Hungry years
The exact date of birth of the artist is unknown due to the loss of metrics. Actor Sergei Stolyarov, a native of the village of Bezzubovo in the Tula region, independently chose his date of birth - November 1, 1911. Many years later, the information was finally found, and it turned out that the artist was born according to the old style on July 4th.
Sergei's family, consisting of three brothers and a sister, was poor but friendly. Sergei practically did not remember his father, Dmitry Stolyarov, who worked as a forester.
In 1914, during the First World War, the head of the family went to fight in place of one wealthy peasant in exchange for a hut, a cow and a horse. His family received what was promised, but Dmitry himself was almost immediately killed at the front. During the October Revolution, everything received was confiscated, and the Stolyarovs again lived in need and poverty. The famine that struck the village prompted the mother to send her older children to the “grain-rich” Tashkent.
Thus began Sergei’s wanderings across Russia, engulfed in the flames of war. The boy never made it to Tashkent because he fell ill with typhus. The brothers were forced to leave him, 8 years old, in Kursk, on the threshold of a hospital, after which they disappeared without a trace in the maelstrom of events taking place around them. Sergei recovered and was sent to a Kursk orphanage, where he first became acquainted with the theater. Together with several children from the orphanage, he participated in a drama club, where plays from the history of the French Revolution were staged.
Childhood and youth
The biography of the future actor began in a small village called Bezzubovo, near Tula. Sergei Stolyarov was born on November 1, 1911. Five children grew up in the Stolyarov family. Since childhood, the boy had a hard time: Sergei Dmitrievich’s father died in the war in 1914. The family was in great need, so little Sergei went to work as soon as he was five years old: the boy tended the cows of a wealthy neighbor.
Actor Sergei Stolyarov
In 1919, large-scale surplus appropriation began. The already poor family was deprived of supplies for the winter; the military took everything away. Then Sergei’s grandmother sent the boy and four brothers to Tashkent - in the city there were more opportunities to earn at least a piece of bread. But Sergei did not get to Tashkent. On the way, the boy contracted typhus and remained in the Kursk hospital. The brothers moved on.
When Sergei Stolyarov recovered, kind-hearted doctors and nurses sent the boy to an orphanage. It was there that Sergei became acquainted with the stage: one of the teachers organized an amateur children's theater.
Sergei Stolyarov in his youth
Dreams of a career as an actor attracted Sergei, but harsh times dictated other conditions. After the orphanage, Sergei Stolyarov went to study at a Moscow vocational school, where he chose the specialty of a machinist and mechanic.
After graduating, Sergei Dmitrievich got a job at a railway depot. However, the young man did not give up his dream of the stage, devoting his free time to classes in a theater studio. Soon the young talent was noticed and invited to join the troupe of the Red Army Theater.
Sergei Stolyarov: biography of the actor
At the end of the 20s, the young man graduated from the First Trade School in Moscow and for some time worked on the Kyiv Railway as a locomotive driver. At the same time, he studied at a theater studio for workers, which was organized by actor Alexey Dikiy at the House of Scientists.
In 1931 he graduated from the acting department of the Proletkult Theater School. After that, he worked at the Moscow Art Theater (1932-1934), the Central Theater of the Red Army (1934-1938), the Mossovet Theater (1940-1942), and the Film Actor's Studio Theater (since 1944).
Not only the creative, but also the personal life of the actor was successful. At the theater, Sergei met his future wife, the young actress Olga Konstantinova. In 1934 they got married.
Personal life
The personal life of actor Sergei Stolyarov developed in an extremely successful way. First of all, he is the founder of the Stolyarov acting dynasty, which devoted its entire life to cinema. I also met my wife at the theater.
Actor Sergei Stolyarov with his son
Olga Konstantinova was an actress. The wedding took place in 1934. Exactly four years later, a child was born in their family, who was named Kirill. Subsequently, the guy also followed in his father’s footsteps and became an actor.
First successes in the world of the film industry
In 1934, the young artist Sergei Stolyarov came to the attention of Alexander Dovzhenko, who invited him to play the role of a pilot in his film “Aerograd”. This was Sergei Stolyarov’s film debut, and a very successful one at that. The directors could not help but notice the stately handsome man, who immediately attracted the attention of the audience. Grigory Alexandrov himself in 1936, without any tests, invited Sergei to play the main role in the film “Circus”, which became a stellar start for the talented actor. Stolyarov's face grinned from huge advertising posters and often appeared in magazines and newspapers. It was this circumstance that helped Sergei meet his mother and brother, who recognized him after an 18-year separation. In 1937, Sergei Stolyarov became a father. Kirill was born, and later, like his father, chose the acting path.
Sergei Stolyarov is an actor whose biography to this day arouses the keen interest of admirers of his talent; He was always in demand, actively filmed, films with his participation were released one after another: “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “Kashchei the Immortal”.
Movies
The first film role went to Sergei Stolyarov in 1935. The young man played a pilot in the film “Aerocity”. Although this picture did not bring fame and glory to the actor, it played a decisive role in the future fate of Stolyarov. Sergei Dmitrievich was noticed by director Grigory Alexandrov and immediately invited the talented actor to play a role in the film “Circus”.
Sergei Stolyarov in the film "Aerograd"
Work on the painting took almost two years. In 1937, The Circus was released. Sergei Stolyarov played the main role in this film. The audience received the film with delight, and the actor became a symbol of true masculinity and nobility for film lovers. All cinema fans tried to get rare photos of Sergei Stolyarov.
Sergei Dmitrievich’s childhood dream came true, but the actor’s happiness was overshadowed. Sergei Stolyarov categorically refused to attend the premiere screening of the film, which gave him popular love. The fact is that shortly before this, the talented cameraman Vladimir Nielsen was shot. The reason for the execution was an anonymous report. The man’s “discordant” surname also played a role - in those days, any little thing could become a reason for accusations of treason.
Sergei Stolyarov in the film "Circus"
Stolyarov was shocked by what happened and did not want to receive the government award. The premiere of "Circus" took place without the main character. Some time later, the film went to the world film festival in the capital of France, but Stolyarov was not invited there.
It is noteworthy that at the same festival the famous sculpture by Vera Mukhina “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” was presented for the first time. Mukhina sculpted the figure and face of the worker from Sergei Stolyarov. This sculpture is still the emblem of Mosfilm, recognizable even by people far from the world of cinema.
Sergei Stolyarov became the prototype for Vera Mukhina’s sculpture “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”
In 1943, Sergei Stolyarov began to be invited to roles in children's films. The first to come out was “Koschei the Immortal”, a few years later the paintings “Sadko” and “Ilya Muromets” appeared. Colleagues of Sergei Dmitrievich will later recall that at first the actor was afraid to look funny in the images of fairy-tale characters, but soon he literally got used to his characters and again showed a high level of acting skills.
Sergei Stolyarov in the film "Sadko"
The actor’s popularity in those years turned out to be phenomenal, Sergei Stolyarov was recognized on the street, and the artist’s on-screen heroes became idols and role models. At the Venice Film Festival, the film “Ilya Muromets” won first prize. However, the main character was again not at the ceremony: this time the government simply did not release the actor from the country, considering him unreliable.
Sergei Stolyarov in the film “Ilya Muromets”
Sergei Stolyarov's talent manifested itself not only on the screen: the actor began working on his own script, dedicated to Dmitry Donskoy. However, illness prevented Sergei Dmitrievich from finishing what he started.
The war period of Stolyarov's life
After the start of the Great Patriotic War, the actor could not stay away and volunteered for the front. However, he, like the rest of his colleagues, was recalled, motivating the decision by production necessity.
In the fall of 1941, Stolyarov and his family and Mosfilm moved to Alma-Ata. On the way to this city, an unpleasant incident took place: all food cards were stolen, which at that time doomed a person to starvation. Then Stolyarov, a hunter by nature, took a rifle from the film studio and went into the mountains. He returned a day later with his prey - a mountain goat of impressive size. The meat lasted for a long time, some of the spoils were even sold at the nearest market, and some were exchanged with K. Simonov for a new play, “Russian People,” which Stolyarov eventually staged on the stage of the local theater. The actor donated all the proceeds from the production to a defense fund for a tank named after the play “Russian People.” For this act, Stalin himself thanked Stolyarov with a telegram that he sent to Alma-Ata.
Despite his recognition and fame, Sergei Stolyarov lived quite modestly, having neither a dacha nor a car. His friends were also ordinary people who had nothing to do with the world of art. Of the actors, I only had a lifelong friendship with Boris Babochkin.
By the way, Sergei Stolyarov was the prototype of the worker in the famous Soviet-era sculpture “Worker and Collective Farm Woman.” It was from him that Mukhina sculpted her creation, although Stolyarov did not even pose for her.
Hero of folk epics and fairy tales
After the scandal with Grigoriev’s comedy, it was not easy for the artist to find work in adult cinema. Therefore, he agreed to play the knight Ruslan in the film adaptation of Pushkin’s fairy-tale poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”.
The role of the Slavic hero-hero after this picture was forever assigned to the artist. And when the great Soviet storyteller Alexander Rowe cast him in “Vasilisa the Beautiful,” Sergei Stolyarov became the embodiment of the epic hero from the people for the whole country. Fairy tale films with his participation began to appear regularly on screens and were incredibly loved by the audience. After “Vasilisa the Beautiful,” the artist played in another film by Rowe, “Kashchei the Immortal.”
Although the roles of Ivan and Nikita Kozhemyaka turned an already famous artist into a cult one, Sergei Dmitrievich himself was cramped within the same image. Trying to go beyond this, he never acted with Rowe again.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the artist joined the militia. But he was soon returned and evacuated with his family to Kazakhstan. While in the rear, the artist never stopped caring about his country. He organized a fundraiser to buy a tank. For this, Stolyarov staged the play “Russian People”, with which he toured the country. The tank purchased with this money was named after the performance, and for this act Sergei Stolyarov was awarded personal gratitude from Stalin.
The actor (his biography, after the story with the tank, was set as an example for all cultural figures), covered in glory, returned to Moscow with the end of the war. To change his role, he chose the clever rascal Thaddeus from “Old Vaudeville” as his next hero. This role, like the film itself, was well received by the public.
In subsequent years, the artist played in films telling about modernity. And for the film “Far from Moscow” he was awarded the Stalin Prize, 1st degree.
At the zenith of glory
In 1953, a film with the participation of Sergei Stolyarov “Sadko” was released, which received first prize at the Venice Film Festival. Thus, the actor, who was not sent to this festival for purely ideological reasons, also gained international fame. A year later, the French magazine Cinema included Stolyarov, the only representative of the Soviet Union, in the list of outstanding actors of world cinema, among whom were Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, Robert Taylor, Buster Keaton. The actor himself treated this with a certain amount of humor, believing that this list should not include him, but such masters as Simonov, Cherkasov, Babochkin.
The 50s were marked by the release of two more films. These were “The Secret of Two Oceans” and “Ilya Muromets”, which was included in the Guinness Book of Records for the quantitative indicator of extras (1,100 horses and 106,000 extra soldiers).
In the 60s, the film actor's career began to decline somewhat; Only two films with Stolyarov’s participation were released on the country’s screens: “A Man Changes His Skin” and “The Andromeda Nebula,” which became the last in his acting career. Stolyarov’s health was undermined by a scandal related to the latter’s accusation of insufficient participation in theatrical productions. For this, he and his wife were fired from the theater.
First film roles
In addition to talent and a pleasant voice, Stolyarov also had a very beautiful appearance. Therefore, it is not surprising that he was soon invited to act in films.
The first two films with his participation (“Space Flight” and “Love and Hate”) did not represent anything special, moreover, in the first of them the artist’s name was not even indicated in the credits.
But thanks to them, the master of Ukrainian cinema, Alexander Dovzhenko, drew the attention of Sergei Stolyarov. He invited the actor to play one of the main characters in the film “Aerograd”. The role of the noble pilot Vladimir Glushak glorified the young artist. In addition, thanks to her, Sergei Stolyarov, without auditioning, received the main role in the comedy film “The Circus” with Lyubov Orlova in the title role.
Honest, open, sincere
In the late 60s, Sergei Stolyarov agreed to shoot a film based on his script “When the Fog Lifts.” But he was unable to carry out his plans due to an exacerbation of the malignant tumor, and therefore was forced to go to the hospital. The talented actor passed away on December 9, 1969. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
Sergei Stolyarov, who embodied truly courageous, honest and sincere people on screen, was like that in life. And people felt it. There was even such a case. Once on Pokrovka, Sergei Stolyarov met a boy who, recognizing the famous actor, immediately began reading Krylov’s fable. The boy said that he really wanted to become an artist, and with his sincere youthful desire he literally infected the actor, who forever remembered this meeting. This boy was Valentin Gaft.
Career
Afterwards he graduated from the capital's trade school and went to work as a locomotive driver. Also in his free time he attended a theater studio. He always had this interest in creativity. Subsequently, he entered drama school, where he received the required education to work at the Moscow Art Theater and other famous theaters.
Sergei Stolyarov in the film “Vasilisa the Beautiful”
He took part in Alexander Dovzhenko’s film “Aerograd”, where he was given the role of a pilot. A tall and handsome guy, many girls immediately liked him. Then in 1936 he was invited to the film “Circus”. Stolyarov was offered to be the face of an advertising program that was dedicated to this film.
Sergei Stolyarov and Lyubov Orlova in the film “Circus”
Thus, Sergei’s photograph hung in all cinemas in the country. It was thanks to this coincidence of circumstances that he met his family 18 years later.
During the Second World War, he decided to go to the front as a volunteer, but he was not allowed in because, due to necessity, his application was withdrawn. Stolyarov went with his family to Alma-Ata, where the entire Mosfilm film studio was moving. Actor Sergei Stolyarov Jr. was a symbol of an entire era of Soviet cinema, whose merits simply cannot be forgotten.
Sergei Stolyarov in the film “The Secret of Two Oceans”
His roles in the fairy tales “Sadko” and “Ruslan and Lyudmila” were highly appreciated at international festivals. First of all, Sergei Stolyarov received an award for best role in Cannes. This was the first prize and of such magnitude. In addition to everything, the actor’s personality was often written about in foreign publications. Each role that was given to Stolyarov was worked out to the maximum by him. He sometimes modified his characters to make them more interesting to the viewer. This is exactly what the directors valued in the actor’s talent.
Sergei Stolyarov: how the son of a forester became one of the leading actors of the USSR
Sergei Stolyarov brilliantly played the roles of epic Russian heroes. He, a Soviet man, managed to portray on the screen that fabulous courage and breadth of soul of famous heroes, which was sung many centuries ago. It seemed that the actor had indeed been possessed by Nikita Kozhemyaka or Sadko. But it’s not without reason.
Sergei Dmitrievich was a good-natured, honest and straightforward person. He repeated more than once that he does not play, but lives the lives of his characters. However, unlike them, the artist’s life did not end at all like a fairy tale. Stolyarov was not destined to die on the battlefield; at the dawn of his strength he lost the fight against a terrible disease.
The beginning of the way
Sergei was born in the outback of the Tula province into a large family of a forester in 1911. When the First World War began, my father was taken to the front, from where he never returned. From an early age, the child had to earn his living through hard work.
The situation for the Stolyarov family became especially difficult in the winter of 1919: the authorities deprived the peasants of all grain reserves. The boy, along with other poor children, was sent to Tashkent, but on the way he fell ill with typhus and ended up in one of the hospitals in Kursk, from where he was taken to an orphanage.
Little actor
The child’s fate was determined by one of the teachers at the orphanage: he organized a theater club, where Sergei happily disappeared for days on end.
At first, Stolyarov did not think about a career as an actor. Having set sail freely, he received the profession of a railway worker. However, even while working in the Kiev depot, he began to play in the local theater.
When the young man was called up to serve in the Red Army, he entertained his fellow servicemen with theatrical performances. It was then that Sergei realized who he wanted to be.
First steps in the film industry
Stolyarov got his first role in 1934. At first it was episodic, in the film “Space Flight”, but this was followed by serious work. Director Grigory Alexandrov noticed the aspiring actor on the set and, without hesitation, invited him to play the main role in his film “Circus.”
The picture brought Sergei all-Union fame. "Circus" was so popular that it was watched throughout the Soviet Union. Thanks to the film, his mother and brother Roman were found after 18 years of obscurity.
Along with joy came misfortune: the authorities shot the cameraman and director of the film. Principled and stubborn, Sergei defended his comrades to the last, for which he paid: he was labeled “not entirely trustworthy,” lost his award for filming, and was banned from working at the Mosfilm studio until 1953.
At least paint pictures from it
It’s no joke, but it was Sergei who became the prototype for the worker sculpture in Mukhina’s famous composition “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” which was the emblem of the Mosfilm film studio.
During the Great Patriotic War, the artist moved with the troupe to Alma-Ata. In Kazakhstan, Stolyarov stages a play that is a huge success among the audience. With the proceeds, Sergei buys a tank to send to the front.
A real hero
The following years become the most productive for the actor. He actively starred in the fairy tales of Soyuzdetfilm: “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, “Kashchei the Immortal”, “Ilya Muromets” and “Sadko”. The latter brought him the fame of a “real Russian hero,” as it was written in the French magazine Cinema.
Western critics included Stolyarov's name in the list of the greatest actors of those times. The artist himself laughed it off and never believed that he had enormous talent.
Son about father
Many years later, Sergei’s son, Kirill, played his father in the film “...And the Dawns Here Are Quiet.” In one of the interviews, the hereditary actor described his parent there:
“He was not given negative roles. There was nothing to “catch onto” inside in order to be convincing in the role of a scoundrel. He never considered himself a great actor..."
Stolyarov's fame was so enormous that he was constantly recognized on the street. One day the young man asked Sergei to listen to him read a fable right in the park. The good-natured actor invited the annoying boy home and gave him advice on entering the theater. That guy turned out to be Valentin Gaft.
Last years
In the 60s, Sergei Dmitrievich stopped acting in films. He had been nurturing the idea of his own film for many years. Unfortunately, he was not destined to live to see its premiere.
The actor died in December 1969 from cancer. A few days later he was awarded the title of People's Artist. The following year, the film “The Andromeda Nebula” was released - Stolyarov’s last work.
We previously wrote about how the actors of the cult film “D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers” have changed.
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