Igor Sklyar: biography, personal life, family, wife, children

PRIZES AND AWARDS

Award for best acting debut at the Mosfilm Youth festival for his role in the film We Are From Jazz (1984)
Award for Best Actor at the Open Russian Film Festival “Kinotavr” in Sochi for the film “Year of the Dog” (1994)
Honored Artist of Russia (1996)
People's Artist of Russia (2013)

Winner of the award for best acting debut at the Mosfilm Youth festival for the role of Kostya Ivanov in the film. "We are from Jazz" (1984)
Prize winner at the Open Russian festival "Kinotavr" in Sochi for the best male role of Sergei Kozhin in the film. "Year of the Dog" (1994)
Russian National Acting Award named after Andrei Mironov “Figaro” (St. Petersburg, 2013)
Prize of the Association of Film and Television Producers in the category “Best Supporting Actor in a TV Film/Series” for the role of Yuri Kuzmenko in the TV series “Departing Nature” (2015).

Birth and family

Igor was born in the city of Kursk on December 18, 1957 in a family of engineers. His father, Boris Mikhailovich Sklyar, born in 1929, lived a difficult but worthy life.
In Kursk he was considered a famous person, he fought and was a prisoner of fascist camps. In the post-war period, he held a senior engineering position at a large construction plant. Mother, Galina Mikhailovna, born in 1936, worked as a process engineer. Igor also had a brother, Dmitry, fifteen years younger, who worked in Kursk as director of the weekly publication “Friend for Friend.” Unfortunately, Dima passed away very early at the end of January 2020, he was only 45 years old.

From childhood, parents taught the boys the right things; there was never any falsehood, lies, or duplicity in their family. At the same time, my mother had a realistic and down-to-earth outlook on life, while my father, on the contrary, was an idealist, an uncompromising person, absolutely devoted to his work. Boris Mikhailovich was often thoughtful, sometimes even absent-minded.

When dad had a company car at work, he did not allow himself to use it for personal purposes. It happened that my mother asked me to take this car for a trip to the dacha, so as not to be jostled with the children in a stuffy, crowded bus. The father was indignant and never followed her lead. Sometimes, on this basis, small conflicts arose in the family, in which Igor always took his father’s side, although he loved and continues to love both parents equally strongly. The boy’s human development took place largely under his father’s influence, while he inherited his practical streak from his mother.

The official wife of the actor is considered to be Natalya Akimova, the ex-wife of his best friend Andrei Krasko, who had an incredibly difficult time with the breakup and even spent some time in a psychiatric hospital. Having lived in a civil marriage for 10 years, the couple signed at the birth of their common son, Vasily.

This relationship cannot be called successful, at least for Natalya. Although the couple lives under the same roof, the entire theater world knows about Sklyar’s love affairs. Yes, he does not hide his reputation as a womanizer and supports it in every possible way in front of cameras and journalists.

Son Vasily did not follow in the footsteps of his parents (Natalia is also an actress), but was ordained a priest and serves in St. Sophia Cathedral, although he graduated from the same theater university as his father.

Personal life

The charming actor was always considered a womanizer, and women adored him and surrounded him with increased attention. Therefore, Igor Sklyar’s personal life is shrouded in rumors and gossip, the veracity of which is highly doubtful.

Igor Sklyar and Natalya Akimova

According to some unconfirmed reports, the actor took his wife, actress Natalya Akimova, away from the family. Her first husband was Andrei Krasko, and he sheltered fellow student Igor Sklyar at his home, because the student from Kursk did not have the money to rent an apartment. Two years later, Igor Sklyar left his friend’s home, but not alone, but with his wife Natalya. In notes published after Krasko’s death, his fans read about a nervous breakdown he experienced due to a break with his beloved wife and a psychiatric hospital in which he had to be treated.

Igor Sklyar with his son

Sklyar and Akimova settled in the city of Pavlovsk near St. Petersburg. In the summer of 1991, their son Vasya was born. At first, Vasily Sklyar did not intend to follow in the footsteps of his parents and, having received a school certificate, entered St. Petersburg University, choosing the Faculty of Philosophy. But acting genes won, and Vasily entered the famous LGITMiK.

In 2000, people started talking about Igor Sklyar’s personal life again: the actor was credited with an affair with his young colleague Oksana Stashenko. The spark between them allegedly slipped in Tver, at the Constellation festival. In the cinematic community, they wondered how long the romance between the two colleagues would be, but even if it was, it turned out to be fleeting.

Igor Sklyar and Oksana Stashenko

At the beginning of 2000, Igor Sklyar suffered a heart attack. As he later admitted, he had never had heart problems, and the disease took him by surprise, forcing him to reconsider all his old habits. After that, he eliminated alcohol and smoking from his life. Today the actor feels like a happy person: he has a home, a beloved family and big creative plans.

CHILDHOOD

Igor Sklyar was born on December 18, 1957 in Kursk. The family was very far from the world of cinema and theater. My father was a civil engineer by education, my mother a process engineer. In 1972, Igor gave birth to a younger brother, Dima, who now lives and works in Kursk, heading the newspaper “Friend for Drug.”

Even in early childhood, Igor began to devote a lot of time to sports, and attended all the sports sections that were in the city. Immediately there was football, then the boy liked tennis, at one time Igor went to boxing and athletics.

In parallel with training, Igor attends classes at a music school. He took vocal lessons, played the violin and played the piano. Even as a child, the boy had a dream about music; he played in VIA during his school years. But a little later he realized that he would not mind connecting his biography with the stage and becoming an artist. This decision came after filming the film “Judge of the Northern Fleet,” which was released in 1973.

It was this event that prompted Sklyar to connect his life with art, especially since after the film was released, his first fame came to him - he became the star of his native Kursk.

But the parents had their own ideas about this. They considered music and acting to be something frivolous, they wanted their son to also become an engineer and continue the dynasty of builders. At the family council, it was decided to compromise - the guy was given the go-ahead to make his dream come true, but if Igor fails to enter a theater university, then without further ado he will go to work as a construction worker.

Igor Sklyar: biography

A charismatic artist, a sex symbol of the eighties, a singer whose songs sank into the souls of all Soviet music lovers, theater and film actor Igor Sklyar experienced both a period of incredible popularity and a dark period of oblivion. But he went through each of his life's trials with an equanimity worthy of a true Russian intellectual. The talent of this performer was noted by both spectators and colleagues. In the 2000s, the artist again reminded of himself: in March 2020, he received a prize for best supporting role in the series “Departing Nature.”

Igor Borisovich Sklyar was born in the very west of Russia, in the city of Kursk. The father of the future star was a civil engineer, and his mother was a production engineer. From an early age, the boy became interested in sports and tried many different areas. He played football, tennis, boxing, athletics and a number of other disciplines.

Igor Sklyar

The young man also entered a music school, where he studied vocals and learned to play first the violin and then the piano. Since childhood, Igor Sklyar dreamed of becoming a musician, but then changed his preferences in favor of acting. But his parents had their own opinion on this matter and insisted that the young man receive a degree in engineering. As a result, Igor managed to achieve his goal by agreeing with his family that he would submit to their will if he failed to enter the desired specialty.

In 1975, an ambitious young man went to enroll in Moscow, but was never able to pass the entrance exams to the educational institutions that interested him. On the advice of friends, Sklyar went to the northern capital, where he entered the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography. Its curator was the famous theater director Lev Dodin.

Igor Sklyar in his youth

The first years of study passed without much success, and the student switched from “two” to “three”. Only through hard work was Igor able to improve his situation and eventually graduated with honors.

After graduating from university, Igor Sklyar went to work in one of the Tomsk theaters. Initially, the entire course was supposed to remain in Leningrad, but at the request of one of the deputies of the Tomsk region, the class was sent to the south. Literally a season later, Igor quit his job and returned to his homeland. There he served in the army. I was able to return to my acting career after finishing my service.

Fun school years

In 1965, Sklyar went to the first grade of secondary school No. 6 in the city of Kursk. The boy was a solid student in his studies and read a lot. He was fond of various sports, participated in the sections of table tennis, boxing, hockey, tourist all-around, football, and athletics.

Music occupied a special part of his life. Igor studied violin and vocals at a music school and mastered the piano on his own. When he was thirteen years old, a colleague gave his father a guitar for his birthday. During this period, everyone in the courtyards was loudly strumming, trying to play the music of Elvis Presley and the Beatles.

During the summer holidays, Igor was sent to his grandfather in Ukraine. There was a completely different world here, in which the boy felt comfortable. Grandfather had a huge house, an orchard with pears, apple trees, cherries, a dog and an apiary. There were machines in the outbuildings, and the boy watched from an early age how hard his grandfather worked. From that time on, the feeling of a real home was deposited in the depths of his consciousness - workshops in the courtyard, paved with brick, and the smell of fresh honey.

Igor Sklyar studied at school No. 6 in the city of Kursk, and at the same time studied music. The guy’s talents and hobbies did not end there. According to the actor’s stories, in the yard every boy wanted to show off his strength and agility, so Igor did not want to lag behind his comrades and also went in for sports.

It was table tennis, hockey, and then football. For some time he was interested in athletics and boxing. The guy also liked tourist all-around competitions. Perhaps this is why Igor Sklyar, at 60 years old, can boast of excellent physical shape. But no matter how much the young man liked sports, at the first opportunity to act in a movie, Igor, despite the fact that he was already a candidate for master of sports in boxing, did not hesitate to take off his gloves and go to the set.

The guy loved music since childhood. In addition to studying guitar and playing at the school VIA, Igor independently mastered the piano. The current generation most likely does not know that Igor Borisovich is not only an excellent theater and film actor, but also a wonderful singer who often took part in concerts.

YOUTH

After graduating from school in 1975, Igor went to the capital, but he was not able to conquer a single theater university. Sklyar was not very eager to become a builder, so he decided to try his luck again, only this time in Leningrad. He takes the documents and takes exams at LGITMiK, where he was enrolled in the same year. Sklyar ended up in the studio of director L. Dodin.

For the first few years, Igor did not stand out for his talent or diligence, so a grade of 3 was the highest score he received at the beginning of his studies. But the guy tried very hard, studied and rehearsed a lot, so he soon became one of the best students of the course, and even managed to get a diploma with honors.

After graduation, Sklyar and his classmates were assigned to Tomsk. They were supposed to be left in the Northern capital, but at the last moment they were sent to the Tomsk Youth Theater to raise the level of the theater to a new height. Sklyar worked there for only one season and returned to Moscow. In 1980, Igor was drafted into the army. He was immediately assigned to the Nizhny Novgorod region, and after training the guy ended up near Moscow.

Theater activities

At the Leningrad Theater, Igor Sklyar participated in several performances under the direction of the same Lev Dodin:

"Demons."
"Brothers and sisters".
"House".
"Lord of the Flies".
"Twenty minutes with an angel."
"Mu Mu".

However, unable to withstand the despotic nature of his former teacher and current director, Sklyar left the theater. Since 2006, the actor has been employed at the Baltic House theater festival, where he works to this day.

DETAILS: Actress Ekaterina Gradova: biography

The beginning of an acting career

Sklyar first appeared in films at the age of 16. A fateful meeting with the assistant to the director of the film “Shipman of the Northern Fleet” in the Moscow metro happened quite by accident, when Igor and the guys were on an excursion in the capital. The woman saw a perky boy, whose radiant smile left no one indifferent, and invited him to the shooting right on the subway.

It was after his first attempts at cinema that the boy from Kursk fell in love with this fascinating but difficult profession. The guy also liked the enormous popularity in his native Kursk after the film was released across the country. Igor played the role of a teenager in naval service during the difficult years of the war. This was in 1973, and he graduated from school in 1975. The choice of profession was a foregone conclusion, although his mother insisted on entering a polytechnic university. However, the son was adamant.

In 1973, Igor came with friends to Moscow on vacation, where he was seen on the subway by the assistant of director Vladimir Rogovoy, who was just looking for teenage boys for a new film. So Sklyar got into cinema quite by accident. His debut took place in the dramatic film about military events “Jung of the Northern Fleet”. He got one of the main roles - the cabin boy of Nikolai Maslyonok.

After filming, Igor became a local star in Kursk, he could afford to come to school in fashionable, provocative trousers, thereby stunning the entire class (at that time, everyone went to classes in the same school uniform).

And, of course, having caught fire with the world of cinema, having felt what a film set and popularity were like, Sklyar now saw for himself only one further path in life - in art. The parents did not want to hear about it; they insisted that their son receive an engineering higher education.

But the young man was persistent and in 1975, having received a certificate of secondary education, he moved to the capital to enroll in theater universities. His attempts were unsuccessful; he was not accepted into any higher education institution, despite his experience in cinema and good appearance - a charming smile and expressive dark eyes.

The guy decided not to give up and went to Leningrad, where he immediately became a student at LGITMiK. Enrolled in the course of A. Katsman-L. Dodina.

In 1979, having received his diploma, Igor went to Tomsk, where he worked in the theater for young spectators for one season.

In 1980 he returned to Kursk, from where he was drafted into the army to a military unit in the Nizhny Novgorod region with the autumn conscription. Igor's military ID says he is a cavalryman. So, during his service, he learned to care for horses, handle them and train them, which was useful to him later in the acting profession.

Movies

The start of Igor Sklyar’s cinematic biography began quite early. Namely, before graduation, at a time when the guys are not yet thinking about family and children. Everything happened as if not to him, as if in a fairy tale. Once, on one of the excursions with friends, fate brought him together with a woman who at that time was an assistant to the director from the Gorky film studio.

Her offer to try her hand at filming was a complete surprise for Igor. The conversation took place on the subway. At the first moment, he did not believe that all this was happening to him, but when he came to his senses, he agreed without hesitation. This is how he first endorsed himself in film production, appearing in the film “Jung of the Northern Fleet”, where he got one of the main roles.

Igor Sklyar and Lyubov Polishchuk on the set of the film

Thanks to this experience, he literally fell in love with cinema and from that moment he was haunted by the dream of entering a theater university at any cost. The premiere did not go unnoticed, and the teenager became a star in his hometown of Kursk. Having experienced the taste of fame that fell upon him, he no longer doubted his choice of profession.

Then Igor managed to star in the film during his student years. This was a cameo role in the film “Only in the Music Hall”. The young artist had the opportunity to film with Lyubov Poleshchuk herself. After the release of this wonderful comedy, Igor Sklyar was not given a pass, being recognized on the streets.

Still from the film “We are from Jazz”
The artist took part in the film adaptation of the film “Anna Pavlova”. Work on the film took place not only in the USSR, but also in France, Great Britain, the GDR and Cuba. At that time, the young man had already served in the army.

This was followed by the film “We Are From Jazz.” Few people know that the role given to Sklyar was intended for Dmitry Kharatyan. But literally at the very last moment the director decided to take Igor for the role of Kostya Ivanov, since, in his opinion, he was better suited to the image. This film became widely known, and Igor Sklyar firmly established his role as a sex symbol of the Soviet Union.

Still from the film “Death of the Empire”

Then there was a lull. According to the actor, this happened not because he was not offered new roles, but because he himself was bored with the monotony. His soul wanted something new, so he himself refused many offers to star in one film or another. He longed for a new experience and got it thanks to the film “Year of the Dog”, replacing his usual sugary image with a hardened convict, inflamed with feelings for a woman who was incomprehensible to him, played by Inna Churikova.

Then Igor did not act in films for a long time due to various reasons: the lack of interesting scripts, and the collapse of the USSR, which led to the decline of domestic cinema. During that time, my only work was in the film “Monday’s Children.” There, Igor, in tandem with Irina Rozanova, played the main roles.

The return to cinema occurred only in 2001. These were different genres, including melodramas and detective stories. At the beginning of 2020, fans of Igor Sklyar saw him in the continuation of the film adaptation of the historical series “Catherine. Takeoff". There, Igor Borisovich had the opportunity to play the personal secretary of the Tsarina Ivan Ivanovich Betsky.

The cinematic biography of Igor Sklyar began quite early. The young man had his first experience of filming films even before he graduated from school. The story of getting into cinema is in many ways similar to a fairy tale. Arriving with friends on an excursion, young Igor Sklyar accidentally met an assistant director from the Gorky film studio.

This is how the future actor got into film production and starred in one of the main roles in the film “Jung of the Northern Fleet,” which tells about the maritime service of teenagers during the Great Patriotic War. It was after this episode that the actor fell in love with cinema and began to dream of entering a theater university. After the premiere of the film, the teenager got a taste of fame, becoming a star of the first magnitude in his native Kursk.

Igor Sklyar starred in the second film while he was a student. He received a cameo role in the new film directed by Vladimir Rogovoy. The performer gained experience from the 1980 film “Only in the Music Hall.” In this wonderful comedy, the young artist starred in tandem with screen star Lyubov Polishchuk: their bright performance was remembered by the audience. After the premiere of the film, Sklyar began to be recognized on the streets.

After serving in the army, the artist starred in the 5-episode biographical film Anna Pavlova, which was filmed in the USSR, East Germany, France, Great Britain and even Cuba. Igor Sklyar embodied the image of dancer and choreographer Sergei Lifar, a French figure and native of the Russian Empire.

The following year a film was released that made Sklyar widely famous. In the film “We are from Jazz,” he replaced Dmitry Kharatyan, who at that time had already been cast in the role of Kostya Ivanov. The director considered that young Sklyar would be better suited to embody the image, and he was not mistaken: the film “We are from Jazz” was rightly named one of the best films of the year, it was watched in cinemas by 17 million viewers, and the leading actor instantly turned into a sex symbol of the Soviet Union. Union.

"We are from jazz"

Fans bombarded their favorite artist with letters and pestered him with calls. Until the end of the decade, the young and attractive Igor Sklyar played the roles of young, bright romantics, charming guys, and it was in this image that domestic audiences remembered him. Between 1980 and 1990, the actor took part in more than a dozen films.

The nineties were less eventful in Igor’s acting life. Later in an interview, Sklyar said that he was bored with monotonous roles, and he began to refuse many scripts, realizing that he would not gain new experience.

1994 became significant for the actor thanks to the melodrama “The Year of the Dog,” in which Igor Sklyar got used to the image of a character completely atypical for himself: a prisoner, hardened by life’s conflicts, who fell in love with a woman incomprehensible to him. According to the script of the drama, the hero Sklyar killed the head of the hostel in which she lived, who insulted his beloved girl, and fled with her to a deserted zone of radioactive contamination, which meant Chernobyl and its environs.

"Year of the Dog"

The film did not break the popularity ratings, but the performer himself received many praises from critics and viewers who were surprised by the completely uncharacteristic role for the artist. Film fans also noted what a delightful tandem Sklyar and Inna Churikova formed.

After 1994 and until the end of the decade, the actor was almost not involved in film production. The reason was still the same: the lack of interesting scripts, the decline of Russian cinema after the collapse of the USSR. The only exception is the melodrama “Monday's Children” by Alla Surikova, which has become beloved by millions, in which Igor Sklyar and Irina Rozanova played the main characters.

"Monday's Children"

Only since 2001, Igor Sklyar began to actively act in detective stories, melodramas and other film genres again. The historical drama “The Romanovs. The Crowned Family" by Gleb Panfilov, in which the actor played Commissar Vasily Yakovlev, who, on behalf of the Bolsheviks, organized the transportation of the crowned family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.

This was followed by roles in the films “The Investigation is Conducted by Experts. A Pound of Gold", "Moscow Saga", "Death of an Empire", "In the First Circle", "Saboteur 2: End of War", "Sherlock Holmes" and "Departing Nature".

"Own land"

In 2020, Igor Sklyar pleased his fans with roles in new popular film projects, including the sports drama “Hammer” by Nurbek Egen. In this film, the actor starred with Alexei Chadov and Oksana Akinshina. The actor appeared in one of the short stories of the detective series “Investigator Tikhonov” together with Mikhail Efremov and Svetlana Ivanova.

"Catherine. Takeoff"

In February 2020, the long-awaited continuation of the historical series “Catherine” entitled “Catherine. Takeoff". Marina Alexandrova again appeared in the role of Empress Catherine II, and Igor Sklyar played Ivan Ivanovich Betsky, the queen’s personal secretary.

Notes[ | ]

ČSFD (Czech) - 2001.
Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated April 8, 2013 No. 340 (unspecified)
. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
Meetings with the stars and more... - Igor Sklyar
“Fizruk” and “Major” became the most successful TV series of 2014 (unspecified)
. TASS (March 20, 2015). Retrieved March 20, 2020.
The honorary title was awarded by Decree of the President of Russia No. 512 of April 9, 1996
History of the song Komarovo (unspecified)
(inaccessible link). Retrieved February 18, 2020. Archived March 2, 2020.
Igor Sklyar – Komarovo
What? Where? When? Igor Sklyar - “I’ll go to Komarovo” (1986)
What? Where? When? Igor Sklyar - “Contrasts” (1985)
Discography of Igor Sklyar
Mp3 music by artist Igor Sklyar - (29 songs), listen
Lyrics | Igor Sklyar - Monday (1987, composer - Igor Nikolaev) translation, words, lyrics, backing track (undefined)
(inaccessible link). Retrieved April 3, 2011. Archived December 30, 2010.

Movie

Sklyar’s career in cinema also developed successfully. His second role in his life was again with director Vladimir Rogovoy in the film “Citizens”, Igor played an episodic character here - a guy with a guitar.

And his next work in the film “Only in the Music Hall,” released on the country’s screens in 1980, made Sklyar a recognizable actor. He played chemistry student Vanadium, who had an affair with the artist. Igor’s partner on the set was the brilliant Lyubov Polishchuk. The audience remembered their brilliant performance for a long time.

During the army, the actor was not forgotten and, having returned to the profession, he found himself in demand in it, having played in four films in a row:

"Take care of women";
"Anna Pavlova";
"Twice Born"
"Kindergarten".

The film “We are from Jazz” made Igor truly famous throughout the country. His character is a student at the Odessa Music College Kostya Ivanov, who became interested in jazz. Initially, Dmitry Kharatyan was supposed to play this role, but at the last moment, director Karen Shakhnazarov approved Sklyar and was right.

After the release of “We Are From Jazz” and before the collapse of the country, Sklyar acted a lot, mainly playing romantics and charming heroes:

Zhora Vitkovsky in the film “Battalions Ask for Fire”;
Koloman Zulan in “Maritsa”;
singer Kholodkov in the film “Start Over”;
Kostya Chebotarenko in “The Feat of Odessa”;
Bendetto in The Prisoner of the Chateau d'If;
captain in the drama “The Frenchman”;
Igor Lutsenko in the comedy “Imitator”.

In 1994, the film “Year of the Dog” was released on Russian screens, in which the actor played an unusual hero - former criminal Sergei Kozhin, who fell in love with an unhappy middle-aged woman. Sklyar’s partner was the amazing actress Inna Churikova. For this work at the Kinotavr festival in Sochi, Igor was awarded the “Best Actor” award, and was nominated for the “Nika” award in the same category.

Over the next five years, the actor was rarely seen on screens; as he himself says, he did not like the scripts.

With the beginning of the 2000s, Sklyar’s career began a new round; he starred a lot in the most popular and rated projects:

“The Romanovs. Crowned family";
"Moscow Saga";
"Death of an Empire";
"In the first circle";
"Saboteur 2: End of War";
“It all started in Harbin”;
"Sherlock Holmes";
"Catherine. Takeoff";
"Hammer";
"Investigator Tikhonov."

Work in cinema

Igor got his first experience in cinema while still in high school. By chance, a film studio worker approached him on the subway and invited the young man to play a small role. He, deciding that fate was giving him an excellent chance, immediately agreed.

Igor Sklyar in the film “We are from Jazz”

After this film debut, Igor became an idol in his hometown. Now his future fate has been decided by itself - to be an actor and act in films. While still studying at the university, Igor starred in the role of a guy playing the guitar in the film “Citizens”.

DETAILS: Oleg Roy - photo, biography, personal life, creativity

In 1980, the musical comedy “Only in the Music Hall” was released, where Igor was offered the main role. His partner was actress Lyubov Polishchuk. This is a fascinating story about how a chemistry student passionately desires to become a music hall artist, and how his dream comes true.

Still from the film “Year of the Dog”

The next year, the young actor starred in the two-part comedy “Take Care of Women,” which was also a huge success with viewers. In 1983, Igor took part in the film “Anna Pavlova” about the fate of the great Russian ballerina.

In the same year, director Karen Shakhnazarov filmed the musical comedy “We are from Jazz,” in which Igor played the main role. This is a story about the formation of a new direction in music - jazz, for which a young student was expelled from a music school.

There are many songs in the film that Sklyar performed and which became popular and were later performed separately. For example, “Old piano”, “Thank you, music”. The film was a resounding success with audiences, the young actor became very popular and even received the title of “sex symbol” for his charm.

He was not very happy about this, because now his peace was lost - the actor was pestered by numerous fans with calls and letters, declaring their love.

Still from the film "Sherlock Holmes"

The audience most remembered his roles in films:

“The battalions are asking for fire”;
"Prisoner of the Chateau d'If"
"Simulator";
"Frenchman";
"Tartuffe" and others.

In 1994, the film “Year of the Dog” was released, in which Igor played the main role. This is a drama about the difficult fate of a criminal. Here Igor was able to transform himself from the usual image of young romantics, jokers, lovers and play a very serious and tragic role.

In 1996, Sklyar was awarded the title of Honored Artist, and in 2013 he became People's Artist. In the same year he was awarded the Andrei Mironov Figaro Prize.

Igor Sklyar on the set of the series “Ekaterina. Takeoff"

The actor still has many roles in various films, and he still continues to act. In 2020, Sklyar starred in the film “Nevsky Piglet” and the TV series “Excellent Girl”.

Music

The song “Komarovo” was an indulgence for Igor, but it was this song that made the artist popular throughout the Soviet Union. The hit appeared thanks to Sklyar’s friendship with composer Igor Nikolaev.

One day in company Nikolaev said to Sklyar: “If you want, I’ll write a song for you.” A few months later we met again in St. Petersburg while visiting mutual friends. At a huge, dusty piano, Nikolaev began playing and humming unpublished compositions, including “Komarovo.”

The song was recorded, Igor sang it during a musical break, “What? Where? When?”, and it sounded from all radios and tape recorders in the country.

After “Komarovo” became a hit, Sklyar was seriously offered to pursue a pop career. He thought about it for several days, but in the end he refused. By that time, Igor was already familiar with the world of pop music, the cynicism and insincerity of which the artist did not like.

He still carries the instrument today and takes his guitar with him to performances. When the artist has meetings with the audience, he performs his hits to his own accompaniment.

Having a wonderful voice and musical education, Igor Sklyar often sang songs in plays and in films. However, it was with the song “Komarovo” that he could be seen on the stage of concert halls. The composer and singer Igor Nikolaev gave the song to his friend, who admired the actor’s performing talent.

Sklyar first performed it during a musical break in the popular TV game “What? Where? When?" The song was so popular that Igor began to be invited to concerts more and more often. However, the actor did not give up his acting career for a musical one.

There is no point in listing the films in which Sklyar starred and the songs he sang, since the list would be simply incredible. The actor, even at 60 years old, is full of energy and continues to act in films, TV series, and play in the theater.

Theater

In 1979, Igor Sklyar got a job at the City Theater for Young Spectators in Tomsk. But soon the actor changed the stage of the provincial theater to the stage of the Leningrad Maly Drama Theater, where he was invited by former curator Lev Dodin. As part of the troupe, the artist visited European cities, where he shone on theater stages.

Igor Sklyar realized his childhood and youth dream of becoming a singer in his youth. Igor Nikolaev’s song “Komarovo” brought him national fame. It seems that this hit sounded from the windows of houses, televisions and all radio outlets. At the end of the 80s, the singer was offered to pursue an exclusively solo career, but he refused: Sklyar decided for himself that he was not ready to leave dramatic art, because at that time the artist regularly appeared on the stage of the Maly Drama Theater.

Igor Sklyar was an MDT actor from 1983 to 2000. His repertoire included both major and minor roles. The actor appeared in the sensational plays “Home”, “Twenty Minutes with an Angel” and “Mumu”.

Enormous success befell the artist in 1994 in Paris, where he played a key role in the play Roberto Zucco. During his stay at the theater, Igor Sklyar took part in many productions, not always as a leading actor. The performer himself says in this regard that the main thing is not the size of the role, but how you perform it. Sklyar worked at the theater until the early 2000s, after which he left because he no longer felt the same trusting and friendly attitude towards each other in the troupe.

Igor Sklyar in the play “Happy New Year!”

For several years, the artist appeared only in private performances, and in 2006 he was accepted into the troupe of the Baltic House Theater.

Now Igor Sklyar continues to play in enterprise performances and continues to actively act in films. In 2020, he played a key role in the production of “The Soup, or Boiling Passions,” touring Tallinn, where, according to him, he has relatives.

Special love for Peter

Sklyar fell in love with Leningrad as a child, one might say, in absentia. He had a friend in his yard who went to his St. Petersburg relatives for the entire summer holidays. When all the guys returned at the end of summer and gathered in the evenings in the yard, this boy's stories about his vacation in Leningrad were always the most interesting.

The actor does not like megacities, where everything is filled with modules. He believes that one cannot live there; a person cannot create his own personal space in such conditions and becomes disharmonious.

That is why Sklyar only visits the Russian capital for work, and lives permanently in St. Petersburg. She loves this city with its extraordinary northern sky and harmonious avenues.

Igor Kostolevsky biography personal life photo