No wonder they say that opposites attract. No one believed that the union of Rolan Bykov and Elena Sanaeva would result in a strong marriage. From a young age, Bykov was a lover of women and did not stop in his adventures. His height is 158 cm, early bald patches, but inexhaustible charm. The actor managed to win the heart of Elena Sanaeva, the daughter of an influential person in the world of cinema. Their love story began by chance, but lasted a quarter of a century.
Nothing is impossible
In 1972, Roland and Elena worked on the filming of a film in which they played spouses. The actor flew to Chisinau for filming with a fan, but Sanaeva was in no hurry to get to work. She chose a train instead of a plane, which infuriated Bykov. He called her a “pigal girl” who requires a lot of attention. Roland did not know that this acquaintance would change his life.
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Rolan Bykov and Elena Sanaeva
When the actress appeared on the set, Bykov fell in love with her at first sight. He improvised during filming and kissed the artist more often than necessary. She was his stage wife after all. Elena, a married woman, did not like this.
After meeting with the actress, Roland left his admirer and focused on conquering Sanaeva’s “cold” heart. At the end of their work together, they did not see each other for a year. During the filming of the film “The Car, the Violin and the Dog Blob,” where the artist came to visit Roland, he proposed to her.
Personal life
For Elena Vsevolodovna, her husband for a quarter of a century was the main person not only in her personal life, but also in her work. When Rolan Antonovich passed away, she decided to finish everything that he did not have time to do - she began making films that were conceived by her husband.
In the photo: Bykov as Barmaley in the film “Aibolit-66”
In Rolan Bykov’s personal life, his marriage to Sanaeva was his second, and for the first time he married actress Lydia Knyazeva, with whom he lived for about fifteen years.
The first wife of Rolan Bykov
Rolan Bykov’s first wife can be seen in the film “Aibolit-66”, in which he starred as Barmaley, and Lydia Nikolaevna as the monkey Chichi.
In the photo: Lidia Knyazeva
There were no children of Rolan Bykov in this marriage, and in 1958 the couple adopted a boy. But in the mid-sixties, the relationship between the spouses finally went wrong, and they decided to separate.
Knyazeva in the film “Aibolit-66”
Rolan Antonovich, despite his ordinary appearance, always enjoyed success with women, so after the divorce he had no problems communicating with the ladies, and he even almost got married several times, but after meeting Elena Vsevolodovna, the actor no longer wanted to look at anyone one woman.
By the time she met Bykov, Sanaeva had not only managed to go through a divorce, having been married to engineer Vladimir Konuzin and given birth to a child, but also had an affair with a man much younger than herself, whom she almost married.
In the photo: Rolan Bykov and Elena Sanaeva
The fact that their destinies connected can be called a happy accident, because Elena Sanaeva, approved for the role in the film “Docker”, in which she was supposed to star as the wife of the hero Rolan Bykov, was late due to filming in another project, and her Another artist had already been called to take the place.
However, Sanaeva was not going to give up the role; she arrived on the set and immediately began filming. Then Elena Vsevolodovna was twenty-nine years old, and Bykov was forty-three, and he, not afraid of such a difference in age, began to court her. Sanaeva will remember his passionate kiss for the rest of her life, which was included in the script at the insistence of Rolan Antonovich.
From the very beginning of their acquaintance, Elena Vsevolodovna became part of the personal life of Rolan Bykov, who confessed his love to her almost immediately. Sanaeva heard an offer to become his wife from Bykov a year later, when she came to visit Rolan Antonovich for the filming of the film “The Car, the Violin and the Dog Blob.”
Although the actress’s parents were categorically against their daughter’s choice, she did not listen to anyone and became the wife of Rolan Bykov.
“My parents were strongly against our relationship, believing that Bykov would make me unhappy,” recalls Sanaeva.
Despite the most unfavorable predictions, the actress connected her biography with Roland and never regretted it, because she lived with him for more than twenty-five happy years.
After the wedding, for the first two years the acting family lived with Rolan Antonovich’s mother, and these years were some of the most difficult in his wife’s personal life, because Elena Sanaeva had to leave her son from her first marriage with her parents.
And the point is not only that Pavlik had asthma, and Bykov smoked a lot, but also that the actress’s mother did not want to give her son to her daughter, who decided to marry a man who could ruin her life.
Rolan Bykov did not have his own children in this marriage, so Elena Vsevolodovna suffered terribly from the fact that she could not change the situation, and Pavlik lived with her parents for eleven years.
Meanwhile, Sanaeva was an integral part of not only Rolan Bykov’s personal life, but also his creative biography - she went with him to filming, acted in some films with her husband, and, returning home, she solved all everyday issues, including the construction of a dacha.
Sanaeva became her husband’s guardian angel when a difficult period began in his creative biography - Bykov was not allowed to work, and then he began to drink, and Elena Vsevolodovna tried with all her might to return her husband to a normal life.
In the photo: Elena Sanaeva
But the year 1996 became even more difficult in Rolan Bykov’s personal life, when his mother and Elena Vsevolodovna’s parents died, and it also turned out that he was seriously ill.
Rolan Bykov and Elena Sanaeva in the film “The Adventures of Buratino”
The operation only temporarily delayed his death, which, one might say, deprived Sanaeva of the meaning of existence, because for many years her whole life revolved around her beloved husband.
And then she began to take on Bykov’s unfinished project - the documentary film “Portrait of an Unknown Soldier” and some other works that the director did not have time to complete.
A stamp in a passport is not an indicator of love
The lovers were in no hurry to legitimize their relationship because they worked a lot. Their joint success is Basilio the Cat and Alice the Fox in The Adventures of Pinocchio. Sanaeva accompanied her groom on tours and devoted little time to her son Pavel from her first marriage. He lived with his grandmother until he was 11 years old and harbored a grudge against his mother. There were no common children in the family of Bykov and Sanaeva.
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Rolan Bykov and Elena Sanaeva
The first photos from the wedding appeared 13 years after the proposal was made. So much love did not care about the stamp in the passport. The actor admitted that after 43 years of spiritual wandering, Elena became a breath of fresh air for him. He was faithful to his beloved and was afraid of losing her. Although the artist did not immediately fall in love with the man, then everything changed dramatically.
Roland could not do without his beloved even in everyday life. He waited for her to place a plate of food in front of him, and drank medicine only from her hands, because he trusted her infinitely.
Oleg Bykov - the unlucky adopted son of Rolan Bykov and Lydia Knyazeva
Oleg, whom the couple adopted at the age of nine months, had a twin brother, who was taken to a family somewhere in the Far East and they never met.
When my son reached adolescence, problems began. Either it was bad genetics, or Lydia and Roland, so busy at work, overlooked something in his upbringing. The child did not want to study, constantly behaved like a hooligan, and even began to steal. The couple was constantly called to the school and the police, and they had to get their unlucky son out of trouble.
Oleg Bykov in the film “Scarecrow” (1983)
Over time, Roland got tired of such an atmosphere in the house, began to come home less often, spent more time with friends and... with other women. The common misfortune did not unite them with Lydia, but separated them. In addition, Bykov became incredibly popular, and his wife only had a theater and rarely appeared in films. Ultimately, Roland went to the beautiful Elena Sanaeva, whose son Pavel was growing up, and began to devote more time to him (although there were conflicts there too). Knyazeva was left alone with her problem son; Bykov rarely appeared in their lives.
However, when Oleg grew up, he stopped communicating with his mother; his father had more opportunities to solve his problems. Roland continued to pull his son out of unpleasant (often criminal) stories, tried to find a place for him in life, to place him somewhere. Oleg did not complete a single task. With difficulty, he studied to become an economist, tried himself as an actor in the film “Scarecrow,” directed by his father, tried to produce films at his suggestion, and worked at the Bykov Foundation.
The passing of his father deprived Oleg of support; his mother had been dead for a long time. He spent the last four years of his life in deep depression with all the ensuing consequences. He was married twice, but never left anything behind.
The difficult family life of Bykov and Sanaeva
The news that the beautiful Elena, the daughter of People's Artist of the USSR Vsevolod Sanaev, and the actor Bykov, known for his amorous affairs, were getting married, quickly spread throughout the cinematic Moscow.
Literally everyone was against this marriage. Elena's parents did not want to accept what they considered a dubious actor into their family. Roland’s mother also disliked her daughter-in-law, although she tried to maintain outward neutrality. The girl’s parents were sometimes called by complete strangers trying to denigrate Bykov. The actor's ex-wife told them that Roland would ruin the life of their talented daughter, just as he broke hers.
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“He will suck you dry and throw you away,” the father tried to reason with Elena. But his daughter did not listen to him. She fell in love with Bykov for who he was: imperfect, sometimes harsh, sometimes drunk, but insanely talented.
Sanayeva’s parents took their son Pasha from her first marriage from her daughter to raise. From now on, his mother could visit him only once every two weeks. Dates between mother and son invariably ended in an ugly scene, when the grandmother practically took Pasha away from Elena and hurled curses at her.
Many years will pass, and the actress’s son will write a book about the life of his mother and stepfather entitled “Bury me behind the baseboard.” It will become a bestseller. They will make a wonderful film based on it.
In the meantime, Elena had to constantly be torn between her son and her husband and suffer. Only seven years later the family will be reunited. Rolan Bykov will become a real father for Pavel: sincere, demanding, helping in everything. He will be the first to support the young man when Paul writes his early story.
Memory of Elena Sanaeva about her husband
According to the actress, Rolan Bykov was a kind and very sympathetic person. He never abandoned his friends in trouble. The actor could not even pass by a stranger who found himself in a difficult situation. He definitely helped him.
The talented director and actor Bykov often traveled to creative meetings in different cities of Russia. Everywhere he was received warmly and joyfully. The audience was ready to listen to him for hours. According to his contemporaries, he was a most interesting person, a magnetic personality.
His wife Elena Sanaeva once admitted: “He has been gone since 1998, but I still serve him.” After her husband's death, she spent several years collecting all his speeches, articles, and monologues. In honor of the memory of Rolan Bykov, she plans to release a book with his writings. The printed publication about the talented artist will be published in a small edition. It will be on sale soon.
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