Vladimir Korenev: We must take the best from Soviet power

Vladimir Korenev: biography

On June 20, 1940, Vladimir Borisovich Korenev was born. Most Russian viewers remember him for his role as Ichthyander from the Soviet film “Amphibian Man.”

Vladimir Korenev spent his childhood in Sevastopol, where his father, who was a rear admiral and knew several foreign languages, served in the navy. The family often moved from one city to another. After the war they lived in the small town of Izmail (Ukraine). Here Vladimir went to school and studied for several years, studying Russian and Ukrainian.

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Actor in his youth

Soon his family moved to Tallinn. He graduated from school in the capital of the Estonian SSR. There I became seriously interested in Russian literature – largely thanks to the teacher, I fell in love with theater. Vladimir Korenev has said more than once that Tallinn is a theater city, and it is not surprising that he wanted to attend a specialized drama club and become an actor.

This drama club was led by the artist of the Tallinn Drama Theater Ivan Rossomakhin. Under his leadership, Larisa Luzhina, Vitaly Konyaev and Igor Yasulovich became professional artists in the future. Korenev was 20 years old when he entered Androvsky’s course at GITIS. After 5 years, Vladimir became a certified actor.

Biography

On June 20, 1940, Vladimir Borisovich Korenev was born. Most Russian viewers remember him for his role as Ichthyander from the Soviet film “Amphibian Man.”

Actor in his youth

Theater

The famous artist does not hide the fact that he loves theater much more than cinema. After all, in the theater the audience is nearby, and any actor must constantly prove that he can achieve much more than is expected of him.

In 1961, after graduating from the institute, Vladimir Korenev managed to join the troupe of the Moscow Drama Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky (now the Stanislavsky Electrotheater). The beggar Filch in “The Threepenny Opera” by Bertolt Brecht and Kirpaty in “Days of the Turbins” by Mikhail Bulgakov are his first roles. One of the artist’s best works is the role of Robin Hood in the play of the same name, staged by Ekaterina Elanskaya in 1968.

On the theater stage

He has been working in this theater institution for 55 years now. Korenev continues to play in many performances, appears on stage along with young actors, and also works without a supporting cast. He has dozens of roles in his native theater behind him. He played in the plays “Heart of a Dog”, “Talents and Admirers”, “Cunning and Love”, “Bourgeois Nobleman” and many others.

Vladimir Korenev: a man not of this world

Cinematographer Eduard Rozovsky , who shot the film “Amphibian Man,” said about Vladimir Korenev: “Volodya is a man not of this world. Everything about him worked for Ichthyander: naivety, spontaneity, inability to adapt to earthly life. Even his motor system. Even now, already at an age, he moves like a Martian, holds his body differently. He is a pacer among us." A lot of time has passed since the release of the famous film on the screens, and the People's Artist and leading actor of the Theater. Stanislavsky never changed.

Still from the film "Amphibian Man"

"AiF": Artists often try to hide their age. And you, Vladimir Borisovich?

Vladimir Korenev : There is a lot of women in the acting profession. Male actors look at themselves in the mirror every day and think - damn, one more wrinkle, I can’t play Chatsky anymore, I can’t play Hamlet anymore... This is an internal fear - to move ahead of time to the next role. Although I don't like people without age. Once at a banquet I saw a 70-year-old movie star - she got braces in France, everything was as it should be. The only thing that gave her away were pigment spots on her neck and arms. And a look in which there was no desire. The eyes of a dead fish are the first sign of impotence, including creative impotence. This is not for me. We must live by passions. “It is better to be the youngest of the old than the oldest of the young.”

“Your eyes clearly don’t have this sign.” Rather, on the contrary...

“I don’t think I’m that old.” More like just right. Once we were traveling from St. Petersburg in the same compartment with Efim Kopelyan , and he said: “I am now in a “golden” period. This is when you already know how and you have the strength. The age of mastery." And then he poured vodka into glasses and added: “Actors find themselves precisely at this time.” He was the same age then as I am now. And now I have the same feelings.

Do you know what age is? It's a disease. You can't get hung up on it. Otherwise, your “golden” period will shorten like shagreen skin.

Actor Vladimir Korenev at the celebration of his 70th anniversary. Photo: RIA Novosti/Mikhail Fomichev

-Are you a suspicious person?

- Sometimes. Subject to unreasonable fears, like a dog that suddenly begins to tremble and whine in its sleep. I'm very worried about my loved ones. For me, love is fear. A terrible, animal fear of losing a loved one. But all my doubts, sorrows and joys are processed on stage. It turns out like a creative sausage. And I'm back in shape.

— Who are you outside the theater?

- I am a sybarite. I like to lie on the couch with a book and drink wine. I smoke a lot. At the dacha I dig beds. I love my grandson Egorka. And I just like to watch sports.

— Are you into diets?

- Not necessary. I am asthenic and, apparently, also neurasthenic. Character - from depression to euphoria. And neurasthenics are rarely overweight. I move a lot on stage, even dance. I play 20 performances a month, all the main roles. Look at me! Only once in my life did I take a ballot - they removed appendicitis. There is not even a card in any medical institution. Genetics also helps: my father was a naval officer, rear admiral, and my grandfather, a peasant, lived to be over 90.

Actor Vladimir Korenev on the stage of the Moscow Drama Theater. K.S.Stanislavsky. Photo: RIA Novosti/Mikhail Fomichev

— Were you very worried when you had to change your role?

“On the contrary, I realized that it was time to go into character roles.” Smart actors do this. Gerard Philip at 33 said: “I don’t play hero-lovers anymore!” And I did even earlier. And it turned out that I am a character actor by nature. I love comedic roles. In tragedy, death is predetermined: fate, fate, and you know that the hero will die anyway. But the catharsis that arises from the feeling of participation in someone’s tragedy is not the whole of theater. I like to laugh more.

And I have a philosophical attitude towards age. Montaigne said that all life is a preparation for death.

— Another phrase: “We are not afraid of death, but we simply do not want it.”

“It’s an instinct to push away the thought of the inevitable end.” Nature has decreed wisely: we ourselves leave life when we survive to the bottom. The circle of desires narrows, the fire goes out, and the person leaves easily. There is no need to be afraid of this. And this is not something to joke about. Let the terrible cold wall, which was far from me, approach, but, approaching it, I change my view of the problem. And I'm not so scared anymore.

Of course, I don't want to grow old. It's better to be rich and healthy. But strike a pose and bury your head in the sand? It’s better not to think about it at all then! I have no nostalgia for my youth. And I have a dream: to get drunk at my grandson’s wedding. If I fight at the table on an equal footing with all the young people, that will be catharsis.

Photo: RIA Novosti/Mikhail Mokrushin

— After “Amphibian Man,” the entire entrance to your house was covered in lipstick. What compliments are your fans telling you now?

- That I get better over the years, like old wine. But this is on stage. But in life, I am not the cherub whose image was captured in Ichthyander. I don't want to write memoirs just yet. Once I entered into a contract with a publishing house for a book, bought a notebook, went to the dacha, finished the first chapter there, and then returned home, began to delve into painting albums and came across the famous self-portrait of Van Gogh with a cut off ear. And I thought: here is a man who has suffered a complete fiasco as a person and as an artist. He found the courage to admit it. But I can not. Unable to tell the whole unpleasant truth about myself.

- Is it true, is it true? You give the impression of being an accomplished person.

- I know everything about myself. Probably, at the last confession, when the priest comes to give me communion, I will tell him everything.

Movies

Vladimir Korenev is known to viewers for his roles in the films “The Light of a Distant Star”, “Children of Don Quixote”, “Sons of the Fatherland”, as well as the TV series “Liberation”, “Unknown Pages from the Life of a Scout” and others.

Photo of the actor

His acting career did not end in Soviet cinema. Korenev actively takes part in the filming of films created by modern Russian directors. In the 2000s, the actor starred in the TV series “Deadly Force-5”, “Children of the Arbat”, “Blind”, “Regional Detectives” and “The Last Confession”.

Vladimir Korenev starred in 45 roles: there were few central or main ones among them. Apparently, the type was unsuitable for the role of a Soviet leader in production. Often the actor himself refused the directors’ offers because the script seemed unsuitable to him.

Talented artist

Directors of absolutely different directions have fruitfully collaborated with Vladimir Korenev: Alexander Tovstonogov, Mikhail Yanshin, Boris Lvov-Anokhin, Ekaterina Elanskaya, Vladimir Mirzoev and others.

In 1998, Vladimir Korenev was awarded the title of People's Artist of Russia.

In 2011, he staged the play “Dangerous Liaisons” by Choderlos de Laclos on the stage of the Arkhangelsk Drama Theater named after M. Lomonosov.

New Age

In the new century, actor Vladimir Korenev, whose photo can be seen in the article, began actively acting in TV series. “Deadly Force”, “Northern Sphinx”, “Children of the Arbat”, “Blind”, “Regional Detectives”, “Gentle Leopard”, “The Last Confession”, “Two Colors of Passion” are well-known television projects with his participation. The star can also be seen in the TV series “The Gift of God”, “Urgently to Number 2”, “Airborne Father”, “In the Forests and on the Mountains”, “Lavrova Method 2”, “Premonition”, “House of Sleeping Beauties”, “The Alchemist. Elixir of Faust", "Trickster".

Vladimir’s latest achievement at the moment is participation in the television project “Orlova and Alexandrov,” which was released in 2015. In this series, Korenev embodied the image of Nemirovich-Danchenko.

"Amphibian Man"

In cinema, Vladimir Korenev’s leading role in the film “Amphibian Man” (1962) brought him enormous success and popularity, and his character was recognized as the main romantic image of the 1960s. Millions of women fell in love with the eyes of the film's hero, who literally mesmerized from the first minutes of watching the film.

Viewers fell in love with Korenev precisely after the film “Amphibian Man,” in which he played Ichthyander. The actor himself has only pleasant memories from participating in the filming of the cult film - he was surprised to discover the strange underwater world, as well as its peaceful silence.

As Ichthyander

“Amphibian Man” is not the actor’s first film. He made his screen debut in the drama “Life Passed By” in 1958, and three years later he starred in “Amphibian Man.” The film was seen by over 65 million people, which was a huge success. Critics attacked the picture with furious fury and predicted its imminent oblivion, but this did not happen. In the end, it turned out differently: women were looking for men similar to Korenev, and men, in turn, began to wear long haircuts and dress in white suits. The film was awarded the prestigious international Silver Sail award.

With Anastasia Vertinskaya

For Korenev, filming the film “Amphibian Man” was a real breakthrough in his career. Many critics believe that this film was able to begin a new era of Soviet cinema. Extremely negative reviews from critics, who saw the film as a hymn to bourgeois society, did not affect the general attitude towards the film. The film was a resounding success. In addition, actress Anastasia Vertinskaya also played brilliantly in the film, playing the role of Gutierre.

Vladimir Korenev had to make incredible efforts to return to normal creative life, because all viewers already had a strong image of the actor they knew from the role of Ichthyander.

Career development

Korenev first appeared on screen in an episode of V. Basov’s drama “Life Passed By” in 1958. During his graduation year, during a rehearsal for his graduation performance, Vladimir was offered to take part in auditions for the main role in a film based on Belyaev’s work of the same name, “The Amphibian Man.” The director immediately approved Korenev, especially since he was looking for a still unknown actor.

Vladimir Korenev in his most striking image, “Amphibian Man”

After the film was released in 1961, Vladimir woke up famous. The image of Ichthyander, a sincere and naive young man, made Korenev a real sex symbol. Despite the fact that critics reacted negatively to the film, it turned out to be very successful and became a leading film at the box office. The fans did not give the main character any rest and bombarded him with letters.

Also in 1961, he received an offer to work at the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow and since then has remained faithful to this theater all his life. Here he gradually became a leading actor, playing in such productions as “Farewell in June”, “Cyrano de Bergerac”, “Heart of a Dog” and many others.

After “Amphibian Man,” the image of Ichthyander stuck to Korenev, and it was quite difficult to get rid of him. The actor wanted to play other roles, but interesting offers were received infrequently. In addition, he actively worked on the theater stage, which he always preferred. And yet Korenev played in more than forty films, but there were no more successful roles as in 1961. It is characteristic that the actor’s cinematic activity increased after 2003.

In 1988, Korenev was nominated for the title of Honored Artist, in 1998 - People's Artist. For many years he was a professor at the theater department of IGUMO, taught acting and staged graduation performances, until the department was disbanded in 2015.

V. Korenev with his wife and daughter

Personal life

Vladimir Korenev passed the test of glory with dignity. He lived his entire life with one woman.

He met his future wife Alla Konstantinova at the institute when she was a 3rd year student. Vladimir initially did not make a strong impression on her, because the girl never paid attention to male appearance. But soon she saw how smart and interesting Vladimir is: his knowledge is encyclopedic, he talks fascinatingly and writes no less fascinatingly.

With his wife Alla

On April 2, 1961, Alla became Vladimir's wife. After the wedding ceremony, she went to work at the theater, and Korenev went to VGIK, his course went to filming in Finland.

Daughter Irina followed in her parents’ footsteps and became an actress. Now Alla, Irina and Vladimir Korenev work in the same theater and are truly inseparable either at home or at work.

With wife and daughter

It should be noted that the famous actress Margarita Nazarova, who played the barmaid Marina in the comedy “Striped Flight,” could have become Vladimir Korenev’s chosen one, but this did not happen, and the short romance quickly ended.

Unknown family

In 2020, a certain Natalya Ivanova turned to presenter Andrei Malakhov to talk about the fact that Vladimir Borisovich Korenev has an illegitimate daughter.

The woman said that in the 60s she was in one of the recreation centers near Moscow when a famous actor arrived there. In the end, it turned out that she was expecting a child from him. Now the famous artist allegedly has not only a daughter, granddaughter, but also a great-granddaughter.

Illegitimate daughter of an actor

In the studio of the “Let Them Talk” program, heated discussions began as to whether this was really a real family connection. Many experts argued that a DNA test would be necessary to accurately confirm this information. However, Natalya was not at all offended by the words of the guests in the studio, because she is sure that the father of her daughter Evgenia is Vladimir Borisovich. According to Ivanova, when the girl was 14 years old, she learned that her father was a famous actor who played Ichthyander.

Vladimir Korenev now

Among the actor’s latest works is the role of Nemirovich-Danchenko in the TV series “Orlova and Alexandrov”, as well as small roles in the films “The Trickster”, “House of Sleeping Beauties” and “The Alchemist. Elixir of Faust.

Vladimir Korenev is actively involved in teaching; he heads the acting department at the Faculty of Theater Arts of the Institute of Humanitarian Education and Information Technologies, which he founded. By staging graduation performances with students, he also realizes his potential as a director.

In the studio of the program “Alone with Everyone”

It should be noted that many TV viewers have repeatedly suggested that Vladimir Korenev is a relative of actress Elena Koreneva, but in fact this is not true. Celebrities are not related.

Actor Vladimir Korenev: family, childhood

The performer of the role of Ichthyander was born in the hero city of Sevastopol, this happened in June 1940. Actor Vladimir Korenev was born into the family of a rear admiral of the fleet. My father’s work meant constant moving, so the family often changed their place of residence. Volodya spent most of his childhood in the Ukrainian city of Izmail, then he and his parents moved to Tallinn, where he graduated from school.

The capital of Estonia is called a theater city; it is not surprising that it was there that the boy became interested in dramatic art. This was facilitated by a literature teacher who infected the child with her love for the works of Russian classics. As a teenager, Vladimir began studying in a drama club, and he had dreams of becoming an actor.