Valery Garkalin - biography of the actor, photo, personal life, wife and children, height and weight, illness 2021

Biography of Valery Garkalin

Valery Borisovich Garkalin is a Russian theater and film actor, teacher at GITIS. Having started his creative career with a puppet theater, he subsequently shone on the stage of the Satire Theater and many other venues, already as an actor of an enterprise. He did not ignore cinema either - in addition to the main roles in the films “Kataly” and “Shirley-Myrli”, he has several dozen memorable, three-dimensional characters in popular films and TV series.

In the photo: actor Valery Garkalin

Childhood and adolescence

The future actor was born on April 11, 1954 in a simple, poor Moscow family.
The boy's parents were from the village and moved to Moscow after the war. My mother, a native of Belarus, worked as a cashier in the canteen at , and my father, a Tambov resident, was in charge of a garage workshop. The boy was born in a workers' dormitory, and 5 years later, when his younger sister Marina was born, the family received a room in a communal apartment in the Syromyatniki area. On Sundays, his mother gave him and his sister money for a movie - they went to a children's show at a local recreation center, and when the movie ended, Valera hid under the seats and secretly watched “adult” films.

Every summer, the brother and sister spent with their grandparents in the village of Maloye Gagarino near Tambov. The actor always called this place his small homeland. Sometimes his uncle took Valery with him to the board, where the boy, who demonstrated artistry from an early age, sang for the amusement of the assembled adults.

The future actor has demonstrated extraordinary artistry since childhood

Acting generally attracted Garkalin from an early age, and therefore his village comrades considered him a little “out of this world.” He loved to read books, declared the episodes he liked out loud and laughed infectiously at the same time.

Valery always knew what he wanted to be when he grew up, but his father did not approve of his choice - acting seemed to him not a man’s business. He saw his son as an engineer, although Garkalin did not have the ability for exact sciences, but in school amateur performances he was a real star. At the insistence of Boris Alekseevich, after school the young man got a job at a factory and worked as a mechanic for some time. In 1973, Garkalin was drafted into the army. He served in a unit located in the Kurgan region, in the communications battalion at the headquarters of the rifle division itself, and later characterized these two years as follows: “I guarded senseless equipment parks in the city of Shadrinsk, Kurgan region, I remember them as an absolute nightmare.”

Valery Garkalin in his youth

Returning from the army, the young man decided, in defiance of his parents, to try to enter a theater university - he made this decision even before serving. Having tried to become a dramatic actor, Garkalin was rejected. My mother came to the rescue: she saw an advertisement in the newspaper that the Gnessin School was recruiting an experimental group for the puppetry department at the Sergei Obraztsov Puppet Theater. Obraztsov himself and Leonid Khait became mentors to the student Garkalin.

Childhood and youth

Like other famous actors, Valery Garkalin was born into a family that had nothing to do with cinema or theater, or with art in general. The future artist’s mother worked as a cashier, his father as the head of a garage workshop. As one would expect, the parents categorically disagreed with their son’s choice of such an “empty” craft as acting. They saw Valery as a serious person with a good profession, for example, an engineer. Although the boy clearly did not have a mathematical mind.

Valery Garkalin

Valery Garkalin was at first an obedient son. In his youth, he even managed to work as a mechanic at a factory. But after the army, the guy rebelled: against the will of his parents, he went to enroll in a theater university. And even the fact that he was refused (they considered that his appearance was unsuitable for cinema) did not discourage him from connecting his future life with cinema and theater.

Valery Borisovich Garkalin became a student at the Gnessin School and even ended up in the experimental group of the Faculty of Pop Art, where the teachers were Leonid Khait and Sergei Obraztsov.

Valery Garkalin in his youth

In 1978, Valery Garkalin graduated from Gnesinka and immediately pulled out a lucky ticket: Garkalin’s acting biography began under the strict guidance of teacher Leonid Khait. The teacher formed the “People and Dolls” theater group from his own students. The group, assigned to the Kemerovo Philharmonic, toured the country for 6 years and managed to become popular.

Valery Garkalin, whose creative biography began at the Khait Theater, now had every chance to conquer the capital. The young artist returned to Moscow, easily entered the capital’s theater of the second teacher in Gnesinka, Sergei Obraztsov, and soon even became a student at GITIS. And now no one dared to make comments about his appearance.

Actor Valery Garkalin

It is noteworthy that Valery Garkalin answered the question about nationality only later, after the release of the hit film “Shirley Myrli”. The actor said that he is not a Jew or a Gypsy, as many believe, but a Belarusian. But he feels outside of nationality, since all people are children of the planet.

The beginning of a creative journey

In his final years at college, Garkalin made his film debut. True, the role was so small that his name did not even appear in the credits. It was the fairy tale film “The Scarlet Flower”.

Still from the film “The Scarlet Flower”

In 1978, Valery graduated from college. From the graduates of the course, Leonid Khait formed the “People and Dolls” troupe. The artists received an invitation from the Kemerovo Philharmonic. For about six years, Valery served in “People and Dolls” - the theater was very popular and toured the entire USSR. The performances were not purely puppet shows - it often happened that the actors came out from behind screens.

Photo from the performance of the troupe “People and Dolls”

After Valery served for 2 years at the Obraztsov Theater, where he worked for the next three seasons, at the same time he received an education at GITIS, where he studied at the variety department under the direction of Vyacheslav Shalevich.

Valery Garkalin and Tatyana Vasilyeva (play “Boomerang”)

In 1988 he graduated from GITIS. Two years later, his life was forever changed by his acquaintance with the actor of the Satire Theater Mikhail Sonnenstrahl, who introduced Garkalin to the chief artistic director of the theater, Valentin Pluchek. He was impressed by the young actor’s performance and invited him to his troupe. Garkalin worked at the Satire Theater until 2001, and was involved in the productions “Schizophrenia, as Was Said,” “The Inspector General,” “The Taming of the Shrew” and many others. Afterwards he was involved in more than two dozen performances at the enterprise.

short biography

1977 – first film role: in the fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower,” the aspiring actor played a guy in the village. True, his name is not in the credits.
1978 - the end of "Gnesinka". In the graduation performance “Scarlet Sails” Valery played Gray. At that moment, he was already part of the “People and Dolls” theater troupe, created by L. Khait, who brought together other graduates. With this group, Garkalin began touring throughout the country.
1984 – leaving the “People and Dolls” team. The actor joins the Sergei Obraztsov Theater. He is involved in the plays: “Aladdin’s Magic Lamp” and “Noah’s Ark.”
1988 – completion of Vyacheslav Shalevich’s course at GITIS and joining the troupe of the Moscow Satire Theater.
1989 – the first notable role in cinema: Valery Garkalin played “The Greek” in the crime film directed by Sergei Bodrov Sr. “Katala”.
1991 - played the role of Jonathan in the production of M. Sonnenstrahl based on the work of Arthur Kopit “Daddy, daddy, poor daddy, you won’t get out of the closet, you’re hung by our mother between your dress and pajamas.” Films with the artist’s participation were released on movie screens: “Amulet” and “Tsar Ivan the Terrible.”
1992 – at the theater-studio “Chelovek” he played the role of Neud in S. Mrozhek’s play “Summer Day”. The multi-part television film “White Clothes” was shot at the Belarusfilm studio. The role of the biologist Dezhkin is recognized as one of the most successful in the actor’s career.
1993 – another production of M. Sonnenstrahl “Schizophrenia, as it was said” brought Valery Borisovich 2 roles: the Master and Pontius Pilate.
1994 – in Shakespeare’s comedy “The Taming of the Shrew,” directed by Valentin Pluchek, the actor played Petruchio.
1995 – the film “Shirli-Myrli” brought all-Russian fame to the artist, where Garkalin played 3 roles of twin brothers: Almazov, Krolikov and Shniperson.
1996 – performed the role of Peachum in Bertolt Brecht’s “The Threepenny Opera”, staged by Pluchek.
1997 – in the film “Poor Sasha” the actor starred in the role of Nikolai Kryshkin.
1999 – Valery Garkalin portrayed the violinist Boris Rappoport in the feature film “It is not recommended to offend women.”
2000 - another “musical” work in the film “Silver Lily of the Valley”, where the actor played composer Roman Kromkin.
2002 – Valery Borisovich becomes the head of the workshop at the Variety Faculty of GITIS. Director Dmitry Krymov staged Hamlet with Garkalin in the title role.
2003 – filming in the television series “Plot”, where the transformation of the artist into the worker Suslevich took place. In an acting duet with Tatyana Vasilyeva, the play “Boomerang” is presented, based on the play by I. Zhamiak “Monsieur Amilcar, or the Man Who Pays”.
2004 - continuation of the composer’s role in “Silver Lily of the Valley 2”.
2005 – in the film “Pops” the actor Lev Malinovsky, who has lost popularity, is played.
2006 – shooting in the fairy tale film directed by Eldar Ryazanov “Andersen. Life without love." Here Garkalin appears in the role of the prince, who later became the Danish king Christian VIII.
2007 – transfer to the capital’s Drama Theater named after. Pushkin. Garkalin plays Paolino on his stage in the production of director M. Bychkov “Man, Beast and Virtue”.
2008 - awarding the highest honorary title of People's Artist of Russia. In June, while touring in Lithuania, the actor suffered a heart attack. In November I had another heart attack.
2009 – filming in the feature film “Roof”, directed by Boris Grachevsky. In the documentary “The Promised Land from Joseph Stalin,” Garkalin portrayed the actor and head of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee Solomon Mikhoels.
2011 – in the production based on Bunin’s stories “Katya, Sonya, Polya, Galya, Vera, Olya, Tanya...”, which was performed by Dmitry Krymov, the People’s Artist played the author himself.
2012 – Krymov again entrusts the main role in his production. This time Valery Borisovich plays Shakespeare in As You Like It, or A Midsummer Night's Dream.
2013 – participation in the children's sketch show “Caution: Children!” on the STS channel.
2014 – the artist expressed disagreement with the solution to the Crimean issue. In the play “Gogol” the role of Genka was played.
2015 - in the film almanac “Happiness is...” Garkalin appeared in the role of a psychotherapist.
2017 – another film job – filming in the family comedy “Children for Rent”.
2018 – for dubbing the 2021 cartoon “A Quiet Dinner Without Salt,” the artist was awarded the Icarus Prize.
2020 - the role of Uncle Valera in the film “Live Your Life”. In February, information appeared about the hospitalization of a 65-year-old actor with suspected pneumonia.
2021 – On January 14, Valery Borisovich expressed condolences over the death of his friend Boris Grachevsky, saying that it plunged him into despair.

Garkalin in the cinema

In 1989, Garkalin played his first serious film role. It was the crime film “Katala”, and its hero is Grek or Alexey Grekov, a gambler trying to infiltrate among professionals in order to earn easy money. Valery's partner was Elena Safonova.

Valery Garkalin's first leading role in a movie (“Katala”)

The actor devoted the 90s mainly to the theater, but also appeared in films: the role of an oprichnik in the 1991 film “Ivan the Terrible”, the main role in the drama about Soviet scientists in the totalitarian era of Stalinism (“White Clothes”), a prisoner from the film “Lube Zone” "with Nikolai Rastorguev. And, of course, the inimitable work in the comedy “Shirley-Myrli” by Vladimir Menshov, awarded a prize at the Anapa film festival “Kinoshock”. Together with Valery, who masterfully embodied four characters at once, Inna Churikova, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan and Vera Alentova worked on the set.

Valery Garkalin on the set of the comedy “Shirley-Myrli”

In the late 90s, he appeared in several episodes of the series “The File of Detective Dubrovsky,” the star of which was Nikolai Karachentsov, and in 2000 he played an eccentric composer-plagiarist in the tragicomedy “Silver Lily of the Valley” - about how two capital producers (Yuri Stoyanov and Alexander Tsekalo) are trying to make a star out of a provincial girl (Olesya Zheleznyak). Valery Garkalin in the film “Silver Lily of the Valley” Cinema has always remained something secondary for Valery Borisovich, although it made him popular. He always saw himself only in the theater. Perhaps this is why, although his filmography is quite voluminous, his heroes are almost always secondary (but certainly memorable). He appeared in many popular projects over the years: the series “Plot” with Sergei Bezrukov (the worker Suslevich, who witnessed the crime of the foreman), the film “Popsa” (the forgotten pop star Lev Malinovsky), “My Fair Nanny” with Anastasia Zavorotnyuk (writer Fyodor Lyapkin), “Who’s the boss in the house?” (waiter Robert).

“Between Us Girls”: Valery Garkalin as Arkady Ryabokon

The audience remembered his role in the comedy series “Between Us, Girls.” Garkalin’s hero, an accompanist with the funny surname Ryabokon, is fighting for the heart of the elderly singer Iraida Kuznetsova (Galina Petrova) with retired colonel Rybakov (Valery Afanasyev).

Personal life of Valery Garkalin

Valery Garkalin met his future wife Ekaterina within the walls of Gnesinka. He, still a student, was rehearsing a play with a group and saw that there was one occupied seat in an empty hall. The plump stranger sitting in the chair burst into tears at the end of the performance, and this really touched Valery.

Young Vladimir Garkalin with his wife and her mother

Later he found out that Ekaterina was 2 years older than Valery and worked at the Obraztsov Theater, and she ended up in the hall by pure chance. They became close, began to live together, but hid the affair for a long time, since the relationship between a student and a teacher in those days would have been considered immoral. But immediately after graduating from college in 1978, Valery proposed to his beloved woman.

Wedding of Valery and Ekaterina Garkalin

Together they went through a lot - this included a long absence of children, and Garkalin’s temporary problems with alcohol. In 1983, the couple had a long-awaited daughter, Nika. Valery was in seventh heaven - he dreamed of a girl.

With newborn Nika

Throughout his life, Valery Garkalin traveled a lot, spending almost all the money he earned on it. He was interested in seeing countries and different places himself in order to form his own opinion. He always traveled with Ekaterina and Nika. Even when going on tour abroad, he always took his wife with him. Even the fact that the entire amount of the fee could have been spent on tickets did not stop him.

The actor and his wife in Sydney

Having matured, Nika Garkalina decided to follow in her father’s footsteps: she received the profession of theater producer and art critic at GITIS.

The daughter of Valery Garkalin also connected her life with art

In 2008, the family’s life turned black. Valery Borisovich suffered a massive heart attack. The attack occurred in Klaipeda. Having completed the scene in the production of “Boots with Thick Soles”, backstage, the actor collapsed on the floor. His heart stopped in the ambulance, but the actor, who survived clinical death, was brought back to life.

Two heart attacks, the death of his wife and a coma: where did Valery Garkalin go?

The actor lost his health and now only teaches

Subscribe and read Express Newspaper in:

Valery Garkalin was born into a simple family of an auto repair shop worker and a cashier in a canteen. His father did not understand such a profession as an actor. But the guy stubbornly wanted to go to the theater. It didn’t work out the first time, and he went to work as a mechanic at a factory. And then he entered the music school named after. Gnessins - there was a puppet department where Sergei Obraztsov himself taught.

Having received their diploma, graduates of this course created their own theater called “Dolls and People” and went to travel throughout the USSR. By the way, they were very popular. Garkalin worked in Obraztsov’s puppet theater and only at the age of 34 graduated from GITIS, achieving his goal and starting to appear on the stages of ordinary theaters.

The father never approved of his son's choice and never discussed his work with him. And only after the death of Boris Garkalin, his mother showed Valery a box with clippings from newspapers and magazines - everything that related to productions with the participation of the actor.

Valery met his future wife Katya at a puppet theater. She was a teaching methodologist there, and he came as a student. I had to hide the affair for some time. Having received his diploma, Garkalin married Catherine the same year.

This marriage has become surprisingly strong, especially for the acting community. The wife supported her husband in everything, and perhaps thanks to her he was able to achieve success. They even always went on tour together, regardless of expenses - they could not be apart for long.

In the film “Shirley Myrli” he played three roles at once. Photo: still from the film

Nick's daughter was born only six years after the wedding. They wanted children, but it didn't work out. Therefore, when Catherine told Valery the good news, he did not believe it at first.

Garkalin's problems with alcohol began in his youth. He himself admitted that he even allowed himself to show up for filming while drunk. At some point, the wife managed to convince her husband to stop, threatening that she would take her daughter and leave forever. At the beginning he was 18 years old. It was at this moment that my career took off. Work in the theater, enterprises, cinema, as well as teaching at GITIS.

The film “Shirley Myrli” brought him the greatest popularity, in which he played three twin brothers. And although the film directed by Vladimir Menshov was often described as a hack job, it helped Garkalin a lot - wide popularity led to many tempting offers.

In June 2008, Garkalin appeared on the stage of the cultural center in Klaipeda in the play “Boots with Thick Soles.” Having finished the scene and barely leaving the stage, he collapsed unconscious. Fortunately, there was a military hospital right opposite the cultural center. Doctors pulled the actor out: he was in a state of clinical death. After the operation, doctors explained: it was a heart attack, the blood vessels were severely blocked, you smoke too much. Garkalin assures that he immediately quit. However, in November of the same year, a second heart attack occurred. And three months later, his beloved wife Katya died of cancer.

Then Valery Borisovich untied it again. Here and there news began to appear: he got into a drunken fight with a neighbor, who broke his nose and knocked out a tooth, and ended up in the hospital while intoxicated with injuries to his chest and abdomen. The actor repented, admitting guilt. He explained that he was trying to suppress the pain.

During the pandemic, Valery Borisovich did not leave his students, he taught them remotely. Photo: Instagram account of Valery Garkalin

In 2018, he again became ill while on tour. An advanced cold turned into pneumonia, and then an attack of suffocation occurred. The hospital diagnosed pulmonary and cardiac edema, and the artist was in a coma for two weeks. They pulled him out miraculously, but Garkalin had to learn to walk and talk again.

Valery Garkalin admitted cheating on his wife with Lyudmila Gurchenko

Since then, he has not acted in films or appeared on the theater stage. All that remained was teaching at a theater university. But his main joy, which still keeps 66-year-old Valery Borisovich afloat, are his grandchildren, eight-year-old Timofey and two-year-old Ekaterina. Garkalin's daughter Nika became a theater producer. Her husband is Theater of Nations actor Pavel Akimkin. For the sake of his family and his own health, the actor finally gave up addictions.

Grandsons Timofey and Katyusha are the actor’s main joy. Photo: Nika Garkalina’s Instagram account

In July 2021, reports emerged that Valery Garkalin was back in the hospital with a head injury and cut wounds to his face. Apparently he had a bad fall at home. They immediately whispered that he was abusing alcohol again. However, the actor denied this information.

“It’s all a lie and a nightmare.” “I’m alive, healthy and happy,” Valery Borisovich said then.

Marina Sidorova
actor Valery Garkalin health heart attack

Valery Garkalin today

In recent years, the actor has played much less in the theater, mainly in roles in enterprises: “Pivid Apples” by Roman Madyanov, “The Yard” and “War” by Vladimir Pankov, etc.

Sometimes the actor organizes creative evenings.
In 2021, he played a grandfather in the comedy “Children for Rent,” and in 2018 he worked on the melodrama “Live Your Life” and the continuation of the series “Between Us Girls.” In addition, Valery Borisovich teaches at GITIS at the variety department - the same one that he himself graduated from. Valery Garkalin: analysis of the sketch at GITIS In February 2021, the actor was hospitalized with pneumonia. He became ill during a tour with the play “The Passion of Apollo”.