Family of Irina Skobtseva
Tula is the hometown of Irina Skobtseva. The future actress spent her childhood here. Her father Konstantin happened to work in the meteorological service department, and Skobtseva’s mother Yulia served as an archivist.
In the photo: Irina Skobtseva in her youth
When Irina was in school, the war began. All high school students were forced to switch to independent study of school subjects. At that time, the future star of Soviet cinema did not yet dream of becoming an actress. After school, Irina Skobtseva’s biography was connected with Moscow State University, where she studied at the Faculty of History, specializing in art history.
Alexey Adzhubey
At the same time, she met Alexei Adzhubey, and Irina Skobtseva’s personal life changed. This handsome and intelligent young man became her first husband.
Childhood and youth
Irina Skobtseva was born on August 22, 1927 in Tula. Her father Konstantin Alekseevich (1903-1975) was a researcher at the Main Directorate of the Hydrometeorological Center, her mother Yulia Nikolaevna (1904-1999) served as an archive worker. The actress’s ancestors lived near Yasnaya Polyana for several generations.
Irina’s teenage years were during the war, so the girl had to study the high school curriculum almost independently. Having received a matriculation certificate, Skobtseva decided to become an art historian and entered the Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.
Irina Skobtseva in her youth
Irina discovered the world of theater while studying at the university: the girl enjoyed playing in student plays and participating in competitions. Perfectly built, beautiful, artistic Skobtseva was as if created for the stage.
The decisive role in Irina’s fate was played by the artist Valentin Serov. As a future art critic, she was sent to practice at the Tretyakov Gallery, entrusted with inventorying the works of the author of “Girls with Peaches.” After a month and a half of painstaking work, she realized that she was not ready to spend her life in the dust and twilight of museum storage facilities. After graduating from Moscow State University, she immediately entered the third year of the Studio School at the Moscow Art Theater.
Creative biography of Irina Skobtseva
When the girl studied at Moscow State University, she was a participant in various creative competitions and an actress in the student theater. After graduating from university, she became a student at the Moscow Art Theater School, whose diploma was awarded to Skobtseva in 1955.
After that, her home was the Theater-Studio of the Film Actor, where Irina spent her youth. In 1971, she was invited to a teaching position at VGIK, where she taught students acting skills for a long time.
Films starring Irina Skobtseva
The creative biography of Irina Skobtseva is closely connected with director Sergei Yutkevich, who gave her a ticket to big cinema. The girl was still a student when the master of Soviet cinema drew attention to her. At that time he was preparing to shoot the film “Othello” based on the famous play by Shakespeare.
In the photo: Skobtseva and Bondarchuk in “Othello”
As a result, Skobtseva played Desdemona in the film. After the premiere of this film, she woke up famous and was even invited to the legendary Cannes Film Festival, where she was named “Miss Charm.”
After Othello, Skobtseva had leading roles in many famous Soviet films. In “Ivan Franko” the actress played Ludovika Shankevich. In “Seryozha” by Igor Talankin and Georgy Danelia, she shone on the screen with her husband Sergei Bondarchuk.
"Seryozha"
The famous Soviet comedian Eldar Ryazanov filmed her in “Zigzag of Fortune” in the role of Lydia Sergeevna. In “A Man in Plain Clothes,” the actress played Baroness Isolde von Osten-Felsen.
In the photo: a still from the film “Man in Plain Clothes”
The Soviet film star played many memorable minor characters. Irina Skobtseva’s husband Sergei Bondarchuk invited her to his “War and Peace”, in which the actress played Helen Bezukhova.
Actor career
Irina Skobtseva’s acting debut turned out to be very bright - in 1955, the young actress played Desdemona in Sergei Yutkevich’s film “Othello”. This role gave her all-Union recognition, the title of “Miss Charm of the Cannes Film Festival” and her beloved person, Sergei Bondarchuk (he played the Moor in the film). However, there was also a downside to the coin: the directors noticed only the beauty of the actress, significantly limiting her choice of heroines - from now on she was not offered to play “ordinary” women.
Irina Skobtseva in the film "Othello"
The following year, the actress appeared in the title role in Alexander Stolbov’s melodrama “An Ordinary Man,” which received great success. Soon Irina joined the troupe of the State Film Actor Theater, where she serves to this day.
Irina Skobtseva in the film “An Ordinary Man”
After the release of “An Ordinary Man,” Skobtseva was in great demand among domestic film directors. Her acting resume was replenished with leading roles in the black-and-white films “The Unique Spring” (1957), “The Duel” (1957), “Annushka” (1959) and “Seryozha” (1960) by Georgy Danelia, in which Bondarchuk also starred.
Irina Skobtseva in the film “Unique Spring”
In general, Irina Skobtseva was often called “Danelia’s muse,” and the director considered her his talisman. The actress gained enormous popularity from her role in the director’s lyrical film story “I’m Walking Around Moscow” (1963) with the young Nikita Mikhalkov. Subsequently, she embodied bright comedic images in his works “Thirty-three” and “Completely Lost.”
Still from the film “I’m Walking Around Moscow”
In the early 1960s, Skobtseva began filming and starred in the second film of her then-wife Sergei Bondarchuk. Film epic based on the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" (1965-1967) in four parts became one of the highest-budget films in the history of Russian cinema. In addition, the film was famous for its impressive battle scenes and innovative panoramic photography. The film became a box office leader in the country, and in 1969 won an Oscar for best foreign language film.
Irina Skobtseva in the film "War and Peace"
In the film, Skobtseva got the role of Helen Kuragina, the wife of Pierre Bezukhov (he was played by Bondarchuk himself). It is interesting that at first the director’s assistants invited the Latvian actress Vija Artmane to play the role of Bezukhova (she played this role in the Riga theater for a long time), but Bondarchuk refused her at the last moment. Many years later, Viya learned that Bondarchuk told his wife that Helen simply had no one to play with.
Skobtseva was not exclusively a “Russian classic actress,” as many call her. In 1968, she easily changed Ellen Bezukhova’s corset to the modern outfit of photographer Lydia from Eldar Ryazanov’s popular tragicomedy “Zigzag of Fortune,” in which Evgeny Leonov, Valentina Talyzina and Evgeny Evstigneev also appeared.
Irina Skobtseva and Evgeny Leonov in the film “Zigzag of Fortune”
Since 1970, together with her husband, Irina began teaching at VGIK, not forgetting about filming.
However, Bondarchuk, who indeed often filmed his wife in his films (“Waterloo”, “They Fought for the Motherland”, “Steppe”), calmly let Skobtseva go to other directors. This is the already mentioned Danelia, and Leonid Vinikhidze - in 1983, Irina played neighbor Katie Lark in everyone’s favorite musical comedy “Mary Poppins, Goodbye.”
Irina Skobtseva in the film "Mary Poppins, Goodbye"
In 1986, Skobtseva again worked with Bondarchuk on the set of his tragedy “Boris Godunov,” a film adaptation of the historical work of the same name by A. S. Pushkin. Bondarchuk cast his entire family in this film: his wife Irina played the owner of the tavern, daughter Alena played Princess Ksenia, and son Fyodor played Tsarevich Fyodor Godunov.
Irina Skobtseva in the film “Boris Godunov”
After perestroika, Bondarchuk began a project, the idea of which he had been nurturing since the mid-1960s. Sergei Fedorovich was going to shoot the mini-series “Quiet Don” based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov. There were no funds for filming in the USSR, so Bondarchuk had to turn to Italian producer Enzo Rispoli. According to the agreement, foreign actors had to be invited to play the main roles, which caused many difficulties. However, most of the troupe were Russian artists - Alena Bondarchuk, Natalya Andreichenko, Boris Shcherbakov and others. Bondarchuk himself played General Krasnov in the film, and Skobtseva played Vasilisa Ilyinichna, the wife of Pantelei Melekhov (Murray Abraham).
Irina Skobtseva and Elena Bondarchuk in the film “Quiet Don”
The release of the film was delayed for many years due to a conflict with the Italian side and the death of Bondarchuk.
Only in 2005, thanks to Irina’s efforts, it was possible to buy the working materials. Son Fyodor Bondarchuk took over the editing and filming of the missing scenes. The film, which had been on the shelves for almost 15 years, was released in the fall of 2006 on Channel One. The director of the film never saw his work on screen.
After the death of her husband in 1994, in order to forget, Irina began acting in small roles in TV series. Among the most famous are “Envy of the Gods” (2000) with Vera Alentova, “The Heiress” (2001), “Women’s Logic” (2002-2006) and the comedy “The Artist” by Stanislav Govorukhin. In 2008, Irina starred with her son Fyodor in his science fiction film “Inhabited Island” based on the work of the Strugatsky brothers.
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In the romantic "White Nights" she became a duchess, in the lyrical comedy "I'm Walking Through Moscow" - a lady with an umbrella, in the social comedy "Thirty Three" - the psychiatrist Vera Sergeevna, in "The Gadfly" - the mother of the protagonist, in "Boris Godunov" - the owner of an inn, and in the children's musical "Mary Poppins, Goodbye!" — Mrs. Park.
As Helen Bezukhova in War and Peace
New Age
Irina Skobtseva’s personal life has always been closely connected with cinema, as her husband, children, and now grandchildren invited her to their projects. For example, the son Fyodor Bondarchuk already in the new millennium directed his mother in “Inhabited Island”.
Irina Skobtseva with her son Fyodor Bondarchuk
The creative biography of Irina Skobtseva in the 2000s continued to develop with renewed vigor. Russian directors invited the actress, wise with life experience, to appear in their films and TV series. In “Family Dinner” she played Ksenia Vasilievna, in “Dragon Syndrome” - Margarita Petrovna, in “Amber Wings” - Elena Sergeevna, in “The White Guard” - Maria Frantsevna Nai-Tours, and in “Gold” - the mother of the main character in performed by Sergei Bezrukov.
The cult Soviet and Russian director Stanislav Govorukhin invited Skobtseva to play the role of the protagonist’s former mother-in-law in his melodramatic comedy “In Jazz Style”. In Rezo Gigienishvili's comedy melodrama "Heat" she played the landlady, and in "The Black Prince" she played a grandmother.
In the photo: the actress in the film “Dangerous Holidays”
The actress’s latest film work is one of the main characters in “The Secret of the Dark Room.” This film is shot in the genre of children's adventure mystery.
Irina Skobtseva now
Despite her age (Irina Skobtseva celebrated her 90th birthday in 2020), the actress continues to work in the theater and sometimes appears in films. Among her latest works are two adventure films by Olga Belyaeva, “The Secret of the Dark Room” (2014) and “Dangerous Holidays” (2016). In 2020, the actress received the Order of Honor and the Kinotavr Honorary Prize from Russian President Vladimir Putin for her tenderness of talent and charming femininity.
Irina Skobtseva in the film “Dangerous Holidays”
Personal life and husbands of Irina Skobtseva
While studying at Moscow State University, the future star of Soviet cinema fell in love with Alexei Adzhubey, who studied journalism at the same university. By that time, the young man already had a diploma from the Moscow Art Theater School in his pocket. The marriage of the young couple took place in 1945. They were together for four years. Then Irina Skobtseva’s husband met Nikita Khrushchev’s daughter Rada and for her sake he divorced his wife.
Second famous husband
In 1955, Irina Skobtseva’s personal life underwent significant changes. On the set of the film “Othello” she met the famous Sergei Bondarchuk, who played the main role in the film.
Skobtseva and Bondarchuk
At that time, his official wife was Soviet cinema star Inna Makarova.
In 1959, Bondarchuk entered into a new marriage. Photos of the star couple did not leave the covers of Soviet magazines at that time.
Irina Skobtseva's husband died in 1994. During their life together, the actress gave birth to his daughter Alena and son Fyodor. The children of Irina Skobtseva and Sergei Bondarchuk also mastered creative professions. Few people in our country do not know the successful director, actor, producer and TV presenter Fyodor Bondarchuk.
Modernity
The legend of Soviet cinema raised her grandchildren Konstantin Kryukov, Sergei and Varvara Bondarchuk, and now takes care of her great-granddaughters Vera, Margarita and Yulia.
With grandson Konstantin Kryukov
Skobtseva is working on her memoirs and likes to read books dedicated to actors, theater and cinema. In 2020, she was seriously injured, resulting in a broken hip and arm. This happened at night at home. The actress had to be operated on twice.
At the beginning of next year, a full house gathered at the creative evening of the Soviet cinema star at the Moscow Art Theater. Irina Skobtseva’s son was also at the event. He came to it with his new lover. Actress Paulina Andreeva unexpectedly entered the life of a Russian celebrity. That evening, warm words were addressed to the actress from Igor Zolotovitsky, Oleg Tabakov, Igor Vernik and her grandson Konstantin Kryukov.
A couple of months later, a memorial office for Sergei Bondarchuk was opened on the territory of the Glavkino film and television complex. The memorable exhibition presented in this place tells about the legendary film epic “War and Peace”. Here you can see videos about the famous Soviet film director, his photographs, as well as examine the movie cameras used to film the cult film, Bondarchuk’s real chairs and table.
The biography of Irina Skobtseva was very rich in various good and bad events, but the actress forever entered the golden fund of Russian cinema.
