Natalya Vavilova is a creative and talented person. TV viewers in Russia and the post-Soviet space remember her as Alexandra Tikhomirova, the daughter of one of the provincial girls who came to conquer the capital in the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.” The attractive gray-eyed blonde received recognition from a multimillion-dollar audience, but 10 years later the actress left the profession. After filming ended, various rumors circulated around her.
Natalya Dmitrievna Vavilova was born on January 26, 1959 in Russia, Moscow, and is Russian by nationality. As a child, the actress wrote poetry, loved to dance and was no different from her peers.
The only thing that weighed on the girl was a strong desire to escape from her parental care. The family was large, Natasha was the fifth child, father Dmitry Vavilov was a diplomat, and mother was a housewife. A girl lived on Leninsky Prospekt next to Mosfilm.
Young Natasha watched artists from an early age and dreamed of becoming a famous actress, but her family was categorically against it. The parents had high hopes for their daughter and predicted a diplomatic future for her.
When the girl had almost come to terms with the fact that she would not become a celebrity, a man approached her on the street and offered to star in the film “Such High Mountains.” She agreed without saying a word to her parents. Having learned that his daughter had disobeyed, her father put her under house arrest and ordered his wife to accompany her to school.
Filmography
The parental ban oppressed the girl. She was forced to again promise to give up her dream of becoming an artist, saying that she would receive a law degree and continue her father’s work, but soon she broke her word again.
One day during a lesson, Vladimir Menshov’s assistant entered the school class and invited her to the theater - she naturally agreed. So the aspiring actress starred in the film “Practice”, it was a film about a school, where the actor Dmitry Kharatyan was a colleague. Filming in the film brought recognition and popularity to the girl. Afterwards she had the main role in the film “They Drove a Dresser Through the Streets,” where Natalya starred as a stranger from the train.
When Menshov wrote the script for the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” he was faced with a serious question - to convince Natasha’s parents that, according to the plot of the film, the daughter of one of the main characters, Alexander, is Natalya Vavilova. Alexey Batalov, who at that time was already a famous actor, helped in this situation, and her father was his fan, which played to the benefit of the future celebrity.
Alexey managed to convince that the film could be released only with her participation, and said that he would also star in the leading role and look after Natasha - then the father agreed. After the film first appeared on television, Natalya gained incredible success. Afterwards she starred in the film “Invasion”, playing the main role in the person of Lisa, a medical school student.
In total, the actress’s filmography includes 27 works; we will not list the entire list of films. The Soviet actress put her soul into each of them. Natalya was incredibly happy that she was able to fulfill her childhood dream and achieve recognition and fame, and most importantly, her father was proud of her.
In 1991, Vavilova played her last role in the film “The Sukhovo-Kobylin Case,” where she appeared to the world in the person of the protagonist’s sister. Since then, Natalya has been nowhere to be seen. All films with her participation were loved by the Soviet public. When Natalya stopped filming, many TV viewers became seriously worried. A few years later, fans will find out why the actress left the big stage.
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Kat Graham is one of the "real" teenagers in the film: she was 19 when she began playing Bonnie Bennett, Elena's 16-year-old friend. Kat was lucky in a way, since her character was a witch and not a vampire, she quite reasonably matured over time. Graham was 27 at the end of the last season, and her character is, accordingly, about 25.
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Height and weight in youth
Thanks to her open and kind character, Natalia has a large number of friends and girlfriends. At any time of the day, the girl was ready to help, without thinking about her own interests.
In her youth, Vavilova had model appearance: with a height of 170 cm, she weighed 55 kg. This blond girl was the dream of every third student at the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov, where she received her education in 1984.
Actress Natalya Vavilova: personal life
There is an opinion that the girl’s father helped the actress get onto the stage because he had influential diplomatic friends. Natalya claims the opposite, saying that if it weren’t for Alexey Batalov, she would never have played on stage.
To remember how Natalya’s fate turned out, we need to go back to 1987, when the historical film “Nikolai Podvoisky” was filmed. Vavilova was supposed to play one of the main roles, but by tragic accident she left the stage forever.
According to the plot of the film, the heroine had to be able to ride a horse, and in order to learn this, the girl had to enroll in an equestrian school. During the filming of the film, Natalya was given a horse, but she threw the actress off. The bruise occurred on the spine and Vavilova was hospitalized.
After some time, it became known that the injury was serious and the girl would stay in the hospital for about a month. The director said that he would wait for the actress, but a week later he gave her role to someone else. Natalya was offended by Yuri Boretsky, who deceived her, and her husband helped her get out of her mental crisis.
Natalia Vavilova's husband - Samvel Gasparov
This is their first and only love; they met at Mosfilm during the legendary film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.” Literally from the first days of communication, mutual sympathy flared up between them. Six months later, the young couple announced that they would soon be getting married.
Despite the fact that this was an important event for Natalya, she asked her future husband for a modest party with her closest friends. The wedding of the newlyweds was standard, and after the registry office the newlyweds, together with their friends and colleagues, went to a restaurant.
Samvel Gasparov and Vavilova: age difference
Some acquaintances did not hide their surprise and even condemnation when the couple decided to get married, because the intended groom was older than his bride. Natalya’s mother also did not approve of her daughter’s husband, saying that 20 years was too much of an age difference. But after meeting Samvel, she realized that her son-in-law would become a good husband and loyal friend for her daughter.
What Vavilova and her husband look like now
The works of Samvel Gasparov are not in great demand these days. Having crossed the fifty-year mark, Natalya and her husband became travelers.
When Vavilova turned 55, the couple went on a two-week tour of Europe. A year later, at the age of 56, Natalya saw Paris for the first time. She is currently involved in charity work . The woman is a frequent visitor to orphanages and also supervises several kindergartens in her area.
In 2020, when Natalya gave her last interview, she said that today she can safely be called a happy person. A woman grows flowers, turning her summer cottage into a flower gallery. This year Vavilova celebrated her anniversary, she turned 60 years old, the celebration was with her family. Recently, the celebrity has been trying to avoid communicating with the press. Looking through the photographs of the actress for 2020, one can note that the woman is full of strength and energy.
Love and children in Vivien's life
To paraphrase the great writer who created the very “Anna Karenina” that our heroine so conscientiously performed, all successful families are equally happy, but in unhappy marriages there are always many unexpected problems. Vivien Leigh was a complex creative person, accustomed to stopping at nothing, which is why she was given a persistent image of a wayward beauty. This repeatedly interfered with her in her personal life, but she always acted exclusively as she saw fit and went her own way.
Husbands, children and their future fate
While still at the academy, young Vivian met lawyer Herbert Lee Holman and fell in love. He was thirteen years older, and also extremely disapproving of everyone involved in the theater. On December 20, 1932, the wedding took place, and then the young wife went to finish her education.
On the tenth of October the following year she gave birth to a girl and named her Suzanne. She grew up smart and diligent, but her mother never had enough time for her. Subsequently, she also became an actress, and after the death of her parents, she inherited all their property. She died only in 2015, at the age of eighty-one, surrounded by relatives. Vivien Leigh was no longer interested in children; she considered childbirth a “dirty business.” Later she will change her mind, but fate will no longer give her the happiness of motherhood.
Having played in the play “The Mask of Virtue” in 1937, Vivienne had no idea what awaited her in the future. After the premiere, Laurence Kerr Olivier, a baron and also a famous producer, actor and director, came backstage. Lee immediately forgot about everything, because she had seen him on stage earlier. A whirlwind romance began, the man introduced her to a completely new world, filled with philosophy, music, painting and politics. In the middle of the summer of 1937, Vivienne told her husband that she was leaving him.
Lawrence was also married, and his wife stubbornly refused to sign the divorce papers. And Herbert did not want to leave the mother of his beloved daughter, hoping that “this whim will soon disappear from her head. This did not happen; in August 1940, the lovers, having achieved their goal, got married. As a result, they divorced in the sixties, Lawrence married a young actress, and Vivienne was never able to recover from such a blow.
Life after divorce
Since the forties, Vivien constantly suffered from strange, sudden mood swings. After a history with tuberculosis and a miscarriage, Lee regularly fell into violent feverish activity, then into week-long depressions, and sometimes she even had seizures when she fought in hysterics, lying on the floor and rubbing her tears. Lawrence dragged her to the doctor, and he made a disappointing diagnosis: manic-depressive psychosis, aggravated by bipolar personality disorder. She would later say that it was Blanche Dubois who drove her crazy.
In 1953, she suffered a second miscarriage, and Herbert came to care for the patient, while her husband appeared at home less and less. He was simply unable to withstand all the troubles that befell them. In moments of enlightenment, she was still the same, charming Vivienne and even played in productions. Just in sixty-one, while working on the film “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” Lawrence filed for divorce: he became interested in Joan Plowright. Contrary to expectations, Lee reacted calmly, even trying to forgive her loved one and make friends with her rival. In revenge, she started an affair with actor John Merivale, but everything was sluggish and seemed unreal.
It turned out to hide the pain and resentment quite tolerably. Vivienne continued her work, fortunately, she was just invited to take part in a new production on Broadway - the musical “Comrade”. In 1963, she even received a theater Tony Award. However, nervous exhaustion and a busy schedule did not pull the actress out of the abyss of madness, but on the contrary. She had a new breakdown, and a friend of her ex-husband, actor David Niven, who helped her come to her senses, even later wrote various horror stories about how she watched TV, which showed stripes, smiled, growled like a wild animal, walked around naked at home, hiding from everyone.
It was necessary to urgently take the woman to England, where the invariably faithful and devoted Herbert, with whom she had acted so rudely, was always ready to help. Vivienne was admitted to a London hospice because, to the horror of her unfortunate ex-husband, tuberculosis, which everyone had forgotten about, had also returned. It was possible to go on stage less and less; after being discharged from the hospital in sixty-four, Lee made an attempt to return to an active life: she went to Hollywood and starred in the film “Ship of Fools” based on the novel of the same name by Katherine Anne Porter. But at the beginning of sixty-seven she had to go to London - there a production of Chekhov’s “Ivanov” was waiting for her. The biography of Vivien Leigh was coming to an end, and photos in old age reflect her appearance at that time.
Sunset of a Hollywood star
She was no longer able to take part in the last theatrical production, “A Delicate Balance,” as she was broken by a severe attack of tuberculosis. They had not yet really learned how to treat this disease, and the neglected form, healed several times, led to terrible consequences for the entire body.
Important
History has preserved for us the words Vivien Leigh said to Lawrence's son shortly before her death. She noted that Herbert Lee Holman showed her how to live, his father how to love, and John how to remain single even in company.
She stayed at home and within a few weeks seemed to begin to come to her senses. On July 7th, John, returning from the premiere of the play, found a woman lying face down next to the bed. He immediately called Lawrence, who came and prayed on his knees next to her for several hours before coming to his senses. He asked for forgiveness for all the misfortunes and troubles that he caused her.
Vivien Leigh's death was reported only on July 8th. In memory of an outstanding actress and an incredible, energetic person, every theater in London considered it their duty to dim their lights for an hour. Lawrence ordered a funeral ceremony according to the most “expensive scenario” at St. Mary's Church. But she did not want to lie in damp earth and wrote a will in advance, so her body was burned in Golders Green Crematorium. It will not be possible to visit Vivien’s grave, and the urn with her ashes does not exist - it was scattered over the lake, not far from the village of Blackboys, where her beautiful and huge house stood.
In 1985, her portrait was included in the list of British postage stamps, along with such masters as Alfred Hitchcock, James David Graham Niven, Charlie and Charlie Chaplin. There is a colossal amount of letters, handwritten notes, photographs and other documentary evidence that belonged to her daughter, and are now the property of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Nine years later, the Australian government decided to buy for its own museums more than five hundred photographs of Lee and Larry during a trip to their country, which was done with success. In 2013, the largest museum of decorative and applied arts in London, the Victoria and Albert, acquired the actress’s personal archive, which contains many documents, theater awards, diaries and other things. Now there is a corresponding exhibition there that anyone can see.
Conclusions from the biography
The entire life and career of this great actress, who left a colossal legacy to her descendants, proves that one should not limit one’s activities to everyday life. After the birth of her daughter, Vivien tried to run the house and take care of loved ones, but could not step over her own destiny.
Contrary to the opinions of others, and sometimes to her own detriment, she tirelessly moved forward, and now her works have become part of the world classics of theater and cinema. No mental problems or physical illnesses could break her and force her to give up her life’s work – art. She rose after every fall, setting an example for every girl and woman on the planet.
Children and grandchildren
Natalya was pregnant when she fell from her horse, but the child could not be saved due to severe bruising. The parents of the unborn child were upset, and the news that the woman would never give birth sounded from the doctor’s lips like a sentence.
The couple were able to survive this grief together, using every possible encouragement. For 10 years they tried various methods, but all attempts to get pregnant were in vain. Fortunately, Samvel has four nephews on his side, as well as a daughter from his first marriage. The grandchildren adore Grandma Natasha, and she gives them all the love, care and attention.
