Youth
Gemma Osmolovskaya was born on August 24, 1938. Coming from a simple working-class family did not in the least detract from Gemma’s acting talent. At school, she often performed in various theatrical productions, and then entered the State Institute of Theater Arts, and on the first try.
The girl began acting in films during her studies. At that time, director Vasily Levin was looking for actors for the film “The Tale of First Love.” Osmolovskaya attracted attention, and she was invited to audition.
Fateful meeting
On the set of the film “The Street is Full of Surprises,” Jema met the actor Leonid Kharitonov, already famous throughout the Union, who became famous thanks to the film “Soldier Ivan Brovkin.” The girl fell in love with him without memory. He reciprocated, despite the fact that he was already married. A year after filming ended, Leonid Kharitonov and Gemma Osmolovskaya got married.
At first, the happy family cracked due to Kharitonov’s addiction to alcohol. According to the actress’s recollections, her husband was often invited to drink, but he could not refuse. And I quickly got used to the bottle.
Actress Gemma Osmolovskaya dies of cancer in poverty
For a long time, the artist has been battling cancer. The star of the Soviet screen does not have enough money for expensive medications. Next year Osmolovskaya turns 80 years old.
Gemma Osmolovskaya // Photo: still from the film
Gemma Osmolovskaya is known to viewers from the films “The Street is Full of Surprises” and “The Tale of First Love.” The actress married her colleague Leonid Kharitonov, but after 7 years of marriage the couple broke up. The woman raised her son Alexei alone. Today, the 79-year-old Soviet cinema star was forgotten in her native theater; the woman has been trying to cure cancer for several years. She lives with her second husband, actor of the Russian Academic Youth Theater Pyotr Podyapolsky. “Gemma has cancer, but we are fighting the disease. Don't give up right away! We are attached to a clinic, doctors come home and do what they can. Age, of course, makes itself felt. Next year will be my wife's 80th birthday. Gemma is great and keeps her spirits up. It happens that he starts to sulk, and then nothing, he lets her go. I recently took her to a rest home, but she hasn’t gone outside for a long time, it’s difficult for her to move,” said Podyapolsky. “After playing in The Tale of First Love, I made grandiose plans for my career, but soon I had to say goodbye to some of them. Everything happened quickly: they turned on the light for the test, I saw those blue eyes - and drowned. He did not leave my side, despite the fact that he was married. I fell in love with him, so much that after a while we got married. Then my son Alexey was born, and, as you understand, I had to forget about my career. I stayed at home with my child for two years. And only then was I able to return to the cinema,” said the actress.
Leonid Kharitonov // Photo: frame from the program
The relationship between Osmolovskaya and Kharitonov was destroyed by the husband’s craving for vodka. As the actress admitted, her ex-husband could not cope with the temptation of constant gatherings with friends. “Each person considered it his duty to invite him to have a drink and sit together. And he simply didn’t have the courage to refuse. At first I tried not to pay attention to his behavior, but then I realized that I couldn’t tolerate it anymore. We divorced after 7 years of marriage,” the actress told reporters. Then Leonid began an affair with his student Evgenia Gibova. After the separation, the ex-husband did not help Gemma raise their common son Alexei. According to Osmolovskaya, Leonid Kharitonov did not give money for the maintenance of the heir. The actress was helped by the theater where she worked; the payments were a tiny amount, 8 rubles 40 kopecks. Today the son of Soviet actors is 57 years old, Alexey is a scientist-programmer, candidate of technical sciences. However, the man does not help his mother.
Leonid Kharitonov and Gemma Osmolovskaya // Photo: still from the film
The second husband takes care of the artist so that she does not need anything. “But we don’t need any help, we don’t even ask for a social worker yet, we handle everything ourselves. Friends are visiting us,” the actress’s husband said in an interview with Sobesednik.
Gemma Osmolovskaya // Photo: still from the film
Peter added that the son sometimes comes to his mother. The theater where Osmolovskaya worked for almost 40 years, no one knows about the actress’s illness, and does not provide any help to Gemma.
Decline of a career
The couple began to quarrel frequently, and the drunken actor started scandals for his wife. Kharitonov was placed in a clinic, but this helped for a very short time.
At first, the girl tried not to pay attention to her husband’s antics. But then her patience ran out when she learned about Kharitonov’s affair with student Evgenia Gribova. In 1964, the couple had a son, but even this did not save the family, which was already bursting at the seams. Osmolovskaya left, taking the child.
It is possible that life with Leonid derailed Gemma's acting career. She gave up her dream of becoming great and agreed to any role in order to feed and raise her child.
But it was quite difficult to get roles, because after several years of break the actress was forgotten. As Gemma Grigorievna herself recalled, her ex-husband did not help or participate in her son’s life. The only help is 8 rubles 40 kopecks allocated by the theater.
Filmography[ | ]
- 1954 - School of Courage - Boris Gorikov
- 1955 - Vasyok Trubachev and his comrades - Mitya Burtsev, pioneer leader
- 1955 - Soldier Ivan Brovkin - Ivan Romanovich Brovkin
- 1955 - Son - Andrey Goryaev
- 1956 - Good morning! — Andrey Averin
- 1957 - Trubachev’s detachment fights - Mitya Burtsev
- 1957 - The street is full of surprises - police sergeant Vasily Shaneshkin
- 1957 - Next to us - a worker
(uncredited) - 1958 - Ivan Brovkin on virgin soil - Ivan Brovkin
- 1960 - Let it shine - Efimka
- 1961 - Long Day - Lyosha, excavator operator
- 1962 - Blue Light-1962 - guest
- 1962 - How toast is born - Grechkin
- 1962 - Nylon nets - Valentin (Valka), captain of the river tug
Lebed - 1963 - Pharmacist - Lyonka
- 1963 - Big wick - duelist
- 1964 - Everything for you - Vorobushkin, financier
- 1967 - Places here are quiet - a military sailor at a polar airfield
- 1968 - Fire, water and... copper pipes - Tsar Fedul VI
- 1968 - Visiting the Moscow police - policeman
- 1969 - Kidnapping - artist Kharitonov
(cameo) - 1971 - Fakir for an hour - Trofim, Vasilievna’s husband, doorman and electrician
- 1972 - The Pickwick Papers - Joe, the Sleepy Servant
- 1973-1983 - Eternal Call - Dedyukhin Egor Kuzmich, tank crew commander
- 1977 - Incognito from St. Petersburg - Pyotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky, city landowner
- 1978 - Random passengers - fellow traveler with mixed feed
- 1979 - Moscow doesn’t believe in tears - Kharitonov
(cameo) - 1979 - A few days in the life of I. I. Oblomov - Luka Savvich
- 1979 - Father and son - Dorofeyka
- 1979 - Vanity of Vanities - Yakov Andreevich, Vasily’s father
- 1980 - House on Lesnaya - Bogomolov, head of the underground printing house
- 1980 - Gigolo and Gigoletta - a man on the dance floor
(uncredited) - 1981 - Keychain with a secret - Ovid Mitrofanovich Polosatikov
- 1981-1982 - Young Russia - Longinov
(not listed in the credits of the 1st episode) - 1982 - There, on unknown paths... - Tsar Makar
- 1982 - Sorcerers - Pyotr Petrovich Amatin, director of the musical instrument factory
- 1983 - Auction - Yegorych, groom
- 1983 - From the life of the head of the criminal investigation department - Stepan’s grandfather
- 1983 - Quarantine - military man at the zoo, major
- 1985 - Bagration - general
- 1986 - We're sitting well! - a man from an oncoming train with a watermelon
- 1986 - Outsiders are allowed to enter - the professor’s neighbor
Second husband
Osmolovskaya worked at the Central Children's Theater. There she met the actor Pyotr Podyapolsky, who in 1957 became her second husband.
She became truly happy with him. The only thing that darkened this happiness was that her adult son did not want to communicate with her. But the actress hid the reason for her son’s attitude towards her until her last days.
Biography
Graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School (1964). Since 1964, actress of the Russian Academic Youth Theater (formerly the Central Children's Theater)[1] in Moscow. Filmed at the Odessa Film Studio, Film Studio named after. Dovzhenko in Kyiv, Lenfilm and Lentelefilm.
Film debut
Gemma Osmolovskaya first appeared on screen in 1957. During the years of the “Khrushchev Thaw,” a melodrama film directed by Vasily Levin, “The Tale of First Love,” was filmed on the screens of the Soviet Union based on the book by Nikolai Atarov, where the aspiring actress played the girl Olya.
The picture turned out to be surprisingly bold for that time, because for the first time it discussed the taboo topic of orphanhood and single motherhood. The creators of the film sincerely and honestly talked about the schoolchildren’s first love.
Osmolovskaya’s heroine, after the death of her mother, decides to quit sports school and go to work. Olga's friend Mitya (Kirill Stolyarov), not wanting to leave his friend in trouble, brings her to his place. Sensitive and tactful parents support their son. However, dirty rumors are spread at school - and Mitya, unable to pass the first test, allows Olga to leave home.
Another storyline was woven into the picture, completely unthinkable for the films of those years - the passion of a physical education teacher for a student.
Cinema and personal life
Immediately after her first film, Gemma Osmolovskaya starred in the lyrical comedy by Sergei Sidelev “The Street is Full of Surprises.” The actress played the role of Katya, the bride of the main character - guard Vasya Shaneshkin, whose role was played by Leonid Kharitonov, already popular at that time.
On the set of the film, an affair broke out between Osmolovskaya and Kharitonov, as a result of which Leonid left his first wife Svetlana Kharitonova.
However, the marriage of Gemma and Leonid was short-lived. The birth of his son did not save him either - the couple soon divorced. Leonid Kharitonov’s son Alexey is now a computer scientist. There is also a granddaughter Katya.
Second husband - actor Pyotr Podyapolsky (1943 - 2020). In October 2017, in an interview with the Only Stars newspaper, Peter said that Gemma was fighting cancer. Journalists found out that the actress has a difficult relationship with her only son and only her husband takes care of her. At the RAMT theater, where Osmolovskaya worked for 40 years, they said that they were not obligated to help her, and at the Guild of Cinema Actors they didn’t even remember about such an actress.
Last years
The actress played several more roles:
- In 1960, she appeared in the film Sleepless Night.
- In 1962 she played in Yuri Lysenko’s film “We, Two Men.”
- The final project was the film “Attempting to Escape,” filmed in 1965.
- In 1970 she played in the play “Moscow Holidays”.
There were also roles in television plays:
- “Poems of Agnia Barto” (1973);
- “Continued Dream” (1991);
- "Dedication to Love" (1994).
This was the end of her career.
In 2020, Osmolovskaya was diagnosed with cancer. Her only support at that time was her husband. As for the son, he never wanted to communicate with his mother.
The couple could not afford treatment, as they lived very modestly. In 2020, the actress celebrated her 80th birthday. A year later she was gone.
Biography[ | ]
Leonid Kharitonov was born in Leningrad. His mother worked as a doctor, his father as an engineer. Younger brother Viktor Kharitonov.
After school, he entered the Faculty of Law at Leningrad University. A year later, I decided to devote myself to an acting career, which I had dreamed of since childhood. [ source not specified 1601 days
] Entered the Studio School named after. V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko at the Moscow Art Theater, from which he graduated in 1954. In 1954-1962 and from 1968 - artist of the Moscow Art Theater named after M. Gorky, in 1962-1968 - of the Lenin Komsomol Theater and MDT named after A. S. Pushkin.
His first film role in the film “School of Courage” brought Leonid Kharitonov fame. He starred in it while still a student, in 1954. There was a firm rule at the Studio School: students acting in films were automatically expelled from this institution. Therefore, before filming the film, Kharitonov refused the offer of director Vladimir Basov. But the Studio School received an official letter from the Komsomol Central Committee, and the leadership allowed student Leonid Kharitonov to take part in the filming of the film “School of Courage.” [ source not specified 1601 days
]
A year later, the film “Soldier Ivan Brovkin” was released on the country’s screens, after which the young actor became an idol of the generation[3]. Over the course of several years, about ten films were released with Kharitonov in the title role. He created the image of a new social hero - kind, modest, charming and “slightly unlucky.” Kharitonov’s characters not only educated, but also entertained, for which the actor was loved by audiences of all generations[3].
As Kharitonov grew older, he appeared less and less on screen. In an episode of Vladimir Menshov’s film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” he played himself.
The actor’s grave at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
In recent years, Kharitonov was seriously ill. In the summer of 1980 he suffered his first stroke. He starred in an episode of the film “Sorcerers” in the role of Amatin. On July 4, 1983, a second stroke followed. In the summer of 1987, the artistic director of the Moscow Art Theater, Oleg Efremov, harshly suggested that Kharitonov leave the theater; a rumor was started about the actor’s alleged mental illness. [ source not specified 1601 days
]
On June 20, 1987, the day the theater was divided into two parts, Kharitonov suffered a third stroke and died on the same day. He was buried in Moscow, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery (50th section). The tombstone with the inscription “Leonid Kharitonov” is a stone with a break in the shape of the Moscow Art Theater seagull, symbolizing the split of the Moscow Art Theater[3].
