Childhood and youth
Veniamin Borisovich was born in August 1940, and is Jewish by nationality. His father is a Doctor of Economics, his mother was the head of a department at a Moscow clinic.
In junior school, Smekhov began attending the drama club of the Palace of Pioneers, which was supervised by Rolan Bykov. After graduating from school, he entered the Shchukin Theater School. A year later, the head of the course, Vladimir Etush, transferred the too timid Veniamin to a volunteer student with a probationary period, but soon enrolled him back with the highest grade for acting.
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Veniamin Smekhov in his youth in the film “The Three Musketeers”
Smekhov’s creative biography began at the Kuibyshev Theater. There the artist managed to play in 6 performances and returned to Moscow. For some time he could not find a job and was thinking about changing his profession until he ended up at the Taganka Theater. After 21 years, Veniamin, together with Leonid Filatov, left the stage in protest against the expulsion of director Yuri Lyubimov.
He played several roles in Sovremennik, and in 1987 he returned to Taganka.
Writer
The actor is the author of many interesting works, some of which are biographical, in which the actor described certain stages of his life and career. Vivid examples of such works are “When I Was Athos...”, “Alive and Only” (memories of Vysotsky), “Theater of My Memory”, “I’ll Just Explain a Little in Poem”, “Notes on the Backstage” (about the Taganka Theater) , “It’s not like that, guys...”, “Hello, however.”
In addition to all of the above, in the 70-80s the actor’s works were often published in the famous magazines Ogonyok, Yunost and Aurora.
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Movies
The first item in Smekhov’s filmography appeared back in 1968 - the cult war drama “Two Comrades Served.” All-Union fame, crowds of fans and bags of letters to the actor were ensured by “The Three Musketeers” and the role of the sad philosopher Athos.
Veniamin Borisovich returned to this image in 1992, starring in a sequel called “The Musketeers 20 Years Later.” This film was also directed by Georgy Yungvald-Khilkevich, with the same star cast - Mikhail Boyarsky, Igor Starygin, Valentin Smirnitsky, Alisa Freindlich. In "Return of the Musketeers" they were joined by Anton Makarsky and Lyanka Gryu.
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Veniamin Smekhov, wife Galina Aksenova and Leonid Kanevsky
Smekhov acted as the screenwriter of the musical fairy tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”. The main roles were played by Oleg Tabakov, Sergei Yursky, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan. In the 21st century, the painting received a second life with the help of Maxim Leonidov, Yegor Druzhinin and Stas Kostyushkin.
Veniamin’s embodiment of the heroes of the parable “Seven Screams in the Ocean”, the detective story “Trap for a Lonely Man”, the TV series “Montecristo” and “Furtseva”, and the comedy “The Toy Seller” is considered successful. The actor appeared in the melodrama “Balzac's Age, or All Men Are Theirs...”, in which Alika Smekhova's daughter shone.
In “Marriage in Russian,” Alisa Khazanova became his on-screen daughter. In the crime film Bones, a Russian adaptation of the American series of the same name with Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, Smekhov played the head of a research laboratory. Father and son Victor and Ivan Merezhko entrusted their friend to play a negative role in the film “Princess Lyagushkina”.
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Veniamin Smekhov and Igor Vernik
However, acting did not satisfy all of Veniamin’s ambitions, and in the 90s he began a directing and teaching career. His dramatic productions and operas are known not only in Russia, but also in Israel, the Czech Republic, Germany and France. Coming home, Smekhov appears on the stage of his native theater, but only in performances in the creation of which he himself had a hand.
Veniamin Borisovich writes books. The first, “The Servant of the Muses does not tolerate fuss,” was published in 1976. Several collections of poetry, prose, and memoirs followed. The artist fulfilled his parents’ dream of seeing him as a writer and journalist. Among the works there are memories of his friend Vladimir Vysotsky. A series of documentaries were made from the “Golden Age of Taganka”.
In 2020, Smekhov participated in online readings of Chekhov’s “Chekhov Lives” and Tolstoy’s “War and Peace. Reading a novel”, in 2016 he became a participant in Google readings of Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita. I was there".
How Kinopanorama changed the actor’s life
After the release of the film about the musketeers, Soviet television viewers became interested in the actors who played the roles of four devoted friends. The TV show Kinopanorama, popular at that time, decided to film a story about them, showing footage from the everyday life of the actors. The film crew also visited Veniamin Smekhov’s Moscow apartment.
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As a result, an episode was released on TV screens in which viewers could admire how their beloved Athos makes cutlets while in the family circle. This issue was also seen by the actor’s future wife, Galina Aksenova. A little later, she said that the moment she saw this handsome dark-haired man with a luxurious smile on the screen, she realized that she would have something connected with him. At that moment, she did not understand what exactly, but fate did not keep her waiting long - the answer to this riddle was received very soon.
Personal life
The actor first got married when he was just over 20. His wife Alla studied at the food institute, but did not work in her specialty and got a job as a radio editor. In this marriage, Benjamin had two children. Elena and Alika are creative personalities: the first is a writer, the second is an actress and singer.
Leonid, Lena’s son and eldest grandson, is a candidate of philological sciences and teaches at the State Humanitarian University. Alika's sons, Artyom and Makar, bear their grandfather's surname. The youngest, according to his mother, does not have a middle name. The eldest, understanding how it can hurt his brother, does not utter the word “dad”, even when meeting with his own parent.
My father considers it a blessing to be on the same stage with Alika. The family duo has behind them many theatrical performances, including the musical and poetic program “Twelve Months of Tango” and the play “The Reluctant Doctor.”
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Veniamin Smekhov and wife Galina Aksenova
Smekhov’s personal life changed in 1980. Then, after a painful divorce from Alla, film critic Galina Aksenova became his wife. She is a candidate of art history and associate professor at the Moscow Art Theater School.
A representative man (height 186 cm, weight 90 kg) does not intend to give in to the years. Although Veniamin Borisovich believes that as an actor he has already said everything, he would not refuse to work with outstanding directors of our time. Nikita Mikhalkov, Alexey Uchitel and Valery Todorovsky fell into this row.
Smekhov collects photographs in which he appears to be strangling his colleagues on the theater or film set. The collection of photographs was called “A Company of Heartfelt Friends.”
Veniamin Smekhov’s wife did not immediately sense something was wrong, but she should have
Alla Smekhova admits that she didn’t even have to think about the beginning of her husband’s affair, because she was confident in his loyalty and decency. After many years of silence, she once stated that after the advent of Athos's fame, fans flocked around the handsome and stately actor. What gave him his charm was a car with a sheepskin coat, bought with the fee he received for playing the role of a noble count.
Now Alla admits that at one point her husband became irritable, scandals began in their family, because she simply could not help but respond to some of his antics. Benjamin stopped liking his wife’s appearance - he advised her to lose extra pounds, for which she went to the Institute of Nutrition, where she lost 16 kg. After such drastic changes, the woman felt very bad, but what can’t you do for the sake of your beloved husband!
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There could be no doubt about Smekhov’s loyalty - every evening he came home with flowers, and in the mornings he met with Aksenova, having previously given his wife a ride to work, right up to the entrance.
Alla Alexandrovna admits that December 31, 1979 was the last date for their family. Since the beginning of 1980, everything has been completely different. That evening Lyubov Gorina presented her with a symbolic gift - a candlestick with angels, and then said with some regret: “Alla, you have children - let these angels keep them.”
Veniamin Smekhov now
News about cinematic projects with the participation of Veniamin Borisovich appears infrequently. One of the last films with his participation, the fantastic dystopia “Mafia: Game of Survival,” was released in 2015. The plot is based on a popular game that, in a dystopian future, has been transformed from a fun party game into an intriguing, deadly TV show with fabulous winnings. In the end, only the heroes of Smekhov and Andrei Chadov survive.
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Veniamin Smekhov and daughter Alika Smekhova with grandchildren
Now the actor is preparing to please fans with the series “Casanova in Russia”. The adventure-adventure drama, written by Alexei Timm, author of “Monday’s Children” and “The Restless Sagittarius,” is filmed in the spirit of these films and tells the story of the love of the legendary Venetian and a Russian serf woman. The film's cinematographer is also stellar - Golden Eagle and TEFI winner Ilya Demin.
Veniamin Borisovich plays a hero named Bragadin, other roles are played by Natalya Gromushkina, Valery Barinov, Emilia Spivak. The project started on the first day of summer 2019, the premiere is scheduled for the second half of next year.
Filmography
- 1968 — “Two Comrades Served”
- 1976 — “Smoke and the Kid”
- 1979 — “D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers”
- 1979 - “I ask you to blame Klava K for my death.”
- 1983 — “The Tale of Wanderings”
- 1988 — “Puppy”
- 1990 — “Trap for a Lonely Man”
- 1992 — “The Musketeers Twenty Years Later”
- 1993 - “The Mystery of Queen Anne, or The Musketeers Thirty Years Later”
- 2008 — “Suddenly a wizard will arrive”
- 2008 — “Monte Cristo”
- 2009 — “The Return of the Musketeers, or the Treasures of Cardinal Mazarin”
- 2011 — “Furtseva”
- 2016 — “Mafia: Game of Survival”
