Surely every inhabitant of the post-Soviet space is familiar with Leonid Gaidai's stunning 1973 comedy "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession", based on Bulgakov's theatrical play. This is the story of the modest manager of the Bunshi house, who, due to the mistake of the inventor Timofeev, accidentally finds himself in the past, "waving" in places with the extremely similar Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The film features a splendid group of actors, forever beloved by the audience.
"Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession" is a film that has become a classic of cinema. Quotes from the film have firmly entered our speech (they can be found in Wikiquote), and the faces of the actors taking part in the filming are familiar to every lover of Soviet cinema. Unfortunately, many of the cast are no longer alive.
Main roles
Yuri Yakovlev is the central character of the gripping story, who plays the pathetic, intimidated Bunshu and, without exaggeration, the formidable tsar. A great actor with an amazing gift of transformation, equally easily playing both comedic and dramatic roles.
Yakovlev was born in Moscow back in 1928 in the family of a lawyer. He was a leading artist at the Vakhtangov Theater and one of the most popular film actors in the USSR. On account of his more than a hundred works on the stage and in the cinema. Moreover, he first entered the cinematographic institute, but he was rejected because of his "non-cinematic appearance." As a result, Yuri Vasilyevich was educated at a theater school. Yakovlev is the owner of an impressive list of state and film awards. He voiced cartoons, took part in radio shows, starred in music videos. Died in autumn 2013.
Leonid Kuravlyov is another equally prominent figure in Russian cinema. He played Georges Miroslavsky, a cunning thief with an irrepressible imagination, who, together with the main character, "fell through" into the past. The charming artist with an intelligent appearance was born in 1936 in the family of a simple locksmith. He submitted documents to VGIK only because he was never friends with the exact sciences - and there they did not need to be handed over. Today, probably, the name of Leonid Vyacheslavovich is known to everyone. It is difficult to count all the roles that he played, but there are definitely more than two hundred of them. People's and honored, the owner of many titles and awards, he works on television today, actively supporting the current government.
Alexander Demyanenko is a real star of Soviet cinema, the famous Shurik from Operation Y, Prisoner of the Caucasus and, of course, from Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession, a film where he played the inventor Alexander Timofeev, who created the time machine. Demyanenko, born in 1937, an actor of not only cinema, but also of theater, a master of dubbing foreign films, and, admittedly, a real "King of Comedy". There are many works in his creative collection. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1999 from heart disease.
The inimitable Russian comedian Natalya Krachkovskaya reincarnated in the film as Ulyana Andreevna, Bunshi's wife, an expressive lady who intimidated not only her husband, but also those around her. When, instead of a timid and always grateful husband to her, she faced the iron character of his double, Ivan Vasilyevich, an indescribably comic situation arose. The actress coped with her role simply brilliantly, she is unforgettable. Natalia was born in 1938 in Moscow. She never suffered from her extraordinary appearance, playing, as a rule, secondary, but very memorable roles, she has about a hundred works to her credit. She was the favorite actress of the legendary director Gaidai. She passed away in 2016 after a serious illness.
Minor characters
The role of Feofan, a clerk and clerk, instantly renamed Fedya by the cunning swindler, was played by Savely Kramarov, an honored artist of Soviet cinema born in 1934, whose parents have repeatedly suffered from repression. Savely is the star of memorable films, dramas and comedies, film adaptations by Ilf and Petrov. Having made an excellent film career, he emigrated to America in 1981. He died 11 years later and was buried in San Francisco, in the Jewish cemetery.
Every viewer who watched the film remembers another protagonist, the dentist Shpak Anton Semenovich, the inventor's neighbor. The insidious dentist was played by Vladimir Abramovich Etush, an honored and famous actor born in 1922. Today he is a well-known teacher, directs the famous theater. Shchukin and is married to his fan, who is 43 years younger than the actor.
Secondary female roles
Shurik's wife, the beauty and coquette Zinaida Mikhailovna, was played by the People's Artist of Natalia Selezneva, born in 1945. Natalia grew up in a creative family, her father was a famous photographer and her mother was an artist. Another "favorite" of Gaidai, she starred in many of his films and in more than forty films. Today Selezneva is one of the leading actresses of the Moscow Theater of Satire.
Marfa Vasilievna, the wife of Ivan the Terrible, was played by Nina Maslova, also an honored actress with a difficult fate. In her youth, she was a bully, early addicted to alcohol. Drunkenness became her scourge even at a more mature age, after working with Gaidai. She found solace in religion and still appears on screen in serials and on stage.
Natalia Kustinskaya, who was born in 1938 into a musical family, played the role of director Yakin's beloved actress, who was included in the top ten of the sexiest and most beautiful actresses in the world by the popular French magazine of the 60s. She married six times solely for love, lived in a civil marriage several times and died in 2012, retaining graceful elegance until her death.
The charming nurse, Shpak's assistant, was played by Natalya Gurzo, who was born in the capital of Russia in the post-war years in a family of famous actors. Every viewer knows her voice today - she voices films, shows, cartoons, and there are about 80 such works in her creative baggage. And the actress starred in 30 films.
In episodes
The author of the image of the director Yakin is the unique and versatile Mikhail Pugovkin, who, unfortunately, left this world in 2008. "Velmi the important" Swedish ambassador in the film is the famous Soviet comedian of theater and cinema Sergei Filippov. He passed away in 1990. The hero of another wonderful artist Eduard Bredun, who had already died in 1984, is a cunning speculator in radio components.
The colorful archer who marveled at "Chizhiku" performed on the Bunshey bells was played by Alexander Vigdorov, an actor who was born in 1942 and began his career at the age of 23. Nowadays, everything also appears on the screens, but since the 90s, exclusively in television series. The second, no less original archer, who was remembered by the audience for the quote "Take demons alive!" played by Valentin Grigorievich Grachev, who began his career in childhood and died in 1995.
Well, the third in this company of servicemen, an eternally surprised archer with a twitching ear, was Anatoly Kalabulin, the recognized Soviet "king of episodes", who was born in 1937 and got into the cinema quite by accident. He died in 1981, at 43, from cirrhosis of the liver. Boyar was played by Viktor Shulgin, a great artist of the Russian theater who passed away in 1991.
"The Tambov wolf is a boyar for you!" - this memorable phrase from the film, they say, was a pure improvisation of the performer of the role of police lieutenant actor Anatoly Podshivalov. This is the same boy who played the unforgettable Gypsy in "SHKID". In 1970, he received a head injury that put an end to his career as an artist, and in 1987 he died from the consequences of this injury. Viktor Uralsky, one of the famous acting dynasty, acted in the guise of the police chief in the comedy film. In recent years, he suffered from Parkinson's and died in 2009. His daughter Irina, having become a director, made a documentary about her family, which has appeared in front of the public for generations.
