Leonid Kulagin - biography, personal life, photos, films

Biography of Leonid Kulagin

Fans remember and love Leonid Nikolaevich Kulagin for his roles in the historical adventure films “The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe” and “The Adventures of Quentin Dorvad”, the drama “Black Arrow”, the melodramas “The Noble Nest” and “Autumn”. He has more than eight dozen films to his credit, many staged performances, and the title of Honored and People's Artist of the RSFSR.

Director, actor, People's Artist Leonid Kulagin

The road to cinema

After finishing his studies at the theater studio, Kulagin sent his photographs to all film studios, being absolutely convinced of his attractiveness, since since childhood he had enjoyed increased attention from young people. Suddenly a call came from Mosfilm, from director Andrei Smirnov, and Leonid decided that Soviet cinema could not do without him. But this opinion changed as soon as the script was read. There was not a single name in it, only nicknames: commissar, driver, man with a horse face and others. Initially, the director prepared for him the role of a man with a horse face. This is how the young actor’s illusions about his unearthly attractiveness were destroyed.

The history of the picture was sad; officials ordered it to be destroyed, seeing political motives, but thanks to the installer, some boxes with film survived. The film was subsequently restored, but by that time its plot had already lost relevance. Some episodes of the film came to Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky, who considered the actor a nobleman. So Leonid Nikolaevich got the role of Lavretsky in “The Noble Nest”.

After this, the actor became recognizable by starring in the first erotic film “Autumn” in 1974, where more than half of the scenes were filmed in bed. Leonid’s partner on the set was the director’s wife, Natalya Rudnaya.

His wife Eleanor reacted surprisingly calmly even to such candid footage, and the actor is confident that thanks to this attitude and understanding they managed to save the family.

Quite funny incidents also happened during filming. For example, in the film “The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe” (1982), in the final scene the actor was accidentally almost roasted alive, having forgotten he was tied to a spit over a real fire.

Childhood

Leonid was born into a family of workers from the Siberian town of Kirensk.
Living conditions there were quite harsh, so soon after the birth of his son, the head of the family decided to return to his native Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky). The boy spent all his free time with his father, who worked as an electrician at the local drama theater. Mom worked all day, and Leonid had to follow his father everywhere. We can say that this is exactly how he got into the theater: he wandered backstage, watched productions, and first appeared on the theater stage - in the play “The Young Guard”.

When his father was fired from the theater, Lenya followed his neighbor, a musician, and very soon became a frequent guest backstage at the opera house, discovering his singing talent, so much so that he began to seriously think about a career as an opera singer. He even tried to make his voice hoarse by practicing singing in the cold.

“An Hour of Interview” with Leonid Kulagin Alas, my mother could not help Leonid with the choice of his future profession - she died in 1957. After graduating from school, the young man had to make a serious decision - to pursue his favorite singing professionally or to apply to a theater studio. After much thought, Kulagin realized that he would never be able to sing like his idol Fyodor Chaliapin, but he could become a good actor.

Biography

Leonid Nikolaevich Kulagin is a Soviet and Russian actor who also tried his hand at film directing, writing scripts and staging plays. For services to the culture of his native country, in 1986 he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR. The most famous film works of Leonid Nikolaevich are his debut film “The Noble Nest”, the historical adventure film “The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe” and, of course, the detective television series “Kulagin and Partners”.

A large and rich biography of Leonid Kulagin originates in the Siberian town of Kirensk, Irkutsk region. Until the age of 7, the boy lived on the banks of the Lena River, and then he and his father moved to Nizhny Novgorod and grew up on the banks of the Volga River. The actor doesn’t remember his mother too well, because she died on the operating table due to a medical error when Lenya didn’t even go to school. During her lifetime, she worked as an announcer and sang well. My father was a radio engineer. For a long time, one father was involved in raising young Kulagin, and only much later did a stepmother appear in his life.

Actor Leonid Kulagin

A man married his sister's friend. Although the actor himself claims that today he does not dare to call her a stepmother. For him, she became a second mother. It was she who taught him a lot, gave him the beginnings of culture and taste, and instilled in him a love of music. The woman gave all her love to the boy, but Leonid did not call her mother for a long time. As an adult, he realized that she had to sacrifice a lot for him and his father.

Creative and artistic, Leonid had a passion for theater from a young age. When his dad worked as an electrician at the local drama theater, Kulagin disappeared behind the scenes for days on end. As a teenager, he first appeared on stage in the play “Young Guard”. But after a couple of years, the father quit, and the teenager’s access to his favorite place was closed. But he was not upset: in the courtyard he made friends with a musician from the Opera Theater orchestra and began going there. By the end of school, Kulagin, who never missed a single amateur performance competition and attended the acting studio at the Palace of Pioneers, knew by heart almost all the arias from the performances and sang very well.

Leonid Kulagin

He was faced with a choice: to be an actor or a singer. Initially, the young man’s soul strove more for music, but he realized that he would not be able to sing at the level of his idol Fyodor Chaliapin. And then at the Gorky Academic Drama Theater they just opened a Studio School, and Kulagin goes there. After receiving his diploma, the young man joined the drama theater troupe. However, Leonid quickly realized that here he, like other classmates, continued to be considered a student and was not taken seriously. The guy takes off, leaves for Chita, and later appears on the stages of theaters in Lipetsk and Bryansk. Since 1968, Kulagin has been a member of the cast of the Moscow Drama Theater named after N.V. Gogol.

Time has shown that he made the right decision by leaving Nizhny Novgorod: almost all of his former classmates remained in secondary roles. Leonid Nikolaevich himself performed on the theater stage until 1995. But when the play “After the Fall” about the unsuccessful marriage of Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe was released, Kulagin decided to stop acting, which had lasted for 35 years. He retrained as a theater director, returned to Bryansk, where he played before moving to Moscow, and became the artistic director and chief director of the local Youth Theater.

Leonid Kulagin in the theater

Over the course of seven years, the talented man staged 17 performances, some of which are still part of the theater’s repertoire. During this time, he did not appear on stage at all and did not act in films. But in 2004, Kulagin returned to the capital and headed the Producersky. He again felt an interest in acting and began to join enterprise performances. Leonid considers his favorite work in the 21st century to be the role of Admiral Nelson in the play “The Lady and the Admiral.” Famous actresses Marina Mogilevskaya and Vera Glagoleva played with him.

Actor career

In the same year, a theater studio was opened in Gorky, where the future artist took the certificate.
In 1960, the young certified actor returned to such a dear and familiar drama theater, hoping to serve in it for many years. The ambitious actor, confident in his masculine attractiveness, did not want to close the doors to cinema for himself, so plump envelopes with photographs of young Leonid Kulagin were soon sent to all major film studios. But then the unexpected happened - a troupe of the Chita theater came to Gorky, and one of its actresses, Mila Nelskaya, completely captured Leonid’s soul and heart. Following her, he went to Chita, and then to Yaroslavl. Only there did the young people realize that they had made a hasty mistake and dispersed. The actor tried to heal his emotional wounds by immersing himself in work in the Yaroslavl, Lipetsk, and then Bryansk regional theaters.

Young Leonid Kulagin

Only seven years after graduating from college, when the actor had already forgotten about the photographs sent to film studios, he received a call from Mosfilm director Andrei Smirnov, Leonid was offered the role of a nobleman commissar in one of the short stories in the film almanac “The Beginning of an Unknown Century.” Although the director initially planned to use Kulagin in the role of “a man with a horse face,” dispelling the artist’s conviction in his own attractiveness in one fell swoop.

Leonid Kulagin's first film role (“The Beginning of an Unknown Century”)

Unfortunately, the film was not released on the wide screen due to accusations of a counter-revolutionary nature, and only miraculously an employee of the film studio managed to preserve copies of Leonid’s debut film. The film was shown to audiences only in 1988, but, alas, by that time its subject matter had become irrelevant.

It is noteworthy, as the actor himself later recalled, once they tried to recruit him as a spy. It was like this: in the early 60s, he met an American student who ended up in a studio where they were recording a performance with Kulagin’s participation. The young people met and spent the whole day together, the actor showed the foreigner Moscow, and at parting they exchanged addresses. A few years later, Leonid was called to the editorial office of a local newspaper, where a man from the special services was already waiting for him, who told Kulagin in detail all the details of their route with the American guest, who turned out to be a spy. Leonid miraculously refused the role of intelligence agent, citing his terribly jealous wife, who would certainly find out about her husband’s espionage activities.

In the 70s, Leonid Kulagin met Eleanor, his future wife

In 1968, Kulagin came to Moscow and entered the service at the Drama Theater. N.V. Gogol (“Gogol Center”), where he fruitfully worked for 27 years. In parallel with his work on stage, he actively acted in films.

On the set of "The Nobles' Nest"

The not very successful role in the almanac became a successful start in cinema - Leonid was invited by Andrei Konchalovsky himself, who began work on the film “The Nest of Nobles”. Kulagin was offered the role of Lavretsky, which the aspiring actor did not even dare to dream about. The young man found himself in the circle of such masters as Irina Kupchenko, Vasily Merkuriev, Sergei Nikonenko, Viktor Sergachev, the future master Nikita Mikhalkov and the star of Polish cinema Beata Tyshkevich. “The Noble Nest”: Leonid Kulagin and Irina Kupchenko This work was followed by notable roles in “Boris Godunov” and “Privalov’s Millions”.

Still from the drama “Privalov’s Millions”

But all-Union popularity overtook Leonid Kulagin after the release of the melodrama “Autumn,” which was directed by Andrei Smirnov in 1974. The actor happened to star in what is now called a bed scene. The main characters, Kulagin and Natalya Rudnaya, spent more than half of the plot in bed. The film was about two lovers who missed their chance in their youth and failed to build family happiness. This morally and physically difficult work earned the actor the unofficial title of “the first sex symbol of the USSR.”

“The first erotic film of the USSR” was not recommended by Goskino for screening

This film was followed by work in other films: Bardin in the film about animals “Fortress”, the royal colonel in the detective film “Black Triangle”. In the historical “Fight at the Crossroads” Kulagin played Ruzhich, Vasily Maksimovich in “Forgive me, Alyosha!”, a professor in the melodrama “Last, lasted, charm...”. Health. Leonid Kulagin. Treatment of knee pain and lameness The actor especially remembered his work in the historical adventure film “The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe,” in which Leonid Nikolaevich played Ivanhoe’s father, Cedric Sax. In the story, Cedric is roasted at the stake, but before filming it was discovered that a special suit for the actor was not ready and Kulagin had to hang live, without protection (albeit for a short time) over a real fire. The film became popular with many viewers thanks to the talented cast and songs written and performed by Vladimir Vysotsky.

Leonid Kulagin as Cedric Sax (“Ivanhoe”)

After the collapse of the USSR, Leonid Nikolaevich continued to work fruitfully - films with his participation were released on screens every year. In addition, he tried his hand as a director, filming the crime film “She-Wolf,” which told the story of the fate of a musician who escaped from a concentration camp to the woman he loved.

Ten years later, Kulagin decided to repeat the experience of directing in the series “Burovaya”, which talked about people who developed the natural resources of Siberia. Leonid Nikolaevich played a small role in the project, entrusting the main ones to Anton Makarsky, Yegor Barinov, Natalya Grebenkina and Konstantin Spassky.

Things were not so smooth with work on the theater stage. In 1997, Leonid Nikolaevich unexpectedly left the Gogol Theater for himself and his colleagues. The impetus was the work in the play “After the Fall.” The dramatic story of the marriage of Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe, according to the artist, hooked him so much; the theme of confession turned his soul inside out so much that further work on stage began to seem to Leonid Nikolaevich like clownery and antics.

Leonid Kulagin in the comedy "It's in the Hat"

Leonid Nikolaevich could not completely break with art, and did not intend to, and therefore chose the field of theater director at the Bryansk Youth Theater. In this position, which Kulagin held until 2004, he staged 17 performances. Many of them delighted young Bryansk theatergoers years after his departure. And in the Academic Drama Theater of Bashkortostan, under his leadership, the play “Tragedy of the First Floor” and the theatrical fantasy “Comic Theater” based on the works of Carlo Goldoni were staged.

In the early 2000s, the director returned to Moscow, where he headed the production department, continuing to work as a director and actor. One of his most successful performances at this place was the production about Lady Hamilton.

Still from the film “Bankrupt” (2009)

In 2004, Leonid Nikolaevich again appeared on the screens after a long break, taking part in the filming of the detective series “Kulagin and Partners.” The producer of the series suggested that the actor use his own last name in the title, hoping that this technique would attract the attention of Kulagin’s fans to the film. The calculation turned out to be correct - the series quickly gained popularity and did not leave television screens for ten years.

For a long time, Kulagin was “doomed to play himself”

One of the most notable works of Leonid Nikolaevich was the role of General Amosov in the dramatic film “Kuprin. Pit", the plot basis for which was the stories and tales of the famous Russian writer. Mikhail Porechenkov, Katerina Shpitsa, Anton Shagin, Maxim Averin, Svetlana Khodchenkova and Anatoly Bely also took part in the filming of the drama.

Leonid Kulagin: films. The most striking works

The actor’s filmography is quite cumbersome and continues to grow. In addition to those previously listed, Leonid Kulagin starred in the following famous films:

“Reckoning” is one of the first films of 1970;
the touching film “My Home is a Theater,” filmed in 1975;
“Forgive me, Alyosha” (1983);
“Long Last, Last Long Charm...”, released in 1984;
"The Interception" (1986);
“Afghan Break,” which appeared in the riotous year of 1991;
"Eyes" (1992).

And this is not a complete list of films with his participation; there are also later films, for example, the well-known “Kulagin and Partners”. A large number of war films were also shot, such as “The Battle of Moscow” and “The Nomadic Front”. Somewhere there were leading roles, somewhere episodic, but always, even when acting in supporting roles, he completely surrendered to his hero, trying to convey the fullness of emotions.

And Kulagin’s most famous directorial works are such films as “Burovaya” (2007) and “She-Wolf” (1993). By the way, in the film “She-Wolf” he also acted as a screenwriter.

Personal life of Leonid Kulagin

At the dawn of work at the Lipetsk Drama Theater. L.N. Tolstoy Leonid Kulagin met the actress Eleonora, who soon became his wife and has been keeping the hearth of their home for more than forty years.

Leonid and Eleanor Kulagin

Son Alexey planned to follow in his father’s footsteps, but Leonid Nikolaevich dissuaded him, having experienced the hard lot of an artist from his own experience. Now Alexey, who received a higher degree in economics, works in one of the private Moscow companies. But the acting genes turned out to be strong - Leonid’s grandson Kirill attended drama classes at the House of Actors for several years. Perhaps he will be the one to continue the Kulagin acting dynasty.

With grandson Kirill

Theater

The backstage always attracted Leonid. The younger Kulagin often visited the local drama theater while his father worked there as an electrician. I even felt what the stage was like when, as a teenager, I took part in the production of The Young Guard. But two years passed, my father changed his job. The guy found a new hobby: he managed to make friends with a musician from the Opera House. Now the young man was included in a theater of a different direction, was an active participant in the actor’s studio, which was held in the Palace of Pioneers, and participated in all school amateur art competitions. He performed opera arias (his mother sang well). The young man faced a choice of his life path: acting biography or vocal art.

Leonid really wanted to sing, but he understood perfectly well that he would not become the second Chaliapin, and he did not want to become mediocrity. The Studio School has just opened under the auspices of the Gorky Theater. After graduating, the young actor was enrolled in the theater staff. Having decided that he would not reach great heights here, the guy left for Chita, playing in the Lipetsk Theater and on the stage of Bryansk. The result of his wanderings was the Gogol Theater in Moscow. After 35 years of playing on the theater stage, Kulagin made a sharp decision not to appear on stage anymore.

Having acquired the profession of director, the actor came to Bryansk to serve as artistic director of the city’s drama theater. At the same time, he worked at the Youth Theater as the main director. Kulagin staged 17 performances, denying himself the opportunity to go on stage. In the early 200s, Leonid Nikolaevich became the head of the “Theatrical Partnership”. This production center returned him to the acting profession. His entrepreneurial performances were a great success.

Leonid Kulagin now

In 2020, the series “Mysterious Passion” based on the novel by Vasily Aksenov was released on television screens. In this film adaptation, Leonid Nikolaevich played the author himself at an advanced age. The “young” version of Vaxon, which is exactly how the creators of the series veiled Aksenov’s name, was played by Alexey Morozov. According to the idea of producer Denis Evstigneev, Kulagin was supposed to comment on some episodes only in the first episode, but his presence enriched the series so much that the actor was involved in almost every episode.

Today Leonid Kulagin still serves art

The actor always loved meeting with his little viewers, for example, in the fall of 2020, he staged the fairy tale “Cinderella” in the kindergarten of the Molzhaninovsky district of Moscow.

In the summer of 2020, an exhibition of Aivazovsky’s works was opened in Moscow at the Tretyakov Gallery.
In the advertising video dedicated to the exhibition, a poem by Tyutchev was heard, which Leonid Nikolaevich Kulagin soulfully read in his unusually beautiful voice. Leonid Kulagin reads a poem by Tyutchev

Personal life

Leonid Kulagin's first marriage to actress Mila Nelskaya was short-lived. Feelings, having flared up with lightning speed, died out just as quickly, leaving both of them with a year and a half of marriage.

The actor recalls: “After the divorce from my wife, I simply had nowhere to go. Then I believed in what is called fate: very soon I married an actress who literally replaced my first wife on stage. When we left for Yaroslavl, we missed her by just a few days, and now fate has finally brought us together. We've been together ever since. Sometimes we were together 365 days a year, both on filming and on tour. There were moments when I wanted to go somewhere to take a break from each other, but over the years I began to feel that I wanted to return home, to my family, more and more. And I also realized that loneliness is only good when you can interrupt it at any time.”

The artist lived with his second wife Eleanor for more than forty years. He speaks warmly about her: “Ele had to endure a lot, put up with a lot - I am grateful for this, our family is entirely her merit.”

Leonid Kulagin's son Alexey has nothing to do with the acting profession; he received an economic education. And grandson Kirill enjoyed studying in the drama club at the House of Actors, and perhaps he will follow in his grandfather’s footsteps.

The actor says about his relationship with his family: “We have an even, restrained relationship with my son, but a couple of times a week I need to hear his voice on the phone: “Laziness, are you okay?” For both my son and my grandson, I am Lenya, and this is not familiarity, but an equal brotherly relationship.”

Kulagin Leonid Nikolaevich

Theater and film actor. People's and Honored Artist of Russia. Plays on the stage of the Moscow Millennium Theater.

Leonid Kulagin was born on June 7, 1940 in the city of Kirensk, Irkutsk region. Until the age of seven, the boy lived on the banks of the Lena River, and then he and his father moved to Nizhny Novgorod and grew up on the banks of the Volga River. The actor doesn’t remember his mother very well, since the woman died when Lenya didn’t even go to school. For a long time, only one father was involved in raising young Kulagin, and only much later did a stepmother appear in his life.

Creative and artistic, Leonid had a passion for theater from a young age. When his dad worked as an electrician at the local drama theater, Kulagin disappeared behind the scenes for days on end. As a teenager, he first appeared on stage in the play “Young Guard”. But soon the father quit and access to his favorite place was closed. However, the young man was not upset: in the courtyard he made friends with a musician from the Opera House and began going there. By the end of school, Kulagin, who never missed a single amateur performance competition and attended the acting studio at the Palace of Pioneers, knew all the arias from the performances by heart and sang quite well.

He was faced with a choice: to become an actor or a singer. Initially, the young man’s soul strove more for music, but he was well aware that he would not be able to sing at the level of his idol Fyodor Chaliapin. And then at the Gorky Academic Drama Theater they just opened a Studio School and Kulagin goes there. After receiving his diploma, the young man joined the drama theater troupe. However, Leonid quickly realized that here, like other classmates, they continued to consider him a student and did not take him seriously.

The guy makes a decision and leaves for Chita, and later appears on the stages of theaters in Lipetsk and Bryansk. Since 1968, Kulagin has been a member of the cast of the Nikolai Gogol Moscow Drama Theater.

Time has shown that Leonid made the right decision by leaving Nizhny Novgorod: almost all of his former classmates remained in secondary roles. Kulagin himself performed on the theater stage until 1995. But when the play “After the Fall” about the unsuccessful marriage of Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe was released, Kulagin decided to stop acting, which had already lasted thirty-five years. The artist retrained as a theater director, returned to Bryansk, where he played before moving to Moscow, and became the artistic director and chief director of the local Theater of the Young Spectator.

Over the course of seven years, the talented man staged seventeen performances, some of which are still part of the theater’s repertoire. During this time, he did not appear on stage at all and almost never acted in films. However, in 2004, Kulagin returned to the capital and headed the Producersky. The man again felt an interest in acting and began to join enterprise performances. Leonid considers his favorite work in the 21st century to be the role of Admiral Nelson in the play “The Lady and the Admiral.” Such famous actresses as Marina Mogilevskaya and Vera Glagoleva played with him. Then the artist joined the permanent troupe of the Moscow Millennium Theater.

The artist’s film debut took place with the leading role in the film adaptation of Ivan Turgenev’s novel “The Nest of Nobles,” which was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. This success was followed by images in the revolutionary films “About Friends and Comrades”, “Reckoning” and “Nomadic Front”. Kulagin also starred in the role of a fascist high-ranking officer in the military film “Comrade General.” Another interest of movie fans in the artist is caused by the film adaptation of the Russian classic, the drama “Privalov's Millions” based on the novel by Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak.

Leonid Nikolaevich took part in the first film in the history of the Soviet Union, which can be classified as an erotic genre. We are talking about the melodrama “Autumn”, in which director Andrei Smirnov decided to recreate piquant and explicit scenes. Leonid's partner was Natalya Rudnaya, the director's wife. And regardless of how these episodes are perceived by the audience, the actors themselves claim: the work turned out to be difficult from a moral point of view and they did not experience any aesthetic pleasure, much less mutual attraction, from participating in filming naked.

Next, Kulagin starred in the films “The Collapse of Operation Terror”, “Strong”, “Fight at the Crossroads”, “Password - Hotel Regina”. The film adaptations of Walter Scott's books “The Ballad of the Valiant Knight of Ivanhoe” and “The Adventures of Quentin Durward, Archer of the Royal Guard” enjoyed great success.

In the new millennium, Leonid Nikolaevich appeared in the films “Gold of Ugra”, “Parisian Antiquarian”, “Hunting Season”. But the actor’s main project is the long-running investigative series “Kulagin and Partners.” It is interesting that at the casting for the role of a lawyer, real representatives of this profession also auditioned, but the management preferred Leonid to them, since the artist had not acted for many years, and the viewer might have gotten the impression that the actor had actually changed his field of activity. And it was for this reason that the character was renamed in the script, giving him the real name of the performer. This is the only time in history when a series that has not left the screens for almost a decade is named after an actor.

At the same time, Kulagin worked on the set of the detective stories “Golden Boys” and “My General,” the action adventure film “Wolfhound of the Gray Dogs,” the comedy “Bankrupt,” and the melodrama “Apples of Paradise.” In 2020, the actor took part in the historical series “Mysterious Passion”, where he played the real writer Vasily Aksenov. In addition, Kulagin was invited to the Turkish-produced melodrama “Russian Game”. In addition to him, Russian actress Anastasia Klyueva and Turkish star Firat Tanish are involved.

In 2020, the premiere of the film “Ekaterina. Takeoff,” a continuation of the fate of the great Empress Catherine II, begun in the film “Catherine.” Leonid Kulagin played Archbishop Gabriel.

In April 2020, People's and Honored Artist of Russia participated in the concert “Mozart. Requiem. Pushkin. Mozart and Salieri”, which took place in the Cathedral of Peter and Paul. Kulagin recited Salieri's monologue.

Awards and Recognition of Leonid Kulagin

Honored Artist of Russia (1976)

Silver medal named after A.D. Popov (1977)

State Prize of Russia named after K. S. Stanislavsky (1978) - for performing a role in the play “The Shore” based on Yu. V. Bondarev

People's Artist of Russia (1986)

Order of Honor (2003)

Creativity of Leonid Kulagin

Acting works

1967 - The beginning of an unknown century (short story "Angel") - Commissar Parfenov 1969 - Noble nest - Fyodor Ivanovich Lavretsky 1970 - Reckoning - Mikhail Platov 1971 - Listen, on the other side - Abozov 1971 - Nomadic front - Captain Grigory Samburskoy 1972 - Privalov's millions - Sergei Aleksandrovich Privalov 1972 - Fourth - Chairman of the Commission 1973 - Comrade General - SS General 1973 - Cities and years - Platonov 1974 - The hottest month - Lukyanov 1974 - Your rights? - Oleg Petrovich Malik, Misha's father 1974 - Autumn - Ilya 1975 - My home is a theater - Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky 1977 - Mashenka - Leonid Borisovich 1979 - Autumn story - Igor Novoseltsev 1980 - Karl Marx. Young years - Bakunin 1980 - Collapse of Operation Terror - engineer Kirill Nikolaev 1980 - Flight with an astronaut - lieutenant colonel 1981 - Black triangle - Messmer 1981 - The investigation established - Ivan Stepanovich Shostak 1981 - Krepysh - Bardin 1982 - Battle at the crossroads - Ruzhich / Gromov 1983 - The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe - Lord Cedric Rotherwood 1983 - Fire flickering in the night... - Herzen 1983 - Forgive me, Alyosha 1983 - Password - “Hotel Regina” - Krasovsky 1984 - Oath of Dzhantai 1984 - Trees on the asphalt - Stepan 1984 - Last, last, charm... - doctor 1985 - Black Arrow - Sir Daniel Brackley 1985 - Battle of Moscow - General Purkaev 1986 - Interception - KGB Colonel Kononov 1986 - Red Shoes - Forest King 1988 - Homunculus 1988 - Earthly Joys - Mikhail Lemekhov 1988 - The adventures of Quentin Dorward, archer of the royal guard - Louis Leslie, nicknamed "Marked", uncle of Quentin Dorward 1988 - Nocturne 1931 (short film) - Professor A.V. Chayanov 1990 - Fufel - Konstantin Kirillovich 1990 - Dinosaurs of the 20th century 1990 - The Enchanted Wanderer - master 1991 - Yar 1991 - Childhood Themes - father Themes 1991 - Ay! Train robbery - Narrator 1991 - Defector - writer 1991 - Stamp - General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs 1991 - Lord's fish - Woland 1992 - Eyes - Nastya's father 1992 - Man from the Alpha team 1992 - Aries 1992 - Casino 2001 - Parisian antique dealer - Henri Laurent 2002 - Behind the scenes - Georgy Martov 2003 - Operative pseudonym - Mr. Thompson, Kardanov's father 2004 - Ashes of the Phoenix - Asian 2004 - Red Square - Kurbanov 2004 - 2013 - Kulagin and partners - lawyer Kulagin 2005 - Star of the era - Ivan Bunin 2005 - Golden Boys - Alexander Ivanovich Trifonov, Colonel 2005 - Diva - Ivanhoe 2006 - Mining - district police officer Sluzhaev 2006 - Hunt for a genius - microbiologist Igor Shokhin 2006 - My general - Veronica's grandfather 2006 - Bloody circle - Colonel Alexander Ivanovich Trifonov 2006 - Wolfhound from the family of Gray Dogs - Knes Gluzd Nesmeyanovich 2008 - I am a bodyguard - Mikhail 2008 - M8 highway - Yuri Borisovich 2008 - Heavenly apples - Alexander Pavlovich Naumov, Pavel's father 2009 - Heavenly apples. Life goes on - Alexander Pavlovich Naumov, father 2009 - Bankrupt - merchant Samson Silych Bolshov 2010 - Wedding. Case. Death - clairvoyant 2010 - Fortune telling by candlelight - Leonid Stenich, doctor 2014 - Kuprin. Yama - General Anosov 2014 - Catherine - Archbishop Gabriel 2020 - Russian game / Rus'un Oyunu - Professor Vladimir 2020 - Mysterious passion - Vasily Aksenov (elderly)

Teleplays

1977 - Be careful, leaf fall! - Shubin 1983 - Reward - one thousand francs - Baron de Puencorral

Directing works

1993 — She-Wolves 2004 — 2013 — Kulagin and partners (some episodes) 2007 — Burovaya

Scenarios

1993 - She-Wolves

Theater works

Productions

1995 - tragicomedy by V. Zverovshchikov “Tragedies of the First Floor” (State Academic Russian Drama Theater of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Ufa) 1996 - theatrical fantasy based on the works of Carlo Goldoni “Comic Theater” (State Academic Russian Drama Theater of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Ufa)

Voice acting in video games

2005 - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - Irving Lambert, NSA 2006 - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent - Irving Lambert, NSA 2009 - Trine - announcer

Family of Leonid Kulagin

The first wife is Mila Nelskaya, an actress. We met in Nizhny Novgorod, where he played in the local theater, and she came on tour from Chita. Having fallen in love, he decided to leave with her. Then they worked together for a year and a half in Chita, then left for Yaroslavl, where their family life fell apart.

Second wife - Eleanor Kulagina (nee Lapitskaya). We met at the Lipetsk Theater. Son - Alexey, is engaged in advertising business. Grandson - Kirill.

06.06.2019

Two mothers in the life of Leonid Kulagin

But a difficult test awaited him ahead. When Leonid was seven years old, his beloved mother unexpectedly died. The woman died during surgery due to an absurd mistake by the doctors. The boy remembers the day of the funeral and the hastily stitched scar on his mother’s neck. The father loved his wife and son madly. After some time, he married again, but only so that his son would have a nanny.

The actor could not call her mother, although this woman gave all of herself completely to two men in her life, sacrificing her only daughter, leaving her to be raised by her mother. Leonid Kulagin understood all this when he became a young man, when at the age of eighteen, overpowering himself, he called her mother.

The actor's father was a highly qualified radio mechanic, worked in the theater and took his son with him. He still remembers the smell of the theater, which could not be eradicated and eradicated by anything. It was an old merchant theater, over two hundred years old, with all its theatrical dust. Apparently, then Leonid unconsciously wanted to serve in this place. When his father quit, the boy continued to go to the theater for some time, pretending that nothing had changed, until the staff realized that he should not be allowed in. Fortunately for the boy, an opera singer lived in their yard, who began to take Lenya with him to the opera theater, but the boy did not dare to sing in public, having gained bitter experience. I sang for myself in the cold, trying to make my voice sound an octave lower, for the sake of respectability.

Moscow

Fate again takes away, only now the Kulagins and their son Alyosha, against their will, to Moscow. In Bryansk, Elya was a prima donna, and in Moscow she was unlucky with her acting profession, but Leonid was offered a job at the Gogol Drama Theater.

And then suddenly an invitation comes to play in Andron Konchalovsky-Mikhalkov’s film “The Nest of Nobles.” Together with him, Irina Kupchenko and world cinema star Beata Tyshkevich starred in the film.

Having learned who his partner would be, Kulagin was frightened, but Beata Tyshkevich amazed him with her simplicity, and this not only did not ground her, but elevated her to unattainable heights.

Until now, the artist is in awe when he sees real talent. He still remembers how, at Kirill Lavrov’s housewarming party, he met with such actors as Efim Kopelyan, Evgeny Lebedev, Sergei Yursky, Vsevolod Kuznetsov.

Leonid Kulagin has experienced a lot in his life. The artist’s biography is interesting for its versatility and dissimilarity from the fates of other artists. Usually people try to advance in the capital, but after playing in a play based on Arthur Miller’s play “After the Fall,” the actor unexpectedly leaves the theater, citing the fact that after this play he cannot play in others. The theme of confession in the production is striking.

Filmography[ | ]

Acting works[ | ]

1967 - The beginning of an unknown century (short story “Angel”) - Commissioner Parfenov
1969 - The Noble Nest - Fyodor Ivanovich Lavretsky
1970 - Reckoning - Mikhail Platov
1971 - Listen, on the other side - Abozov
1971 - Nomadic Front - Captain Grigory Samburskoy
1972 - Privalov's millions - Sergei Alexandrovich Privalov
1972 - Fourth - Chairman of the Commission
1973 - Comrade General - SS General
1973 - Cities and years - Platonov
1974 - The hottest month - Lukyanov
1974 - Your rights? — Oleg Petrovich Malik, Misha’s father
1974 - Autumn - Ilya
1975 - My home is a theater - Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky
1977 - Mashenka - Leonid Borisovich
1979 - Autumn Story - Igor Novoseltsev
1980 - Karl Marx. Young years - Bakunin
1980 - Collapse of Operation Terror - engineer Kirill Nikolaev
1980 - Flight with an astronaut - lieutenant colonel
1981 - Black Triangle - Messmer
1981 - The investigation established - Ivan Stepanovich Shostak
1981 - Strong - Bardin
1982 - Fight at the crossroads - Ruzic / Gromov
1983 - The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe - Lord Cedric of Rotherwood
1983 - Fire flickering in the night... - Herzen
1983 - Forgive me, Alyosha
1983 - Password - “Hotel Regina” - Krasovsky
1984 - Oath of Jantai
1984 - Trees on the asphalt - Stepan
1984 - Last, last, charm... - doctor
1985 - Black Arrow - Sir Daniel Brackley
1985 - Battle for Moscow - General Purkaev
1986 - Interception - KGB Colonel Kononov
1986 - Red Shoes - King of the Forest
1988 - Homunculus
1988 - Earthly Joys - Mikhail Lemekhov
1988 - The Adventures of Quentin Dorward, Archer of the Royal Guard - Louis Leslie, nicknamed "Marked", uncle of Quentin Dorward
1988 - Nocturne 1931 (short film) - Professor A.V. Chayanov
1990 - Fufel - Konstantin Kirillovich
1990 - Dinosaurs of the 20th century
1990 - The Enchanted Wanderer - gentleman
1991 —
1991 - Tyoma's childhood - Tyoma's father
1991 - Ay! Train Robbery - The Storyteller
1991 - Defector - writer
1991 - Stamp - General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
1991 - The Lord's Fish - Woland
1992 - Eyes - Nastya’s father
1992 - Man from Team Alpha
1992 - Aries
1992 - Casino
2001 - Parisian antique dealer - Henri Laurent
2001 - Gold of Ugra - Bushuev
2002 - Behind the scenes - Georgy Martov
2003 - Operational pseudonym - Mr. Thompson, Kardanov’s father
2004 - Ashes of Phoenix - Asian
2004 - Red Square - Kurbanov
2004 - 2013 - Kulagin and partners - lawyer Kulagin
2005 - Star of the era - Ivan Bunin
2005 - Golden Boys - Alexander Ivanovich Trifonov, Colonel
2005 - Prima Donna - Ivanhoe
2006 - Mine - district police officer Sluzhaev
2006 - Hunt for a genius - microbiologist Igor Shokhin
2006 - My general is Veronica’s grandfather
2006 - Bloody Circle - Colonel Alexander Ivanovich Trifonov
2006 - Volav from the family of Gray Dogs - Knes Gluzd Nesmeyanovich
2008 - I am a bodyguard - Mikhail
2008 - Highway M8 - Yuri Borisovich
2008-2009 - Paradise apples - Alexander Pavlovich Naumov, Pavel’s father
2009 - Bankrupt - merchant Samson Silych Bolshov
2010 - Wedding. Case. Death is clairvoyant
2010 - Fortune telling by candlelight - Leonid Stenich, doctor
2014 - Kuprin. Yama - General Anosov
2014 - Catherine - Archbishop Gabriel
2016 - Russian game / Rus'un Oyunu
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Professor Vladimir
2016 - Mysterious passion - Vasily Aksyonov (elderly)