In the early nineties, Alexander Denisov desperately fought for the life of his daughter, who was terminally ill, and the doctors just shrugged their shoulders and could not help. For each of us, the most important thing is the health and well-being of loved ones. And if trouble happens to a child, we are ready to move mountains.
Someone advised Alexander Petrovich to take his daughter abroad. The artist understood how difficult it would be to move, but this was the last chance to save the girl. And he couldn’t miss it...
Alexander Denisov. Photo: kino-teatr.ru
Orphanage
A. Denisov was born on May 5, 1944 in the village of Borskoye, Kuibyshev region.
Like many children of the war, she and her brother Sergei were left without parents and became pupils in an orphanage. Sergei was the eldest, after graduating from school he entered the aviation school. Since Alexander took part in orphanage theater productions from an early age, without education he was accepted into the supporting cast of the Youth Theater troupe in Kirov. In Soviet times, there was a practice when in provincial theaters local talented youth were given the opportunity to learn from their senior colleagues directly on the stage. Such people often reached great heights, although they had complexes for a long time due to the lack of a diploma of specialized education. In the 1960s, there were more than 650 district, regional, and regional theaters in the USSR. There was a constant rotation of personnel. Those who believed that they were cramped on their native stage went to the unofficial acting exchange. It was an annual spontaneous meeting in August in Moscow near the GITIS building. Artists from the periphery met directors who had come from afar. The latter, first of all, kept in mind the types that were missing in their theaters and communicated. So an actor, for example, from Samara could receive an offer to work in the Brest or Sverdlovsk theater. In 1965, 21-year-old A. Denisov also went there. There he met with the teacher of the Belarusian Theater and Art Institute, Alexander Butakov. And already in September I found myself not in the new theater, but in the 2nd year of the Minsk theater university. Got a place in a hostel on the street. Surganova.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Vasilyevich was born in September 1953 in the capital. There is no information about his family. It is known that the parents had nothing to do with the world of cinema and theater. Denisov has a sister who chose a non-acting profession.
Nothing is known about the childhood and teenage years of the beloved Soviet artist. He decided to become an actor in his teens. After graduating from Moscow school, he entered VTU named after. B.V. Shchukina. The young man was enrolled in a course with the talented mentor Alexander Burov, where he learned the basics of acting.
In 1978, the young man received a diploma of higher theater education. By that time, he already had a solid track record and roles in several prominent films. In the same year, Denisov was accepted into the troupe of the Moscow Theater of Young Spectators.
Let's go the other way
Almost immediately, he, along with several classmates, was involved in crowd scenes at the Kupala Theater. A year later he played one of the roles in the play “Konstantin Zaslonov”. So the Russian guy spoke in Belarusian. While remaining a student, he went on tour with the theater.
The student life of future actors in the 1960s was radically different from today. While rehearsing the play “Family” about Lenin, the entire course went to Ulyanovsk, to the Ilyich Museum, as they say, to touch the shrines. Denisov played Sasha Ulyanov, sentenced to hanging for preparing an assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander III. Denisov’s brother had already graduated from college and was living in Ulyanovsk. The entire acting course spent the night in his one-room apartment on the floor, cots and in the bathroom.
Before the 4th year, the guys decided to earn money for their prom. At the Moscow Theater of the Soviet Army they showed the commission their concert program and were sent to travel around the military units of the Ural Military District giving performances. They received 2.5 rubles per diem plus their basic salary. Serious money!
Along with earning extra money in the theater, Denisov did not shy away from receiving a scholarship and working part-time as a model, clothing demonstrator, as this type of activity was then called in the USSR. It was during his student years that the Model House was opened on Nemiga. Then what was needed was not slender boys, but guys of impeccable masculine appearance. They demonstrated business suits and work overalls. This was an experience for Denisov’s acting piggy bank. He completely got rid of his youthful tightness on stage; he perceived each show as a theatrical sketch or mise-en-scène.
Alexander Denisov with his wife
Biography
Born on May 5, 1944 in the village of Borskoye. Orphaned early. In his youth he began acting on the theater stage. In 1968 he graduated from the Belarusian Theater and Art Institute. During his studies, he worked part-time at the Model House as a clothing demonstrator.
Since 1967 - actor of the Belarusian Academic Theater named after Yanka Kupala.
Olga Klebanovich, the leading actress of the National Academic Drama Theater named after M. Gorky in Minsk, became the wife of Alexander Denisov.
He became popular in the early 1980s after the role of Ivan Trofimovich Gamayun in the TV series “State Border”.
In 1990, he left for the United States to treat his hopelessly ill daughter Daria, where he subsequently remained. He worked as a loader and exterminator. Occasionally he acted in films (“Permanent residence”, 2000; “On the back of a black cat”, 2008).
Died on March 3, 2012 in New York. Buried in Belarus.
Best dad
After graduating from university in 1968, Denisov became a theater actor, where he played since his student years. It was precisely during that period, having gone through the school of Yuri Lyubimov for three years at the Taganka Theater in Moscow, that Valery Raevsky became Kupalovsky’s main director. He comes to Minsk with the desire to break all stereotypes and make a revolution. He stages a play based on Voinovich’s story “I Want to Be Honest” and the play “What is this soldier, what is that” by Bertolt Brecht. The actor participated in both productions and for the first time encountered new approaches to directing, which were not discussed at the institute. In a word, Denisov’s theatrical fate in the 1970s was going well. But Raevsky himself said that a theater director is an artist who paints on the coastal sand. The tide comes, the performance is washed away, and who will remember what it was like. Another thing is cinema. The film preserves the work for centuries. In 1971, Denisov made his debut in the short film “Request”. Three years later - the main role in the film “The White Circle” about the heroism of workers during the years of occupation. In the same year, he played the role of midshipman Vakulenchuk in the military film “Front without Flanks.” At the same time, Alexander married the actress of the Gorky Theater Olga Klebanovich. At first they live in her mother's apartment in the famous green house on Myasnikov Square. Later they get an apartment in the first high-rise buildings of the current Pobediteley Ave., opposite which the stele “Minsk - Hero City” will later be built. Neighbors were Mikhail Ptashuk, Gennady Garbuk and other famous people. After the birth of their first child, Denis, Alexander could be seen with a stroller at the film studio, at the service entrance to the theater. A former orphanage resident, he did not want to miss a single moment of his son growing up. When Dasha was born, everything happened again. At rehearsals, all the actors knew: a break was announced, everyone went to the smoking room, and Denisov ran to the dressing room, where someone from the props or costume department was on duty at the stroller with the baby. He took out a bottle, warmed it in a jar of warm water and fed it to his daughter. As a child, they didn’t love him, they didn’t have time to warm him, and all this resonated in him as in his father.
Biography[ | ]
Born on May 5, 1944 in the village of Borskoye. Orphaned early. In his youth he began acting on the theater stage. In 1968 he graduated from the Belarusian Theater and Art Institute. During his studies, he worked part-time at the Model House as a clothing demonstrator.
Since 1967 - actor of the Belarusian Academic Theater named after Yanka Kupala.
Olga Klebanovich, the leading actress of the National Academic Drama Theater named after M. Gorky in Minsk, became the wife of Alexander Denisov.
He became popular in the early 1980s after the role of Ivan Trofimovich Gamayun in the TV series “State Border”.
In 1990, he left for the United States to treat his hopelessly ill daughter Daria, where he subsequently remained. He worked as a loader and exterminator. Occasionally he acted in films (“Permanent residence”, 2000; “On the back of a black cat”, 2008).
Died on March 3, 2012 in New York. Buried in Belarus.
Gives hope
Gamayun is a bird of paradise in Russian mythology. And Vysotsky also has the lines: “As if seven rich moons stand in my way, then the bird Gamayun gives me hope!” Why the screenwriters of “State Border” Alexey Nagorny and Geliy Ryabov gave such a surname to the revolutionary sailor in 1980 is unknown. But she made Denisov famous. The series about border guards starred the handsome men of those years, Igor Starygin, Aristarkh Livanov and other famous actors, but everyone liked Denisov. Women liked to look like him, his inner strength and charm. For men, intelligence and determination. Few people in Minsk knew actor Denisov by last name. But when he drove out into the city streets in the warm season in a UAZ purchased for the occasion with the awning removed, like a convertible jeep, passers-by looked around, and the boys shouted after him: “Gamayun!” It was spectacular.
Still from the film “State Border”
But luck did not smile immediately. In Belarusian cinema, an unspoken tradition was maintained: inviting Russian celebrities to play the main roles. First, Leningrader Andrei Tolubeev was approved for this role, then Moscow actor Vladimir Novikov, who later played Red Army soldier Alexei Mogilov in the second film. The second director of the film, Vladimir Ponochevny, said that director Boris Stepanov had to be persuaded for a long time to entrust the key image to a local actor. It was generally accepted that our wonderful theater artists had a local dialect, and they had little experience working on camera. In addition, the director's freedom of choice was limited only to female roles. Men's claims were at the very top. Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks on the screen must be knights without fear or reproach. However, we managed to convince everyone: Denisov is a successful candidate.
“He came home joyful, I remember that day,” recalled the actor’s son. — He said: the work will be long. Then he picked me up and threw me up. He promised to take me to the shooting. And he really did. Even after a hard day, he and I always did something around the house or played.
The first four films of State Border were shot one after another. Each was a two-part series and was shown endlessly on a few television channels. It’s interesting that they didn’t get tired of the picture. Denisov became an Honored Artist of the BSSR. Received the USSR State Prize for the role of Sergeant Major Dugin in the play “Privates” based on the play by Alexei Dudarev. The actor was envied for his success. His career was rapidly gaining momentum. The best roles in the theater, tempting offers in cinema. The wife is a beauty and a talented actress. Children are always nearby. Trouble came unexpectedly...
One in a million
Gaucher disease is a rare hereditary metabolic disorder. Thousands of people live with the gene for this disease without knowing it. The disease is passive and does not manifest itself in any way until a man with the Gaucher disease gene meets a woman with a similar passive gene. The probability of such a meeting is one in a million. But if, miraculously, their paths converge, the common child in 50% of cases receives the disease in an open active form. The meeting of Alexander and Olga became that almost incredible one, and Dasha inherited this illness.
With his wife in America
It is difficult today to establish who prompted Denisov to contact Soviet athletes living abroad, in particular hockey players and 4-time Olympic champion Olga Korbut, but he did it. The gymnast then assisted Belarusian children with treatment abroad. It turned out that in the USA there is a method and the medicine is under development. No one knew whether the attempts of American doctors would be successful. But it was a straw that the actor grabbed and decided to go. The couple agreed that Olga would stay with her teenage son and sick mother, and Alexander would fly overseas with his daughter. Many actors remember how they collected the money necessary for the flight. After purchasing a visa and paying for tickets, he had $17 left in his hands. He was flying into the unknown. Dasha was very weak. Bone destruction and severe pain began. Many colleagues asked themselves the question: could they sacrifice status, work and fly with a sick child without money, without knowing the language towards illusory prospects?
“Before leaving, our friends set the table,” recalled V. Mishchanchuk. “And my wife told Dashenka: “Everything will be fine with you.” We will definitely meet with you. And when you arrive from America healthy, we will definitely meet you with flowers.”
Little by little we survived
Alexey Dudarev
In New York, O. Korbut really helped at first. For a month and a half, the Denisovs lived in the apartment of hockey player Vyacheslav Fetisov, who then played for the New Jersey Devils, until they found the opportunity to rent their own housing in Upper Manhattan. Playwright Alexey Dudarev helped with the money. Since Dasha was a foreigner, her name was removed from the experimental group of patients. Denisov used all his charm, and the name was returned to the list. The medicine was tested and found to be effective. But hopes that the treatment would last a year, after which the father and daughter would return to their homeland, were in vain. Until adulthood, while the body grows and changes, constant monitoring was required. And drug therapy had to be carried out regularly. The possibilities of charitable foundations have dried up over time. Denisov delivered milk around the city. Loaded furniture. Then he completed special courses and worked as a disinfectant: he poisoned rats and insects in New York basements. In 1995, he transmitted a video recorded in one of the city courtyards. The Internet, Skype and other communicators did not yet exist. The cassette, where he tried to tell his friends and family about life in America in a nutshell, was conveniently transferred to Minsk. In the short oral narrative there are many pauses and ellipses: “In general, it turned out that Dasha and I slowly survived... We settled down... As always, there is one problem: paying for medicines and medical services. Payments come one after another... I’m already used to something... But every new payment message is becoming more and more difficult to satisfy.”
