Inna Gulaya: how the talented actress died

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Inna Gulaya made a bright debut in the cinema of the 60s. But the Khrushchev thaw passed, and the actress was unable to adapt to new trends; a long black streak began in her biography. In the end, it destroyed her entire family.

Inna Gulaya

Inna was born in Kharkov in 1940. Her mother was the daughter of an executed “enemy of the people.” Inna grew up without a father; her childhood was very difficult. She tried to enter the theater institute, but it didn’t work out. Later she graduated from the school named after B.V. Shchukin.

Biography of the actress

Inna Gulaya was born in Kharkov in 1940. Her mother Lyudmila Genfer (nee Gulaya) met the future father of the actress in 1939. But he soon abandoned her, because he did not want to connect his fate with the daughter of an enemy of the people. Konstantin Guly (the actress’s grandfather) was the People’s Commissar of Labor in the Ukrainian SSR; he was shot in 1937.

Soon Lyudmila met Joseph Gefner, who later became the head of the Moscow-Ryazan Railway. Having learned that she was planning to have an abortion, he proposed to her that same evening, got married and raised Inna as his daughter.

Inna Gulaya found out about her real father only when she grew up. At the age of 19, she even met him, but did not experience any kindred feelings. According to her mother, the biological father was very worried that he abandoned his daughter in her youth. As a result, he died from a heart attack.

At the same time, Inna’s new father died very early, so she had to grow up in poverty. Her mother worked part-time as a dressmaker and wanted her daughter to go to the Institute of Foreign Languages. But Inna Gulaya dreamed of becoming an actress since childhood.

Having received secondary education, she was unable to enter the theater institute. But I didn’t despair. She studied in the studio at the central children's theater. In 1962 she became a student at the Shchukin Theater School.

Childhood and youth

The future actress was born in the city of Kharkov, located in what is now Ukraine. This event took place on May 9, 1940. Nothing is known about the girl’s real father, but her mother, Lyudmila Gulaya, was the daughter of the People’s Commissar of Labor of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Konstantin Makarovich Guly.

Actress Inna Gulaya

After a man left Lyudmila after learning that she was pregnant, the girl was going to have an abortion. A young graduate of the Russian University of Transport, Joseph Genfer, dissuaded her from this idea. Already on the first day of their acquaintance, he proposed to Gula and also said that he would accept the child. That's how Inna was born.

Inna Gulaya in her youth

The girl’s childhood was difficult - first her father died, who had just received the job of head of the Moscow-Ryazan Railway, then the Great Patriotic War began. The first post-war years can also hardly be called joyful, but even despite this, Inna grew up as a cheerful girl, dreaming of a career as an actress, fame, wealth and travel. Therefore, Lyudmila Konstantinovna did not insist that her daughter go to study at the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages, even though she really wanted to.

Inna Gulaya in her youth

However, Inna also failed to enroll immediately in her desired university. But Gulaya did not give up. Instead, the girl got a job as a machine operator at a company, and also enrolled in courses at the studio at the Russian Order of Lenin Academic Youth Theater. The girl’s beauty and talent were noticed immediately, so in 1960 Gulaya first appeared on the silver screen.

Film debut

Inna Gulaya first appeared on screen in 1960 in Vasily Ordynsky’s drama “Clouds over Borsk”. She played the role of Olya Ryzhkova.

This film became one of the most effective tools of Khrushchev's anti-religious propaganda. He talks about the small provincial town of Borsk. After college, a young teacher, Kira Sergeevna, comes to work there. She becomes a class teacher in the 9th grade, where “children of war” study.

The main character, played by Inna Gulaya, is raised by a widowed father who literally lives at work and pays almost no attention to his daughter. To forget about loneliness, she tries to assert herself in social work. He works with children, October students, and prepares a theatrical anti-religious evening with teenagers. However, she does not find a kindred spirit in anyone. The exception is the new teacher Kira Sergeevna. They are getting closer. For Olya Ryzhkova, the teacher becomes not a teacher, but a friend. But how will such a relationship turn out?

Gulaya, Inna Iosifovna - what is it

OriginEdit

The mother of the actress Lyudmila Konstantinovna Genfer, nee Gulaya (01/23/1919-03/31/2006), was the daughter of a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine, People's Commissar of Labor of the Ukrainian SSR Konstantin Makarovich Guly (1887-1937), repressed during the era of the Great Terror[6] [7][8]. In 1939, she met Inna's future father and became pregnant, but he abandoned Lyudmila, not wanting to tie his fate with the daughter of an enemy of the people. After some time, she met a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Railways, Joseph Genfer, in the future - the head of the Moscow-Ryazan Railway, who, having heard that she was planning an abortion, proposed to her on the very first evening of their acquaintance, got married and accepted paternity. When Inna grew up, her mother told her about her real father. At the age of 19, Inna even met him, but, according to her mother, she did not experience any feelings for him, although he was very worried that he abandoned the child, and soon died of a heart attack[7].

Joseph Genfer also passed away early, and Lyudmila Konstantinovna raised her daughter alone. We lived very poorly, my mother worked as a dressmaker. She planned to send Inna to the Institute of Foreign Languages, but she dreamed of becoming an actress since childhood. After graduating from high school, she did not enter the theater institute and studied in a studio at the Central Children's Theater. In 1962-1964 she studied at the Shchukin Theater School.

Career and personal lifeEdit

In 1960 she made her film debut, playing the role of Olya Ryzhkova in Vasily Ordynsky’s film “Clouds over Borsk”. In 1961, she played her most significant role in Lev Kulidzhanov’s film “When the Trees Were Big” - the village girl Natasha, who trustingly mistook a random person for her father, who went missing in the war. The young actress’s performance was distinguished by high psychologism and deep immersion in the character’s image.

After this work, Inna Gulaya played the role of Jaroslav Hasek’s girlfriend in the joint Czechoslovak-Soviet film “The Big Road,” and in 1965 in the film “Time, Forward!” by Mikhail Schweitzer and Sofia Milkina. — Shurochka, a girl of the early 1930s, captured by the pathos of gigantic construction and new human relationships. Although these roles did not provide sufficient material for dramatic development, the actress discovered a new side of her talent - a subtle sense of humor[9].

She served at the Moscow Theater for Young Spectators. In 1962, she married screenwriter and poet Gennady Shpalikov; a year later, a daughter, Daria, was born from this marriage. In 1966 she became an actress at the Film Actor's Studio Theatre. In the same year, the film “A Long Happy Life” was released - Shpalikov’s only directorial work. In this film, Inna Gulaya played her last major role, in the words of Lyubov Arkus, “the Russian Gelsomina from the spit-stained regional center”[10]. In the USSR, the film went unnoticed. According to film expert Valery Fomin, Shpalikov’s film became the final point in the development of Thaw cinema[11]. Shpalikov began a period of lack of creative demand. Inna Gulaya also began to receive few offers to act in films. The lack of work complicated an already difficult family life[12]. According to the memoirs of film playwright Natalya Fokina, wife of Lev Kulidzhanov,

Inna's [talent], which was her heavy burden and yoke, enslaved and tormented her and her loved ones. She spread anxiety and discomfort, which later manifested itself in the family drama of Inna and Gena Shpalikov. There was some kind of “black hole” in it, which you couldn’t guess at first glance. There was something deceptive in her attractive appearance, bottomless expressive eyes. In her work, Inna was merciless to herself, was not afraid to be ugly, she wrinkled her nose and dragged her feet[13].

According to the writer and journalist Alexander Nilin,

...the very first role of a sectarian in Ordynsky’s film “Clouds over Borsk” hit her psyche very painfully (the very circumstances offered by the role [the sectarians, with their savage zeal, drive the girl to a semi-insane state and attempt to crucify her on the cross], turned out to be very harmful for her) , which no one paid attention to in time[14].

After scandals and Shpalikov’s escapes from the hospital, where his wife and mother-in-law repeatedly sent him for treatment, Gulaya eventually filed for divorce, fearing for the fate of her daughter[7]. In 1974, Gennady Shpalikov hanged himself, and 16 years later, on May 28, 1990, Gulaya herself passed away. The circumstances of her death are still unknown for certain. The actress suffered from lack of demand in films[15]. Relatives and friends of Shpalikov directly accused the actress of pushing her ex-husband to death with her divorce, which led to depression and problems with alcohol[7].

DeathEdit

On May 26, 1990, the actress’s mother and daughter found her lying unconscious in her apartment next to an open refrigerator; on the table stood a can of milk and a pan of buckwheat porridge, prepared for food. The doctors did not arrive immediately. Gulaya died two days later in the hospital without regaining consciousness[7][12][16]. According to medical experts, the cause of death was an overdose of sleeping pills[17]. A criminal case was opened and closed due to lack of evidence. The yellow press hastened to declare the death a suicide, but Lyudmila Konstantinovna rejected the rumors. According to her, her daughter had not slept well recently, took a lot of sleeping pills and, most likely, simply did not calculate the dose[7].

She was buried at the Domodedovo cemetery near Moscow (site 38).

Most notable roles

The very next year, Inna Gulaya, whose biography was connected with the big screen, plays the village girl Natasha in Lev Kulidzhanov’s melodrama “When the Trees Were Big.” This is one of her most memorable and dramatic roles. A naive village girl mistakes a random man for her father, who went missing at the front. Film critics noted the professionalism and psychologism of the young actress.

The next success was Yuri Ozerov’s film “The Big Road”. This is a Soviet-Czechoslovak film dedicated to the biography of the writer Jaroslav Hasek, the author of “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik.” Actress Inna Gulaya played the role of the prose writer's friend.

In 1965, in the optimistic drama by Mikhail Schweitzer and Sofia Milkina “Time, Forward!” she gets the role of Shurochka. The events take place in the early 30s, when many Soviet people, including Shurochka, were fascinated by gigantic construction projects. Despite the fact that this image was very monotonous, Gulaya showed a new side of her acting talent - a subtle sense of humor.

Bright film debut

In 1960, she acted in films for the first time - in the leading role in the heavy anti-religious film “Clouds over Borsk” . One of the main roles was played in that film by the young Vladimir Ivashov . He also had a difficult fate; he even had to leave cinema and work as a construction worker.

The following year, she played her most famous role - Natasha in the famous film by Lev Kulidzhanov “When the Trees Were Big” .

Inna Gulaya with Yuri Nikulin. “When the Trees Were Big” 1961

She played brilliantly. Inna immediately became a big screen star. Spectators noted the actress’s extraordinary beauty and depth of immersion in the role. Presenting the film, Gulaya, along with other creators, went to film festivals. She visited Karlovy Vary and posed on the famous red carpet in Cannes. Moreover, Inna Gulaya at that time was just over 20. It seemed that a new great actress with a huge creative future was ascending to Soviet screens. Who would have thought that this would be the last triumph for the young actress.

Inna Gulaya at the Cannes Film Festival

"Long Happy Life"

Gulaya began working in the capital's theater for young spectators, then in the theater-studio of a film actor.

In 1966, Gulaya played the main role in the drama of her husband Gennady Shpalikov “A Long Happy Life”. As film critics later noted, this turned out to be her last major film work. She was called the Russian Gelsomina (a character from Federico Fellini’s drama “The Road”), who ended up in a regional center covered in spit. The film went unnoticed. People began to talk about its significance only decades later.

Meanwhile, the thaw period ended. Shpalikov and Gulaya were not in demand. The actress began to rarely act in films; she was no longer offered leading roles.

⁣Russian actress, whose difficult life story became public knowledge.

She is currently in a psychiatric clinic.

Daria Shpalikova was born in the spring of 1963 in Moscow.

Her father is Gennady Shpalikov, director, writer, screenwriter, and her mother is the famous Soviet actress Inna Gulaya.

In an interview, she recalled that her childhood could confidently be called happy - her parents loved each other very much and doted on their daughter.

However, in the 1970s, Gennady Shpalikov was experiencing a creative crisis - his works were not in demand, and he found solace in alcohol.

In 1974, he was found dead in the House of Creativity in Peredelkino - he hanged himself with his own scarf. "" When the image of my father appears in my memory, a line from his poem immediately pops up, like a signature under a photograph: “And the mitten in my hand is a premonition of separation...”

Even then, in early childhood, I felt: he would not be able to constantly be there, he would go somewhere, disappear. It doesn't stay this good for long. It can’t be so fun, funny and sad for long...”

Daria Shpalikova became a student at the acting department of the All-Russian State University of Cinematography named after S.A. Gerasimov, workshop of Sergei Bondarchuk.

Family friend Vasily Livanov advised the young actress to tell the selection committee Sergei Mikhalkov’s fable “The Cunning Mouse.” In the late 1980s, Daria Shpalikova began acting in films.

She appeared in the films “Playground”, “Crossing”, “Sign of Trouble” and others. “Sometimes, like my father, poems are born completely spontaneously. I understand that they don’t contain even a thousandth of what was in dad’s poems. This is probably why I don’t value them and, having written down the lines that come to mind, I soon lose the piece of paper.”

When Inna Gulaya was admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to depression and an unhappy love story with a young writer named Nikolai, Daria Shpalikova decided to exchange their two-room apartment. “Mom replied: “I don’t care.”

I acted like a selfish person and as punishment for this I received lasting pain and guilt. If I hadn’t changed my apartment and stayed with my mother, she might still be alive to this day.”

…….

⁣In 1990, Inna Gulaya, like her famous husband, committed suicide - she took too large a dose of sleeping pills. After this tragedy, Daria Shpalikova went as a pilgrim to the Holy Trinity Monastery in Kolomna, where she spent a year and a half. Then she tried to return to the profession, but she was fired from the Film Actor Studio Theater and the photographs were confiscated from the Mosfilm file cabinet.

Daria Shpalikova lived with her grandmother, the mother of Inna Gulaya, but often withdrew into herself, like her parents. At the insistence of her relatives, she went to a psychiatric hospital for examination, and since then has not left the hospital ward.

Daria Shpalikova is a patient of the third department of the Scientific Center for Mental Health. After the death of her grandmother, she remained the sole owner of two apartments in Moscow. Recently, Daria Shpalikova found herself at the center of a scandal - an unknown woman arranged for the actress’s apartments under a rental agreement, but at the same time refuses to financially support Daria Shpalikova’s stay in the hospital.

In addition, the doctors are going to transfer the patient to a psychiatric clinic, where people with Down's disease are treated......

“I have been tormented by loneliness all my life. I am alone, even if there are people nearby. Even among the crowd - as if in a cap. Why should I do this - I don’t know......

What is this?

ROCK?

FATE?

This is probably the fate of Dasha Shpalikova……….

Personal life

During that period, quarrels and disagreements began with my husband Gennady Shpalikov, which were aggravated by the lack of work. The husband began to abuse alcohol. His wife and mother-in-law repeatedly tried to cure him in specialized clinics, but he constantly ran away from there. As a result, Inna Gulaya made a serious decision. The actress's personal life finally cracked - she filed for divorce.

This decision was largely caused by the desire to protect their daughter, Daria, who was born in 1963, from family scandals.

A few years after the divorce, Gennady Shpalikov hanged himself.

Filmography

Actress Inna Gulaya: short fame and death in the style of Marilyn Monroe

Inna was abandoned by her father as a child, and this story turned out to be similar to the plot of the main film in her career. But unlike the movies, there was no happy ending in her life.

The film “When the Trees Were Big” was released on screens across the country in 1962. The poignant life story touched the hearts of Soviet viewers. But even more surprising than everyone was the famous Yuri Nikulin, who appeared in an unusual image. It turned out that the famous comedian’s talent is enough to star not only in Gaidai’s comedies and make people laugh in the circus arena.

Yuri Nikulin played in this film a drunken, lonely middle-aged man with no prospects in life. But the incident when he had to deceive a simple village girl Natasha, calling himself her father, who had long ago left the family, completely turned his life upside down.

The young actress Inna Gulaya played the naive village woman who dreamed of meeting her father. As contemporaries said, she is an actress from God. And at the same time a person with a very sad fate.

We can say that the actress partly played herself in this film. Her mother was still carrying her daughter in her belly when her father ran away from the family in an unknown direction. Some time later, Inna’s mother married another man, and it was him who Inna considered for many years to be her own father.

She was nineteen when the truth was revealed. And Inna became eager to find her biological father. And I found it thanks to my persistence. However, the long-awaited meeting with the parent brought disappointment. The man met Inna indifferently, and she decided not to continue any relationship with him.

Only two years passed, and Inna Gulaya faced a similar situation. Now it's in the cinema. She was invited to play the main role in the film “When the Trees Were Big.” Despite her youth, Inna already had several strong films under her belt, including “Clouds over Borsk”.

The actress’s career also developed after a joint film with Yuri Nikulin. Inna was accepted into the prestigious Shchepkin Theater School. They were invited to interesting roles: the girl of the military leader Shura in the touching film story “The Big Road”. The main character of the film was the great Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek.

Then there was the role of a wall newspaper editor in the social drama “Time, Forward!” Next is the main role of the provincial girl Lena in the melodrama “A Long Happy Life.” This time, her partner on the set was another great actor, Kirill Lavrov.

And then the time of world fame came. In 1962, the young actress represented the Soviet Union at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Her personal life was no less happy. Inna was married to screenwriter Gennady Shpalikov, who participated in the creation of the famous film “I Walk Around Moscow.” He also directed the film “A Long Happy Life,” in which one of the actresses was his beloved wife.

Two loving and very talented people raised a daughter. And it seemed that nothing could interfere with their happiness and well-being. But fate intervened in their lives in a rude and terrible way.

Gennady Shpalikov began to drink, thus filling his lack of fulfillment in creativity. Then this habit turned into a serious addiction. Quarrels became more frequent in the family. And one day the head of the family simply left home. He was later found hanged at his dacha.

Shpalikov's problems greatly affected his wife. Previously, she fought for her husband, for her family. And after his tragic death, she began to fall into depression more and more often. Moreover, her career began to decline sharply.

There were no big roles. There were some good films: “If you are a man...”, “The Pier on the Other Shore”, “Walking Through Torment”. But the roles in these films were not leading.

But what’s even worse is that Inna was literally hounded by her colleagues and acquaintances, blaming her for her husband’s death. Like, instead of saving her loved one, she gave up on both him and herself. Moreover, it became known that shortly before Shpalikov’s death, Gulaya filed for divorce.

These attacks further isolated the actress from society. She withdrew into herself, stopped working and appearing in public. She drank heavily. And one day, the actress’s mother and daughter found her unconscious at home. Doctors tried to save the artist for two days, but to no avail. Inna Gulya died on May 28, 1990 at the age of 51.

The official cause of death was an overdose of sleeping pills. But society immediately delivered its verdict - the drunken actress committed suicide. However, Inna's mother rejected these rumors, saying that her daughter suffered from insomnia, and therefore was saved only by sleeping pills. And, most likely, she simply did not calculate the volume.

But society found this version boring. So, most movie fans are still convinced that the death of the once famous actress was not accidental. Of course, because the great Marilyn Monroe died in about the same way. Among the many versions of her death, there is an accidental overdose. But who cares...

Interesting Facts

• At the age of 19, Inna made an attempt to meet her own father. But no good came of it. She did not experience any warm feelings for the man who left her pregnant mother. Although Inna’s father greatly repented of his actions,
• Despite the apparent softness, actress Inna Gulaya was a very tough person, demanding of herself and those around her. More than once this caused controversial situations on film sets,
• Inna and Yuri Nikulin were cautiously cast in the lead roles in the film When the Trees Were Big. At that time, the selection of actors was already very delayed. But when this couple was seen together in the frame, all doubts disappeared,
• There is a rumor that after filming When the Trees Were Big, Nikulin and Gulay had an affair. Yuri confirmed this fact, but Inna did not comment on it in any way,
• From 1962 to 1964, Inna studied at the Theater School. Shchukina,
• Inna Gulaya could have had more roles, but because of Gennady’s jealousy, she often refused directors,
• Inna and Gennady's daughter Dasha is currently in a psychiatric hospital.