networks.
Alla has few regrets in this life; if she was given a second chance to live it, then she would not change a thing. She would have lived it the same way, despite all the pain and resentment that she had. She didn't have the easiest life, but she carried everything through the years with dignity, and she has nothing to be ashamed of. You can even look up to her to some extent.
Youth
The first attempt to become a student at the Shchukin School ended in failure. Alla was not accepted due to poor diction. Demidova was very upset, but in order not to waste a year, she submitted documents to Moscow State University and entered the Faculty of Economics. I studied very diligently and every time I tried to drown out any thought about the theater that arose in my head.
But in her third year, she still began to take part in student theater performances. The first artistic director entrusted Alla with the role of a maid in the production of “Cunning and Love.” In 1958, a new artistic director, Rolan Bykov, joined their team. He staged the play “Such Love” based on P. Kogout’s play, Demidova played Lida Petrusova in it and this was her first serious stage work. The entire capital attended the student production.
Nevertheless, in 1959, Alla received a diploma in economics and decided to start teaching. Demidova prepared seminars on political economy for students at the Faculty of Philosophy. But her childhood dream haunted her, and Alla made a second attempt to enter the VTU named after Shchukin. Despite the fact that her diction still left much to be desired, Demidova was enrolled in a course with teacher Anna Orochko.
Alla Demidova on the theater stage
Alla Demidova now
In 2021, Alla Demidova became the laureate of the “Theatrical Star” award in the honorary category “Legend of the Stage.”
In June 2021, Alla Demidova appeared in the role of Baba Yaga in the drama “A Bag with No Bottom,” which premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival. The film is based on the novel “In the Thicket” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.
Alla Demidova in the film “A Bag Without a Bottom”
The film was shot according to the structure of a picture within a picture. The first layer takes place when the country is ruled by the Russian Emperor Alexander II. The maid of honor of the princely court tells a fairy tale, in the fantasy world of which the main plot about the mystical murder of the Tsarevich in the forest takes place. The events of the Lady-in-Waiting's Tale supposedly take place in the 13th century and focus on the testimony of eyewitnesses to the crime, whose words differ from the things that happened.
On November 16, 2021, the actress became a guest in the studio of the television show “The Fate of a Man” with Boris Korchevnikov, where she shared with viewers the details of her own life.
On November 24, Alla Demidova received the Grand Prix of the Snoba magazine award “Made in Russia 2017” for Kirill Serebrennikov.
The artistic director of the Gogol Center, Kirill Serebrennikov, found himself under house arrest at this time. Kirill Serebrennikov is accused of organizing the theft of 68 million rubles allocated from the budget for the creation of the Platform project, founded by the artistic director of the Seventh Studio. Alla Demidova gave a speech on this occasion, in which she called what was happening a tragic mistake.
On November 28 and 29, the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater hosted the play “Anna Akhmatova. A Poem Without a Hero" directed by the famous actress Alla Demidova and director Kirill Serebrennikov, in which the actors of the Gogol Center played. The production is timed to coincide with the Golden Mask festival.
The performance is based on Akhmatova’s poems, excerpts from “Requiem” and “Poem without a Hero,” as well as Alla Demidova’s book “Akhmatova’s Mirrors,” published in 2004.
Alla Demidova
The visual component of the new production is taken from the ideas expressed in Alla Sergeevna’s book: echoes, the appearance of a double in mirrors, scraps of paper, shadows and images of those who became part of Akhmatova’s “Poem”.
It is also worth mentioning that the book dedicated to Akhmatova’s work is not the only literary work authored by the actress. For thirty years Alla Sergeevna has been paying attention to literary creativity. From the pen of the actress, 14 books were published in which Alla Sergeevna recalls the past and reflects on theatrical life and acting. In 2021, Alla Demidova published the book “Nostalgia is Memory” and wrote the preface and compiled a collection of poems by Anna Akhmatova “Wild Honey”. Alla Demidova’s latest books for today are “Italian Travels” and “My Vysotsky”.
Theater
In 1964, after graduating with honors from the theater school, Demidova appeared at the Vakhtangov Theater. But she was not accepted there, and Alla again experienced severe disappointment, like ten years ago when she did not enter Shchuka.
I had to go where they hired me - to the Taganka Theater troupe. But it was he who became the main milestone in the creative biography of Alla Demidova, here she played her best roles. Although it didn't start out so rosy. The first work in the production “A Hero of Our Time” turned out to be a failure, after which director Yuri Lyubimov used the actress only in crowd scenes. But viewers noticed her look, plasticity and refined manners in minor roles.
For several years, Alla was the most obedient and faithful student of director Lyubimov, “a Stradivarius violin in his hands,” she worked tirelessly. By the end of the 1960s, Demidova received not only leading roles in productions, but also theater awards.
By the mid-1970s she became the leading actress of the Taganka Theater. Her best partner is Vladimir Vysotsky, despite the fact that sometimes it was very difficult to work with him. In their stage tandem, ice and fire clashed every time.
Alla Demidova and Vladimir Vysotsky on the stage of the Taganka Theater
All of theatrical Moscow and the best people in the country came to see Demidova in productions:
- "Hamlet";
- "Three sisters";
- "The Cherry Orchard";
- "Crime and Punishment";
- "Boris Godunov";
- "Feast in Time of Plague";
- "Wooden horses";
- "Electra".
After the split at the Taganka Theater, Alla Sergeevna collaborated with Roman Viktyuk. In 1993 she organized her own “Theater A”, specializing in ancient drama.
For her achievements in the field of theatrical art, Demidova has received many awards – the K. Stanislavsky Prize, “Figaro”, “Crystal Turandot”, “Idol”, “Golden Mask”.
How was your personal life?
Vladimir Valutsky was famous and talented, and at the same time he managed to walk to the left. The man has immense respect for his wife, Alla Demidova, but also loved his mistress. His personal life is reflected in the script for “Winter Cherry,” which examines troubles, family problems, and many interesting things from his life.
Nadezhda Repina at that time was that same mistress and she knew about this scenario. Alla Demidova and her husband were very busy with their careers, so children were not considered in their plans.
Vladimir tried to hide some kind of relationship, but Alla Demidova guessed about everything, but she was persistent and adamant, there could be no rivals for her, so the woman always joked about this topic. This is not only Alla’s first husband, but the only one with whom they lived together for 50 years.
Perhaps interesting: Mikhail Tanich's wife.
Movie
Alla made her film debut in 1957, playing a student at a lecture in the film “Leningrad Symphony.” But this and the next few roles, when her name was not even mentioned in the credits, are called “intelligence” by the actress herself.
As Angelika Bücher in the film "The Shield and the Sword"
People started talking about film actress Demidova in 1966, after she played Olga Berrgolts in the film “Day Stars”. Directors began to often invite Alla to lead roles, and they were absolutely diverse - tragic, detective, classic:
- commissar in the military drama “Two Comrades Served”;
- Angelika Bucher in the film "Shield and Sword";
- Arkadina Irina Nikolaevna in “The Seagull”;
- Elizaveta Pavlovna in Tarkovsky’s autobiographical film “Mirror”;
- prostitute in the fantasy "The Escape of Mr. McKinley";
- the witch in “The Scarlet Flower”;
- the Duchess of Marlborough in A Glass of Water;
- Lara Lyons in the adventure film “Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson: The Hound of the Baskervilles”;
- Lebyadkina Marya Timofeevna in “Demons”;
- Anna Sergeevna in “The Adjuster”.
She is called “the aristocrat of our cinema”, the blood is visible in her, the genes of gold miners have not gone away. Hence her dignity, demeanor, dislike of display, nobility and hidden strength.
For her unsurpassed acting skills, Demidova was awarded the Orders of Friendship and “For Services to the Fatherland” of the 4th and 3rd degrees, the “Nika” and the President of the Russian Federation awards, and the titles of Honored and People’s Artist of the RSFSR.
Alla Demidova as Lara Lyons in the adventure film “Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Hound of the Baskervilles”
Writing activity
In addition to the acting field, Demidova has clearly demonstrated herself in literature. Several of her books have been published, most often these are memoirs about theatrical life. She became a writer by accident. First, Pravda published her article about the acting profession. And when her friend and partner Vladimir Vysotsky died, Alla, furious that there was not a single worthy obituary, wrote a long article about the brilliant actor based on her personal memories and diaries.
Her debut book, The Second Reality, was published in 1980. Among other works popular with readers are:
- "Letters to Tom";
- "Vladimir Vysotsky";
- "Memory creeper";
- "Shadows of the Looking Glass";
- “Tell me, Innokenty Mikhailovich...”;
- "Akhmatov's mirrors".
Demidova has a unique style of reading prose and poetry, in Soviet times she often appeared on television with her own programs, and since the early 2000s she has been touring Russia a lot.
Alla Demidova reads poetry
