Alexandra Nazarova / Biography and filmography

Many famous, successful and rich artists, who always joke, smile and have fun on screens, have suffered a difficult fate in life. It seems to the viewer that these people do not know what grief is, they always succeed in everything, and their eternal companion is luck. But those who think so are deeply mistaken. Alexandra Nazarova is one of those actresses who had a very, very difficult time in life. But she is forced to be the gossipy woman Nadya in the series “My Fair Nanny” in order not to lose heart. Looking at this character, I can’t even believe that in reality Alexandra Ivanovna is a poor, lonely woman whom fate had little mercy on. The star is raising her granddaughter alone and tries not to lose heart, no matter how cruel her lot may be.

Child's life

Despite the fact that Alexandra Nazarova celebrated her 76th birthday last year, she is filled with youthful energy and liveliness of mind. This condition will be the envy of many young talents. But behind all this lies a tragic fate and an incomprehensible ocean of failures and disappointments. Alexandra Ivanovna came to this Earth on July 17, 1940 into a family of real artists. Therefore, the girl’s career as an actress was destined from above. The girl's father was Honored Artist Ivan Dmitrievich Nazarov. Her mother, Matveeva Alexandra Prokofyevna, also served in the theater, and therefore she was never at home.

At the age of one year, when little Sasha lived in Leningrad, she was caught in the war. Just before the arrival of this misfortune, the baby’s father went on tour to the Far East. The blockade of the city began, but the baby’s mother managed to escape from the siege along with the baby. Ivan Dmitrievich was in Vladivostok, where his family found him. There Matveeva was accepted into the theater troupe. The five-year-old girl will remember Victory Day for the rest of her life.

Alexandra Nazarova returned to Leningrad with her parents as soon as the end of the war was announced. But the family's old apartment was occupied by an official who only allowed people to take their things. He did not intend to vacate the housing itself. For a long time, the Nazarovs lived in a tiny room in a communal apartment. To this day, Alexandra Ivanovna remembers the huge stove located in the kitchen intended for eight families, and the common toilet.

Sasha then dreamed of becoming a ballerina, but at the last moment she changed her mind about enrolling in a ballet school. The girl appeared on stage for the first time at the age of six. It was then that she decided that she would become an actress no matter what. The first time, the girl entered LGITMiK on the course of Boris Zone.

BIOGRAPHY

Alexandra Ivanovna Nazarova was born into an acting family.
Father, Ivan Nazarov (1899 -1963), Honored Artist of the RSFSR, began his career at the Yaroslavl Theater. Volkova, and her mother, Alexandra Matveeva (1912-1996), graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Performing Arts in 1935 (workshop of S.A. Gerasimov). Parents played at the Leningrad New Theater, which was later renamed the Lensovet Theater. Together they starred in the films “Teacher” (where they met) and “Member of the Government.” Just before the war, my father went on tour with the theater to Vladivostok. When the war began, my mother and little Sasha managed to leave Leningrad before the blockade. “Mom, with me in her arms, having miraculously escaped from Leningrad, decided to get to my father. How she managed this is still difficult to understand. She saved my life, and our relatives who remained in St. Petersburg died of hunger. Only my mother’s brother, Uncle Fedya, survived,” says the actress. Parents wandered around the country with the theater. The victory was celebrated in Nizhny Tagil. When the family returned to Leningrad, their apartment was occupied. The Nazarovs were given a 15-meter room in a communal apartment. They lived rather meagerly, like all actors, but it was a warm and cozy home. Neither father nor mother wanted their daughter to become an actress. But fate intervened: in a rest home in Komarov she met her future teacher, Zon, and while her parents were touring, Nazarova entered the Leningrad Institute of Theater Arts named after Ostrovsky and became Boris Vulfovich’s favorite student. According to him, at first he thought: small, thin, as they say, no face or skin. But the main thing was her desire to learn and, of course, talent. In 1961, Alexandra graduated from LGITMiK.

The beginning of a theatrical career

Alexandra Nazarova, whose biography itself could become a script for a film, visited the Central Children's Theater on one of her visits to the Russian capital. There she saw Anatoly Efros’s production of “My Friend, Kolka!” After that, she began to dream about the stage of this theater. After graduating from LGITMiK, the girl could choose to serve in one of the theaters in Leningrad, but her dream was Moscow. In the entire history of the existence of this university, Nazarova was perhaps the only one lucky enough to receive an assignment to the capital of the Union.

It was in Moscow that Alexandra Ivanovna’s theatrical career began. The girl literally idolized her mentor Anatoly Efros and was timid in his presence. The master assigned her small roles, but from this she received only pleasure. Three years later, Efros went to serve at Lenkom, and Sasha was able to work in this theater for a short time after that. She moved to the Theater. M.N. Ermolova. For almost half a century, a woman has been working on this stage.

Roles in the theater

During her service at the Ermolova Theater, Alexandra Nazarova played many roles. Thus, she took part in such performances as “Tomorrow at Seven” (doctor Tanya), “Photo Finish” (Stella), “Time and the Conway Family” (Carol) and “The Great Catherine” (Dashkova). The actress also embodied the image of the Hunchback in “Caligula”, Kostya in “Moonlight Sonata!”, Miss Brown in “We Are Not Alone, Darling” and Juliet in “The Ball of Thieves”. These are just a few of the productions in which Alexandra Ivanovna was seen.

Not only critics praised Alexandra’s work. Viktor Astafiev expressed gratitude to the artist for her performance in the play “Time and the Conway Family,” where she played Caroll.

Cinematic biography

Alexandra Ivanovna Nazarova began her career in the cinema industry while still studying. It was her fourth year at the university, and the girl was vacationing in Yalta. Unexpectedly, she received a telegram asking her to come to the Ukrainian capital to film in the film “And if this is love.” The student at first thought that someone was playing a prank on her. After all, she had never acted in a movie before, much less sent her photographs to film studios. Later it turned out that Sasha owes this role to Maria Filimonova, the second director of the film. She was friends with the woman's parents and saw a photo of her in their apartment. Maria begged for a photograph and showed it to the film's director, Yuri Raizman.

This is how Nazarova played her first film role. She was entrusted with the image of schoolgirl Nadya Bragina. Since the movie was filmed either in Moscow or Kiev, the young artist had to regularly travel between populated areas. To date, the woman’s filmography includes 80 different TV series and films. The most popular of them are: “Sofya Perovskaya”, “Princess on Beans”, “Cadets”, “Crew”, “Airport”, “Brigade” and “Night Watch”.

Beautiful nanny's grandmother

Alexandra Nazarova first appeared on the set during her student years - she played a small role in the film “What if this is love?” In total, the actress’s track record includes almost two hundred films. In many of them she played the role of “first violin”.

The first major role in Alexandra Ivanovna’s film career came in the film “Beloved.” The main character, Ira Egorova, had just graduated from high school and was about to enter college, but a meeting with a young builder changed the girl’s plans. She went to a youth construction site, where not everything was as simple as it seemed at first glance.

Then she played Sofya Perovskaya in the film of the same name. The actress did not play any more major roles in the cinema of the Soviet period , but viewers remember Alexandra Nazarova from her participation in the films “Crew”, “Skin of a Polar Bear”, “Melody for Two Voices”, “Land of My Childhood”, “Grey Mouse”.

In Russian cinema, the actress played in the projects “The Princess on the Beans”, “Reflection”, “Family Secrets”, “Let’s Know Each Other!”. Such cult domestic TV series as:

"Border. Taiga novel";
“On the corner of Patriarch’s 2”;
"Brigade";
"Return of Mukhtar";
"Cadets";
"My Fair Nanny";
"Ataman";
"Help service";
"Club";
"Moscow. Three stations";
“Oh, ma-mo-ki!”

In 2020, the actress appeared on screens as Grandma Leni in the series “Take the Blow, Baby!”; in 2020 – played Anfisa in the drama “Three Sisters”. In 2020, the comedy “Happiness!” was released. Health!”, in which Alexandra Nazarova was entrusted with one of the minor roles.

In addition to work in theater and cinema, Alexandra Ivanovna’s track record includes many voice-overs for foreign films. She never refused to appear in the children's magazine "Yeralash". Having lived a long life, the actress became an interesting narrator in documentary projects about the life and fate of Nadezhda Rumyantseva, Anna Kamenkova, Sergei Zhigunov.

Merit of "Nanny"

But the series “My Fair Nanny” made the artist truly popular. After the release of the sitcom, Alexandra Nazarova became famous throughout the country. Then she was over 60 years old, and true glory fell on the woman. Filming of this soap opera lasted three years. Alexandra played Grandma Nadya. At first, the role was supposed to be only episodic. But the role for the actress was expanded after Baba Nadya created a real sensation. The audience liked her so much that her image urgently had to be written in as the key one.

Alexandra Ivanovna became famous, and passers-by began to recognize her. Before “Nanny,” the artist was known only in the theatrical sphere, but after the appearance of the sitcom, she turned into a real screen star. In 2001, Alexandra Nazarova was awarded the title of People's Actress of Russia.

Movies

The cinematic biography of Alexandra Nazarova began when she was in her 4th year at university. While on vacation in Yalta, a student from LGITMiK unexpectedly received a telegram asking her to come to Kyiv to film the film “What if this is love?”

Alexandra Nazarova in the film “The Princess on the Beans”

At first Nazarova thought it was a joke. After all, she never acted in a movie and never sent out her photographs to the film studio. It turned out that Alexandra got the role thanks to the second director of the said film, Maria Filimonova. She saw a photograph of a girl on the wall in the apartment of Sasha’s parents, with whom she was friends, and begged for a photo. And in Moscow I showed the photo to director Yuri Raizman.

So Alexandra Nazarova played her first film role. She appeared on the screens in the image of schoolgirl Nadya Bragina. The film was shot in Kyiv and Moscow. So the girl constantly bounced between cities.

Alexandra Nazarova in the TV series “Brigada”

The next major role followed in 1967, when viewers saw Leo Arnstam’s film “Sofya Perovskaya”. She played Sofya Perovskaya, the daughter of the former governor of Leningrad, who became a famous leader of the People's Will.

Today, Alexandra Nazarova’s filmography includes more than 80 titles of films and TV series. The most famous of them: “Crew”, “Princess on a Bean”, “Brigade”, “Cadets”, “Night Watch” and “Airport”.

However, fame fell on the artist only after 60 years, when she appeared in the comedy series “My Fair Nanny.” Filming of the project lasted 3 years. At first, the role of Baba Nadya, entrusted to Alexandra Nazarova, was written as an episode. But when the project began filming, the role was expanded especially for the artist.

Alexandra Nazarova in the series “My Fair Nanny”

The actress woke up famous. From that moment on, Nazarova was recognized on the streets. Previously, Alexandra Ivanovna was better known in theater circles, but after “My Fair Nanny” she turned into a real star of Russian cinema.

In 2001, Nazarova received the title of People's Artist of Russia.

In 2011, the premiere of the series about four women working in the recruitment agency “New Recruit”, directed by Valeria Gai Germanika “A Short Course in a Happy Life,” was released. In the serial film, Alexandra Nazarova was given the role of Emma’s friend, Bella.

Alexandra Nazarova on the set of the film “Yolki 1914”

The artist also appeared in the role of Maria Afanasyevna in the film “Yolki 1914” and Baba Shura in the series “How I Became Russian.”

The second tells about an American journalist who was sent to Russia for a long time. During his stay in a foreign country, a young man starts a blog in which he talks about the incomprehensible Russian soul and seeks an answer to the question: “What does it mean to be Russian?”

In 2020, viewers saw the actress in the role of Konstantin Kryukov’s on-screen grandmother in Ara Oganesyan’s mind-blowing film “Take the Blow, Baby!”

Alexandra Nazarova in the film “Take the Blow, Baby!”

This is a comedy about two twin sisters Tanya and Sveta. But Svetlana is the queen of shopping and selfies, and Tatyana is a boxer. This is how the girls would live, each busy with their own affairs, if not for chance. During one training session, Tanya gets injured and cannot enter the ring for some time. Everything would be fine, but important competitions are at stake. Then the athlete finds the only possible way out - to put Sveta in her place. But Tanya herself will have to live the life of a twin sister for a while.

The role of both girls was played by the young actress Ekaterina Vladimirova. The film also stars Mikhail Porechenkov, Roy Jones, Nastasya Samburskaya, Vitaly Gogunsky and others.

In the same year, together with Anastasia Panina, Gela Meskhi, Yan Tsapnik and others, Nazarova appeared in the crime series “Bouncer”, playing the role of Baba Polina.

Alexandra Nazarova in the series “Bouncer”

In addition to working in the theater and filming films, Alexandra Ivanovna is known as a voice actress. The voice of Nazarova is spoken by the psychic Oda Mae Brown in the film “Ghost”, Mrs. Baker in “Garfield”, the narrator Sayuri in “Memoirs of a Geisha”, Martha in “The Book of Eli”, Murph in old age in “Interstellar”, the seed keeper in “Mad Max: Road of Fury" and others.

The artist also starred a lot with children in the humorous magazine “Yeralash”.

Voicing of foreign characters

Not only does Alexandra Nazarova act in films. She also voices films, or rather, her Russian-language speech is spoken by certain characters in famous foreign films. Scoring films became a huge stage in the artist’s work. Her voice is spoken by the boy from the film “Toy” with Pierre Richard in the title role. This is Alexandra Ivanovna speaking instead of bringing Casper in the animated film of the same name. She also gave the voice to one of the ducklings in DuckTales.

Nazarova also voiced the characters of such world-famous films and TV series as “Twin Peaks”, “Frozen in Miami”, “If Your Mother-in-Law is a Monster”, “Mystic River”, “Philadelphia” and “Silent Hill”. In total, the artist has about a hundred such works.

Other film roles

Alexandra Nazarova, whose filmography consists of many films, during her career she played many roles and starred in a wide variety of films. For example, in the film “Beloved” for 1965, she embodied the image of Irina Egorova, a school graduate who dreams of going to college. But having met a young builder, the girl decides to go to work at a construction site. This was the main role. But in the film “Crew” (1979), popular in the USSR, Alexandra got the cameo role of a passenger on an emergency flight, looking for her son Dima before the trip.

In the work “Step” from 1988, she was again involved in an episode in which she portrayed a laboratory employee. He played the main role again in 1997 in a movie called “The Princess on the Beans.” There she was the mother of the main character - an atheist and an ardent communist. This is only a small fraction of the roles available in Nazarova’s arsenal.

Two marriages - two separations

Alexandra Nazarova, whose personal life is an excellent basis for the novel, was married twice. The first time she married cameraman Yuri Prikhodko. The man was a Muscovite, and the marriage of the young people was considered quite happy. This was the period in the artist’s life when she had just moved to live in the Russian capital. After the wedding, the family settled in Novye Cheryomushki. The couple had to live with Yuri’s grandmother and mother. Family life was carefree and happy.

But while on vacation in Ruza, Alexandra met a young guy whose name, like her husband’s, was Yuri. The woman fell in love. The lover was a resuscitation doctor. The separation from my husband was very painful. The marriage to the second Yuri turned out to be just a misunderstanding. Family life did not work out. The couple had a son, Dmitry, and when the boy was not even two years old, the couple separated. Five years later, Nazarova’s ex-husband went to live in Germany.

Great pain - great loss

Alexandra Nazarova’s son turned out to be her greatest pain. The guy grew up when the Soviet Union had just collapsed. It was a time of confusion and complete uncertainty. Old values are gone, but new ones have not yet formed. Young people were overcome by the desire to get rich quickly, and Dmitry was no exception. The fact that he was raised without a father also played a certain role in the fate of the teenager. Nazarova’s son searched for himself for a long time: he did everything and rushed in all sorts of directions.

When Dmitry turned 41, he was killed. Some time before the tragedy, he married a young girl who gave him a daughter, Sasha. But the woman’s maternal instinct never woke up, and after breaking up with Dmitry, she left the baby in an orphanage.

Second husband and second divorce

The second husband of Alexandra Nazarova again became a man named Yuri, but there was nothing in common between the artist’s chosen ones: Prikhodko is a creative person, but with a difficult character, Mikhailov is a resuscitation doctor, easy-going. “What a playboy and a handsome man he was, how he loved to dress beautifully!” - Alexandra Ivanovna recalled about her second husband and added sadly. “He loved everything, but not the house.” Yuri often went on sprees with friends, forgetting about his beloved woman and little son Mitya. “They even said that he was having an affair with some lady - I was close to breaking windows!” - Alexandra exclaimed. This marriage lasted only two or three years - and was not happy.

Interesting things from life

Actress Alexandra Nazarova, whose films we watch with pleasure, to this day regrets that her father was not able to see her in the theatrical production “Tomorrow at Seven,” based on Simonov’s novel.

Once upon a time, after the divorce, Alexandra’s ex-husband, Dmitry’s father, asked his wife for a fabulous sum at that time - $500. The artist collected the necessary money and gave it to Yuri. On the second day, the woman learned about the man’s death. Their common son, after exactly ten years, repeated the fate of his father.

INTERESTING FACTS

After graduation, Nazarova was left at the Bolshoi Drama Theater with Tovstonogov in Leningrad, but she saw Efros’s performance at the Central Children’s Theater in Moscow, and this decided her fate.
Bragina’s role was not the main one in the film “What if this is love?” (1961), but it is her character who appears in the first frames of the film - Nadya is answering a German lesson. Alexandra herself studied French at school and college, and learned German phrases on the set.
In 1963, her first husband got Alexandra a job in the editorial office of the Film Festival Companion, the same Moscow International Film Festival when Fellini received a prize for his film 8 1/2. She was a “fresh head” and read all the texts.
One day, after the divorce, Mitya’s father called Nazarova and asked her to get him $500—he urgently needed the money. The actress had to collect such huge amounts for those times throughout Moscow. They agreed to meet. And the next day it became known that Yura had been killed. Exactly ten years later, the son repeated the fate of his father. One day Mitya urgently asked to give him money and said that a lot depended on it. Of course, the mother could not refuse. They met, she gave the money, and the next day he, like his father, was found murdered.
Alexandra Nazarova has a “talking” cat Trisha and a white Swiss shepherd Musya.