What is Alexander Belyaev sick with?
Six years ago, Alexander Belyaev was diagnosed with lung cancer. The famous TV presenter did not fold his arms and began to actively fight the dangerous disease. In 2020, he was forced to leave the program due to deteriorating general condition.
Also read: The painful thinness of Igor Krutoy
Information! Oncological disease is not Belyaev’s only ailment. The disease develops against the background of diabetes, which significantly complicates the situation.
Alexander Belyaev does not hide his illnesses
Having stopped talking about the upcoming weather for a week, the famous NTV presenter did not stop appearing on television screens, despite the serious illness with which he is fearlessly fighting.
Alexander gave an interview to Andrei Malakhov last year, telling how he resists the disease. Belyaev, being a public person, thus tries to support all other people who are faced with oncology. He told Malakhov about how he was undergoing chemotherapy.
Data! Alexander Belyaev has to take a large number of medications that have side effects. he said that diabetes could have caused such undesirable effects from treatment.
Also read: Personal life of Stanislav Druzhnikov
The TV presenter suggests that oncology was the result of bad heredity. His mother died of lung cancer. His late wife had leukemia.
As soon as he was diagnosed, he immediately quit smoking. Alexander urges everyone not to be afraid of doctors. He emphasizes that he deliberately chose treatment in Russia. Experts note his positive dynamics after surgery and two courses of chemotherapy.
Actor-geographer in the frame: Alexander Belyaev about the filming of “Weather Forecast”
Alexander Belyaev. Photo: ITAR-TASS
The professional holiday of a meteorologist is celebrated on March 23. Also in 2014, it celebrates its 20th anniversary, whose weather forecasts are watched by the whole country. The permanent leader of the project, Candidate of Sciences, geographer-hydrologist, deputy director of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Belyaev, told us why he disliked himself in the frame, how he tried on the image of Larry King, and why the popular superstition about a drowned man in the rain has a scientific basis.
Photo: ITAR-TASS
— Alexander Vadimovich, I know that your history on television began with the Mercator project, which you and your colleagues created on the basis of the Institute of Geography. Share your memories.
— The idea arose somewhere in the mid-1980s. Members of Mercator were involved in popularizing modern geographical research. Cooperation with the media was considered one of the main directions. We came to television with maps that accompanied the newscast. By that time the body was already open. They began to actively implement the development of cartographic material for weather forecasts on the federal channel. Then we decided to make weather forecasts with the presenters.
Photo: ITAR-TASS
— Do you remember this broadcast: worries, doubts?
“I didn’t intend to be the presenter.” It so happened that for a long time they could not find candidates who would satisfy the channel’s management. Once, in polemical fervor, I declared that I would go and talk on air about the weather. Just for fun, they recorded me in a pilot project, and then showed it to management, who said: “This guy is right for us.” I had no worries. I was never afraid of the camera. But, nevertheless, I experienced a shock. I never saw myself in a box. And when I saw it, I was horrified. This was a man completely unknown to me. Some kind of slob, smiling, wanting to please. And it’s me, one of the leaders of the Institute of Geography, who is feared. And then I realized that television is a kind of Through the Looking Glass. I perceive myself as diametrically opposed to what I see on TV.
— That is, television exposes the weaknesses of the presenter?
- Yes, and you can immediately see whether you are a fool or smart, whether you have a sense of humor or not.
— Have you gotten used to yourself on screen, or did you have to transform your image?
- I’m not used to it. To be honest, I still try not to look at myself. I evaluate only from the point of view of professional criteria: did I pronounce the phrase correctly, did I not obscure the card, how long can I walk around in unironed trousers without anyone seeing it.
Photo: ntv.ru
— How is the image of the presenter created? Is this solely your merit, or is there a team of professionals who advise you on how to present yourself?
- I focus on myself. At the initial stage, when I was still a teapot on television, one of the leaders of Meteo-TV said: “Alexander Vadimovich, let's make you look like Larry King?” I say, is this a black man? I didn’t even know about the existence of the famous television personality Larry King, I thought he was an American boxing promoter.
— How do you manage to combine work on television and a leadership position at the Institute of Geography?
— When I’m on television, I’m eager to go to college and vice versa. Of course, I don’t make any improvements here or there. I have been in the leadership of the institute since 1983. I even have a nickname on the Internet that translates from Mongolian as “boss.”
But it is impossible to completely devote yourself to scientific activity, thinking every day about what you will say tomorrow in the weather forecast. Therefore, at 65 years old, I state: “I did everything I could.”
— What technical difficulties does the weather forecaster face?
— At Meteo-TV there is conveyor production. Day after day you repeat the same thing. And this is in the presence of restrictive measures: timing, censorship, advertising. No matter how much you want creativity, when you are given 1 - maximum 1.5 minutes to talk about the weather of such a huge country, you can only make a sketch. Sometimes it got to the point of ridiculousness - the issue of “Weather Forecast” consisted of advertising and the temperature in Moscow. On the one hand, creativity is encouraged. On the other hand, you need to fulfill certain requirements. But, obviously, with such work, the baby is thrown out with the bathwater. Although, it seems to me that there is not enough creativity.
— What about the “gag”, improvisation?
— Andryusha Skvortsov, who also conducts weather forecasts, loves these improvisational broadcasts on the street. But this is improvisation within strict time limits. I like to cook all impromptu dishes, because I think that they need to be played out.
I write the lyrics to myself. There is hardly an editor who can cope with this task better. But the finished text is checked by the publisher.
Photo: ITAR-TASS
—Can you remember the awkward moments in “Weather Forecasts”?
— Any forecast is like a miner’s. And it's not about mistakes. The morning weather forecast is recorded the night before. The broadcasts are made cheerful so that people can recharge themselves with positivity. Imagine that the day began with tragic news. For the first few years I prayed that nothing would happen. But if a tragedy does occur in the country, then the presentation of information about the weather must be appropriate, and I must be dressed in a special way. And since we don’t know what the coming day has in store for us, we end up in a terribly awkward situation. Sometimes I felt ashamed that I was dressed too frivolously and joked too much.
As for the weather, there are things that are not forecast at all or are forecast three hours before the event. For example, such a rare phenomenon as freezing rain or a hurricane that blew the roof off the Bolshoi Theater.
— How many episodes per week do you record?
— Now I have a gentle regime. Two times a week. Wednesday is a full-fledged day when I work on all NTV projects - these are news broadcasts, plus a live broadcast at 23.15 and two broadcasts on City FM radio. It turns out that I arrive at Ostankino at 11 am, and leave at half past midnight. And each of our presenters has such a day. For Ira Polyakova, for example, it’s Monday.
On Saturday I have a short fasting day without radio and live broadcast. But it’s difficult on paper, there are emergency situations, and you have to replace colleagues. I remember with horror that on the first projects (the first two weeks) I worked alone. Now we are four people. We write the weather for 24 hours and 48 hours - due to the fact that we have many time zones.
— Your activities on TV are not limited to weather forecasts. What other projects have you taken part in?
— I am invited to other channels, and I willingly agree. I do practically everything on television that a person can do before being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He sang rap, took part in a New Year's performance, danced with Lolita on Channel One, voiced 28 episodes of the Australian TV series The Crocodile Hunter, starred in sitcoms, films with Filippenko, and took part in every talk show there is. And most importantly, he starred in 50 episodes of “Good Night Kids,” when Piggy and his friends were studying geography. He was also the host of the children’s program “Fight the Nation.”
Photo: ITAR-TASS
— Geographer and actor are interesting professions for you.
— I'm proud to be a geographer. This profession allowed me to travel a lot, get to know people and mentalities. At the same time, television did not deprive me of my main job. Now I am completing my television and scientific activities - age. Therefore, television is certainly a bright ending to a creative life. But I’m an omnivore, I could try myself in something else. For example, I would like to be a doctor.
— Alexander Vadimovich, is it difficult to keep a viewer who today prefers to find out the weather on the Internet?
— I’m not sure that weather forecasters are able to keep any viewer at the TV screen. My audience is not young people who go online. But, by the way, the most amazing thing is that my greatest popularity was on the Internet. We are talking about the famous episode where I supposedly sit in front of the TV and talk obscenities about the weather. Naturally, someone else's voice was superimposed on the picture. I even regretted that the creators of the video did not contact me - I would have voiced it much more professionally (laughs).
My second fabulous success on the Internet was when someone made a joke that we know why our weather is so bad. Next are footage of forecasts given by girls - charming brunettes, blondes, dark-skinned ones. And at the end, the Russian forecast, which I lead.
My viewer is more of a pensioner who says that his legs hurt, so he can predict the weather himself. By the way, the German Hydrometeorological Service has entered into agreements with “veterans’ homes” in all seriousness. They are thinking of using pensioners’ forecasts regarding weather events.
—You yourself don’t undertake to predict the weather?
— When I was studying at the university, at my first lecture on meteorology, Professor Khromov told me what to do if you were asked: “What will the weather be like tomorrow?” You need to boldly go outside, raise your head thoughtfully, smack your lips and boldly answer - the weather tomorrow will be the same as today. And the probability of such a forecast is 70 percent.
I don't think I'll take weather forecasting seriously. But I believe in folk omens, they are justified for me. I always oppose those meteorologists, and they are the overwhelming majority, who consider folk superstitions stupid. No, we must find a reasonable grain in the signs that have been formed over centuries.
- For example?
— Signs are expressed in a certain aphoristic form. Some people do not understand the phrase “Drowned means rain.” It's simple. When a cyclone moves and promises rain, a drop in pressure is observed. This creates upward currents of air, that is, all the air tends to the center. A drowned man lies at the bottom of a reservoir, and then a cyclone approaches, rising air currents lift him and push him to the surface. Here's a drowned man for the rain.
Photo: ntv.ru
— Alexander Vadimovich, what weather is ideal for you?
“We make our own weather.” She is in our family, at work. Therefore, in the program I try not to exaggerate. We have so much negativity in our lives.
— Doesn’t current global warming worry you?
- No, I know that during the time of the dinosaurs the temperature on earth was 8-10 degrees higher than it is now due to global warming. And there was a diametrically opposite period - the Ice Age. It is no coincidence that Greenland, which is now covered in ice, means “Green Land” in translation, that is, it was warm there. I am sure that nature has a resource for self-purification. And even if a person is unable to do something, then nature finds ways to help him.
Alla Panasenko
Topics: Views , Interviews with people of art
Latest news about the health of Alexander Belyaev
Journalists from the Vokrug TV channel recently interviewed the former weather forecaster on NTV, in which he talked about how his coordination of movements and speech functions had been impaired. At the same time, Alexander expressed the hope that he could not only overcome the dangerous illness, but also return to his favorite job.
Data! During two courses of chemotherapy, Belyaev lost a lot of weight, losing 10 kg. He admits that he went through a difficult period in his life when he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was told that he had to undergo surgery. Nervous system disorders, according to Alexander, were the result of taking a large number of pills.
Despite this situation, Alexander Belyaev is not going to give up on himself and is ready to provide moral support to other cancer patients by his example, agreeing to interviews in which he devotes a lot of time to covering his health condition.
Biography[ | ]
Alexander Belyaev was born on January 5, 1949 in Moscow in the family of one of the leaders of the Bryansk Automobile Plant, Vadim Mikhailovich Korostelev[2][3]. A graduate of Moscow school No. 58. As a student, he played in the amateur theater of Moscow State University[4].
In 1972 he graduated from the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University with a degree in Land Hydrology[2].
After graduating from university, he worked as an assigned worker at the Soyuzvodokanalproekt design and survey institute, then in the early 1970s he moved to the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he founded the Mercator group, which created meteorological infographics for the Meteo-TV holding[4 ].
In 1979 he defended his thesis on the topic “Zonal complex dependencies and their use in water balance mapping.” In 1987, he was appointed deputy director of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences for scientific issues and took over the leadership of the laboratory for experimental research of geosystems.
Participating in a zoological expedition in the Gobi Desert, he helped discover a new species of spider, named in his honor “Gonofusius Belyaeviy”[2].
On March 23, 1998[5][6], by coincidence, he became the presenter of the weather forecast on NTV[7][8][9]. Belyaev’s candidacy was approved by the then general director of NTV, Oleg Dobrodeev[10]. Despite the fact that he has never been involved in teaching and does not have an academic title[11], “for respectability” in the frame he received the nickname “Professor” at the suggestion of the then chief producer of NTV Leonid Parfenov[12].
He took part in the voiceover for 28 episodes of the Animal Planet documentary series “Croil Hunter Stories,” shown on NTV in 2002-2003.[13]
In 2007-2008, he hosted the children's intellectual television game “Fight the Nation” on the TV channels “Russia” and “Bibigon”[13].
In 2011, he was one of the hosts of the children's educational program “A round-the-world trip with Piggy and...” on the Karusel TV channel[14].
From May 12 to July 10, 2020, he hosted the NTV morning program “Sunny. No precipitation"[15].
He also hosted the ABC Forecaster program on the First Meteo TV channel[16].
He is a member of the Academy of Russian Television and an honorary member of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities (VAAD) of Ukraine [ source not specified 1808 days
].
He is interested in philately, collecting stamps associated with Russia, and in particular with the post-Soviet period of its history[17].
He has the military specialty “Weather forecaster-meteorologist”[18]. Lives in the village of Meshkovo, Novomoskovsk administrative district of Moscow[17][2].
In 2011, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, which he revealed in July 2020, when his condition worsened sharply.[19][20] Also has type 2 diabetes mellitus[21]. For the period from autumn 2017 to February 2020, he suspended work on television due to the fact that he was undergoing treatment at the N. N. Blokhin Oncology Center[22]. Returned to television on February 16, 2020. At the end of 2018, he was preparing for the third operation, as a result of which he gave up his place on the air weather forecast to Prokhor Chaliapin[23].
