Childhood, youth: Chiatura – Tbilisi – Moscow
Archil was born in the spring of 1926 in the small Georgian settlement of Chiatura. His father, Mikhail Gomiashvili, a graduate of the Moscow School of Red Professors, at that time worked as the chairman of the coal miners’ committee in the Donbass. Having learned about the appearance of an heir, Mikhail sent his wife a congratulatory telegram with a request to name the boy Victor. But the relatives decided that the newborn should bear the name of his grandfather-priest Archil, who was repressed due to a false denunciation. He was released only at the end of the Great Patriotic War, after which he returned to Georgia, broken by party betrayal.
Archil Gomiashvili in childhood
Archil spent his childhood in both Ukraine and Georgia, but he never felt oppressed by his peers because of his nationality or place of residence. He graduated from a Russian school, and began to speak Georgian only at the age of fourteen.
The boy began to show leadership abilities early, and his irrepressible energy often served as a reason for being brought to the police. So, at the age of sixteen he was already arrested for connections with crime.
Carier start
After graduating from the Academy of Arts in Tbilisi, in 1943 Archil went to the Alexander Griboyedov Theater to design a production of the play “Little Chanterelles.” The play was staged by Georgy Tovstonogov, artistic director of the troupe. For Gomiashvili, the director’s offer to play the role of Leo Hammer in the production was a surprise, but from that moment Archil began to play in almost all of Tovstonogov’s productions.
Archil Gomiashvili in his youth
In 1948, the director was invited to Moscow, and he invited Archil to go with him. The actor, without any specialized education, entered the Moscow Art Theater School. But his character could not be changed, and Gomiashvili again got into trouble, becoming involved in a fight in a bar, after which he was expelled from the university. Archil went back to Georgia and began working at the Konstantin Marjanishvili Theater.
Archil Gomiashvili: biography
The famous actor Archil Mikhailovich Gomiashvili, who was remembered by the audience primarily for his performance as Ostap Bender, lived a bright and unusual life. The boy was born on March 23, 1926 in the family of a former shepherd, who went far up the party ladder and was accepted into the Moscow School of Red Professors.
Despite the father's request to name his son Victor, the child was given the name Archil in honor of his grandfather-priest. In the 30s, Mikheil Gomiashvili was sent to the camp on a false denunciation and was released only in the last year of the war. My father lived a long life, but he could never forget his betrayal of the party.
Archil Gomiashvili in his youth
At the age of 16, Archil entered the art school of the capital of Georgia, where he studied for two years. The theater becomes the young painter's hobby, where he spends all his free time. At that time, young Georgy Tovstonogov was working in Tbilisi. The director places several orders for the talented artist to design the play “The Foxes” based on Helman’s play of the same name, and then offers to try himself in the small role of Leo Hammer.
In 1942, Archil was expelled from the educational institution. The reason for his expulsion was his connection with the criminal world, as well as his friendship with thief in law Jaba Ioseliani. Once Archil was arrested with a group of hooligans, and he almost went to prison. At that time, the matter ended with a short stay in the isolation ward. Georgy Tovstonogov invites the young man to try himself in acting, and Gomiashvili leaves for Moscow.
In his youth, Archil Gomiashvili had problems with the law
Having entered the Moscow Art Theater School, Archil Gomiashvili successfully studied there until 1948, until he got into an unpleasant story with criminal overtones. He was expelled from the university again, this time for a fight in a cafe with destruction of property. After this, the young Caucasian was forced to leave for his homeland. In Georgia, he was offered a place in the troupe of the Academic Theater named after Marjanishvili, and after 10 years he moved to Poti, where he first got a job at the G. Eristavi Theater, and then at the Russian Theater named after A. Griboyedov.
Ostap Bender and other roles
In 1958, Archil went to Poti, where he staged a one-man show “The Adventures of Ostap Bender”.
After some time, Gomiashvili was again invited to the Tbilisi theater troupe. In parallel with his service in the theater, Archil also acted in films. So, in the 60s he starred in the films “The Mole”, “These Are Different Times” and “Explosion After Midnight”. However, despite his film work, Gomiashvili still remained a little-known provincial actor, about whom the general public knew practically nothing. However, it was he who was recommended to Leonid Gaidai when he began working on the feature film “12 Chairs” in the late 60s.
Archil Gomiashvili and Leonid Gaidai
The director had already managed to select almost the entire cast of actors, including Sergei Filippov, who ultimately brilliantly embodied the image of Kisa Vorobyaninov on the screen. But there were problems with the choice of the hero for the main role of Ostap Bender. More than twenty famous artists attended the auditions, including Alexander Shirvindt, Valentin Gaft, Mikhail Kozakov and Oleg Borisov. This role was also offered to Vladimir Vysotsky, who was prevented from acting by alcohol addiction.
Archil Gomiashvili as Ostap Bender
After numerous auditions, Alexander Belyavsky was approved for the role, but the young actor lacked charisma and brightness. Filming was suspended and they began to look for a new Ostap. Leonid Iovich, together with his assistants, went to Gorky, where he was touring with his musical one-man show Gomiashvili. Gaidai liked the assertiveness and energy of the 40-year-old actor, his ability to stay on stage and the cunning sparkle in his eyes. And although according to the script Bender was no more than thirty, Archil Mikhailovich was approved for the role.
Archil Gomiashvili on the set of “12 Chairs”
The actor immediately fit into the filming process, without being embarrassed by his already famous colleagues at that time - Mikhail Pugovkin and Georgy Vitsin, Nina Grebeshkova and Yuri Nikulin, Savely Kramarov and Natalya Varley. Gomiashvili showed the power of his talent, and after the comedy was released, the audience fell in love with him. The stunning success of the film in 1971 brought Archil not only all-Union fame, but also a warrant for a three-room apartment in Moscow, where he soon moved.
However, in his later interview, Gomiashvili complained that Gaidai did not give him the opportunity to develop the role the way he wanted - Bender on the screen was almost entirely voiced by Yuri Sarantsev, and Archil only learned years later that this could not be done without his consent had the right to do. The songs heard in the film were performed by Valery Zolotukhin. Gomiashvili believed that he did not reveal the character of the hero, playing him as if on the run, following the rhythm of the picture. However, the whole country recognized him as an actor thanks to Ostap Bender.
After the stunning success, the artist was going to continue playing this role in the Lenin Komsomol Theater, whose troupe he joined after moving. Having offered Mark Zakharov the script for his musical, Archil did not know that the director already had his own version about the great schemer in his plans. The release of the film “12 Chairs” with Andrei Mironov in the title role hurt Gomiashvili’s pride. But the television premiere reconciled him with Gaidai, who called the new version of the comedy a “criminal offense.” Until the end of his days, Archil himself believed that Mark Zakharov was to blame for his failed theatrical career.
Archil Gomiashvili and Andrei Mironov as Ostap Bender
In the mid-70s, Archil Mikhailovich moved from Lenkom to the Alexander Pushkin Theater. At the same time, he starred in the role of a scoundrel-seducer from “Mimino” (1977), Yakov in “The Golden Fleece” (1981) and Pasha Fokin in “My Favorite Clown” (1986). Five times Gomiashvili created the image of Joseph Stalin in different films (“State Border. Year forty-one” (1980), “Stalingrad” (1989), “Tragedy of the Century” (1993) and “War in the Western Direction” (1990). Last work actor in the same role - both in cinema and in principle - took place in 1993 in Yuri Ozerov’s war drama “Angels of Death”.
Archil Gomiashvili in the film "Mimino"
Movies
In parallel with his work in the theater, the artist begins acting in films. He makes his debut at the age of 31, playing the role of Montasherov in the film “Personally Known,” which became the first part of the famous historical trilogy about the life of the Bolshevik Kamo. For some time, the artist began to work closely with Georgian film director Mikheil Chiaureli. Archil plays in his film “These are Different Times” together with his daughter Sofiko Chiaureli.
The artist’s multifaceted talent is revealed in the films “Sorry, Death awaits you” by Guguli Mgeladze and “Explosion After Midnight” by Erasm Karamyan and Stepan Kevorkov.
Archil Gomiashvili as Ostap Bender
A real triumph in the biography of actor Gomiashvili, little known to the general public, was his work in Leonid Gaidai’s comedy “12 Chairs,” in which he brilliantly played the “great schemer.” Archil took a very long time to achieve his leading role. For the first time he tried himself in the image of Ostap Bender in a one-man show, which director Yuri Lyubimov staged for him in 1958. With the musical, in which Archil played and sang for all the characters, including Panikovsky, Pound, Zosya Sinitskaya, he traveled throughout the Soviet Union.
Archil Gomiashvili in the film “12 Chairs”
When Leonid Gaidai began work on his film in 1971, he could not find an artist for the role of Bender. More than 20 famous actors of their time auditioned for it, including Vladimir Basov, Vladimir Vysotsky, Alexei Batalov, Oleg Borisov, Valentin Gaft, Evgeny Evstigneev, Andrei Mironov, Spartak Mishulin, Alexander Shirvindt, Mikhail Kozakov, Nikolai Rybnikov, Nikolai Gubenko and even Muslim Magomaev. But the director still couldn’t find a suitable one until his assistants suggested considering the candidacy of an assertive and convincing Georgian, who for several years in a row had been playing the story of an “ideological fighter for banknotes” on the stage of the country.
To get to know the artist, Gaidai even made a special trip with the entire film crew to Gorky, where Archil Gomiashvili was touring at that moment. The director was satisfied with the artist’s acting style, despite the fact that Archil was 16 years older than his hero in age. But charisma, youthfulness and fairly tall stature made his image convincing.
Archil Gomiashvili as Joseph Stalin
He fit perfectly into the brilliant cast of the comedy, represented by such stars as Sergei Filippov, Mikhail Pugovkin, Natalya Varley, Nina Grebeshkova, Natalya Krachkovskaya, Clara Rumyanova, Georgy Vitsin, Savely Kramarov, Yuri Nikulin. And despite the fact that his role was partially voiced by Yuri Sarantsev, and the songs were performed by Valery Zolotukhin, Archil Gomiashvili received all-Union fame and was recognized as one of the most outstanding film actors of his era.
After the success of “12 Chairs,” Archil moved to Moscow. The artist is summoned to a ceremonial meeting of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, where they are presented with a warrant for a three-room apartment in one of Stalin’s high-rise buildings. Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, used to live there. Having settled in the capital, Archil gets a job at the Lenin Komsomol Theater. After working there for some time and not finding a common language with the young director Mark Zakharov, he becomes an actor in the troupe of the A. S. Pushkin Theater.
Archil Gomiashvili in the film “Mimino”
The artist’s subsequent film works were not so bright. His success can be considered the role of the victim in Georgy Danelia’s comedy “Mimino”, as well as the on-screen image of the leader of nations he created. Gomiashvili played the role of Stalin in five films: “State Border. Year forty-one”, “Stalingrad”, “War in the Western Direction”, “Angels of Death”, “Tragedy of the Century”. The directors immediately noted the actor’s great external resemblance to Stalin, which was evident from the photo, as well as Archil Gomiashvili’s ability to recreate internal unity with his hero.
Failed Stirlitz
It is difficult to imagine anyone other than Vyacheslav Tikhonov in the role of the legendary intelligence officer Maxim Isaev, but, according to Gomiashvili, he was initially approved for the role of Stirlitz in the television film “Seventeen Moments of Spring” (1971). However, to his misfortune, while working on the script, Archil fell in love with director Tatyana Lioznova, and they had an office romance.
Archil Gomiashvili and Tatyana Lioznova
Tikhonov already had a name in cinema, and he managed to prove to the studio management that the role was created specifically for him. Lioznova, who was pressured from above, withdrew from a specific choice, which was very insulting to Archil. Offended, he dropped everything and left for Georgia. Having received a telegram asking him to return, he ignored it. According to Gomiashvili, when the role was given to Tikhonov, he was offered to play Muller, which seemed even more insulting to the actor.
"Golden Ostap" and new activities
In the 80s, in the wake of perestroika, the actor became interested in directing and decided to write the script himself based on millionaire Michael Field’s book “America Through the Eyes of a Taxi Driver.” He went to West Berlin to discuss the idea with Michael himself and negotiate financing for the project.
After success in cinema, Archil Gomiashvili became a businessman
The German businessman refused to get involved with the film business, but gave Archil ten casino gaming rooms. In addition, Gomiashvili won more than one hundred thousand marks in the casino. So the desire for creativity overnight made him a wealthy man, and Gomiashvili decided to open his own club with a restaurant in Moscow, calling it “Golden Ostap”.
Archil Gomiashvili's club "Golden Ostap"
The establishment became one of the most popular places in the capital in the early 90s, recognized as the best even by European standards. In 1990, Gomiashvili became a shareholder of the City Business company and opened Italian boutiques in Moscow.
Personal life of Archil Gomiashvili
Despite his popularity among women in the creative environment, the actor’s first wife was Yana Mailova, a doctor.
In this marriage, Gomiashvili had a daughter, Karina. The birth of a child did not seal the bond, and the couple separated. Archil’s second wife was the Georgian actress Liana Manjavidza, whom Gomiashvili met in Tbilisi. Two boys appeared in the family - Zurab (1954) and Mikhail (1961), and a little later the couple separated.
Gomiashvili's second wife Liana Mandzhavidza
As the actor himself said, Liana’s jealousy sometimes turned into mania, and even in his habit of taking a cold shower every morning, she suspected impending betrayal. Archil was not a saint and loved women, but he had no intention of getting a divorce. However, the family did not work out, although Gomiashvili always adored his boys and supported them in every possible way.
For several years after the divorce, the actor lived as a bachelor, pursuing his career. But one day a man met a young ballerina named Tatyana, to whom he proposed marriage, despite the large age difference (his beloved was 24 years younger). The artist recalled his second marriage with laughter: With his marriage to this girl, the 44-year-old Archil gained the glory of a great schemer, and soon the happiness became even more complete: Tatyana gave him two daughters, one after another - Nina and Katya.
Archil's daughters - Nina and Katya Gomiashvili
Despite her own youth, the woman turned out to be wise and loving, a friend always ready to help and a faithful companion in life. Gomiashvili’s daughters, Nina and Ekaterina, connected their lives with art and gave Archil grandchildren.
Personal life
Archil Gomiashvili has always enjoyed great popularity among the fair sex and reciprocated their feelings. His women at one time were director Tatyana Lioznova and actress Tatyana Okunevskaya, with whom he even got married. But they all appeared only during his life in Moscow.
Archil Gomiashvili and Tatyana Lioznova
Gomiashvili’s first true love and wife was a native of Georgia, Liana Georgievna, whom he met in Tbilisi. Together with Liana, Archil worked in the same theater. In his first marriage, Gomiashvili had two sons - Zurab, who later became an engineer, and Mikhail, who received an acting education. The marriage to Liana broke up due to her husband’s infidelity.
Archil Gomiashvili and Tatyana Okunevskaya
After several years of free life, which coincided with the heyday of his acting career, dramatic changes occurred in Gomiashvili’s personal life. He met the young ballerina Tatyana, who became his second official wife. She was much younger than the artist, but until the end of her life she remained his faithful assistant and beloved woman. In his new family, Archil had two daughters - Nina and Ekaterina. Both became creative personalities and connected their lives with the fine arts.
Death of an actor
Archil Gomiashvili was always attentive to his own health and was examined annually. That is why the doctors’ diagnosis – cancer of the respiratory tract with metastases to the lungs – struck Archil and his family like thunder. In America, the 79-year-old actor underwent several operations to remove the tumor and lymph nodes - there were more than forty of them. As soon as Archil Mikhailovich felt better, he immediately escaped from the hospital, came to Moscow and gathered all his friends at his “Golden Ostap”.
Archil Gomiashvili in old age
According to the actor’s granddaughter Anastasia, fatal complications were hidden from him, although Gomiashvili began to suspect them after a sharp deterioration. His wife Tatyana was nearby all the time. Metastases spread throughout the body very quickly, so in the last days of his life Gomiashvili was silent and did not recognize anyone.
The actor died on May 31, 2005 in the oncology department of the hospital. He was buried at the Troekurovskoye cemetery in Moscow next to the grave of Natalya Gundareva.
Death
At the age of 78, Archil Gomiashvili was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in the respiratory tract. The artist went to the USA for treatment, where at the oncology center he underwent a complex operation to remove the tumor and more than four dozen lymph nodes with metastases.
Archil Gomiashvili's grave
The artist remained cheerful and joked all the time during therapy, but the cancerous tumor continued to spread throughout the elderly man’s body. Severe metastases caused the actor’s death. He died in a Moscow clinic on May 31, 2005. A civil memorial service and funeral took place in Moscow; his grave is located at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
Memory
In 2006, relatives erected a monument at the grave of their beloved husband, father and grandfather - the figure of Archil Gomiashvili in the role of Ostap Bender. He stands slightly leaning forward, leaning his boot on the famous carved chair, and looks into the distance.
Monument at the grave of Archil Gomiashvili
According to Emmanuel Vitorgan, the actor left as a memory of himself only one bright star role - “a man with a capital M, a true comrade and a good friend.” Fans from Cheboksary also paid tribute to Gomiashvili by erecting a monument to him in the role of Ostap Bender in one of the local parks.
