Actor from “Sorcerers” and “Nameless Star”: the cause of death of Mikhail Svetin

Mikhail Svetin: childhood years

The future actor was born in Kyiv, this happened in December 1930. Mikhail Svetin, then still bearing the last name Goltsman, was born into a wealthy family; his parents owned a haberdashery store. Recalling his childhood years, Mikhail admitted that he was a hooligan and a merry fellow. Even in early childhood, the boy liked to be in the spotlight; he often organized spontaneous “concerts” and entertained the audience.

The behavior of the future actor left much to be desired. In the eighth grade, Mikhail Svetin was even expelled from school, the reason for which was his conflict with the Ukrainian language teacher. It is also known that Misha’s classmates were very fond of him, since thanks to his jokes there was constant laughter in the lessons.

Mikhail Svetin - personal life

At the Kamyshin Theater in the Volgograd Region, Mikhail (then Goltsman) was offered the main role in the play based on Moliere’s play “A Reluctant Marriage.”
His partner was the aspiring actress Bronislava Proskurnina, with whom the actor immediately fell in love. Bronya is 17 years old and this is her first theater season. Mikhail is 30, he has a reputation as a brawler and a womanizer. Despite his short stature and not very attractive appearance, he did not know refusal from women. Therefore, he immediately went all-in and offered Bronislava his hand and heart. I was shocked to hear the answer: “I’ll think about it!” What is there to think about?! For two months he was not himself and, completely exhausted, he declared: “If you don’t want it, I’ll marry someone else!”

This move impressed the intractable proud woman, and she agreed to the marriage. But the young people still had to wait a year until the girl became an adult. Who would have thought, but Bronya turned out to be the main love of Mikhail Svetin’s life, his first and only wife. For her sake, he settled down and did not even look in the direction of other women.

In 1965, the couple had a daughter, Svetlana. Mikhail was so happy that he took the stage name Svetin in honor of her. But diapers and sleepless nights did not fit into the life of a young acting family roaming around different cities. That’s why Sveta had to be raised by her grandmother. The parents were able to take their daughter only when she was ten years old.

Choosing a life path

Mikhail Svetin is an actor who can hardly be called the darling of fate; his road to fame turned out to be long. Of course, the dream of becoming an artist came to the future star in early childhood. It is known that Mikhail was fascinated by silent cinema; he liked the way actors conveyed their thoughts with looks and movements, rather than words. It is not surprising that the child’s idol was Charlie Chaplin.

After school, Mikhail became a student at the Kyiv Music College and mastered playing the oboe. Then he had to interrupt his studies because he was drafted into the army. Having repaid his debt to his homeland, Svetin decided to enter the theater school, for which he went to Moscow. Unfortunately, the capital's universities were in no hurry to open their doors to the born comedian. The young man was refused admission, citing his small stature and speech impediment. Interestingly, Mikhail Svetin’s height was actually just over 150 cm.

Mikhail Svetin - biography

Mikhail Svetin (Goltsman: this is the artist’s real name) was born in Kyiv at the end of 1929 into a wealthy Jewish family.
But dad, Solomon Goltsman, squandered his parents’ fortune, and little Misha had to forget about a well-fed life. However, he did not lose heart. “From the age of three, I gathered kids around me and made everyone laugh,” Mikhail Svetin recalled his biography. — I danced the foxtrot, lezginka — I really liked shouting at the end: “Assa!” When my mother asked what I wanted to become, I said without hesitation: “Charlie Chaplin,” confident that this was my profession - making people laugh.

The beginning of the war found Misha in Crimea.

...Misha was not even twelve when he fell ill with tuberculosis. His parents collected their last money to send him to a children's sanatorium in Alupka for treatment. It was 1941, the war began. The mother and younger brother hastily evacuated to Tashkent, from where they wrote a tearful letter to the head of the sanatorium asking him to send Mikhail to them. The head doctor complied with the request, putting the boy on the train.

And his wife packed the boy some food and a bag of sugar for the journey - he had to travel for a whole month. The child reached Tashkent safe and sound, and then learned that after his departure, the head doctor, his family and all the children of the sanatorium were shot by the Nazis who came to the city.

A room with an earthen floor, clothes with patches and meager rations - that’s all that Mikhail Svetin remembered about Tashkent. The parents were spinning around as best they could. His father worked part-time as a musician in restaurants, and his mother, risking her life, sold smuggled women's stockings. The savvy boy quickly figured out how he could make money: he poured cold boiled water into a kettle and sold it to traders at the market on a hot afternoon.

After the war, the family returned to Kyiv and settled in a communal apartment. Mikhail went to school, but did not want to study. And why? He successfully sold cigarettes at the market. “I was generally a child of the street. “I only came home to sleep,” the actor later said. Having a reputation as a hooligan, the boy constantly disrupted classes by inventing jokes on teachers, telling jokes and playing pranks on his classmates. As a result, after the eighth grade, Svetin was expelled from school. And then Mikhail began to think: how can he enter theater school without a diploma of secondary education?

A neighbor in a communal apartment advised me to go to a music school. Mikhail prepared for admission: he listened to concerts on the radio, conducted an invisible orchestra and learned a patriotic song about Stalin - with this one he would definitely not be kicked out.

Mikhail Semenovich recalled the entrance exams this way:

“I finished conducting, bowed - no one clapped.
They asked: “Young man, where did you do your internship?” He said: “At home, in front of the loudspeaker.” They lay down laughing. On the stairs, the director of the music school approached me: “You know, we liked you, enroll in the oboe class.”
I had no idea what an oboe was, but I entered and graduated...” After music school, Mikhail decided to storm Moscow theater universities. Twice Svetin tried to enter GITIS, Vakhtangov and Shchukin schools, but to no avail. The admissions committee did not like his short stature, speech impediments, uneven teeth, and Ukrainian accent. Or maybe the surname is to blame? “Absolutely mediocre!” - was the verdict. But this had no effect on self-esteem. “Modesty for an actor is the path to obscurity!” - Mikhail decided and tried to get through... to Arkady Raikin himself.

Svetin saw his name on a poster and somehow found out that the famous artist was staying at the Moscow Hotel. For six days Mikhail was on duty in the foyer. On the seventh, luck smiled at him: he saw the approaching maestro - handsome, in an expensive suit. “I want to work for you!” “Svetin blocked Raikin’s path without any greeting. Arkady Isaakovich was taken aback by such impudence and agreed to listen to the young man.

The impudent man tried his best - he sang, made faces, made jokes, realizing that such a chance comes only once in a lifetime. And Raikin appreciated it. He already had a staff of actors, but Arkady Isaakovich personally won a place for Svetin, a daily allowance of 26 rubles and even office housing.

The 22-year-old boy, as they say, went crazy with such happiness. He missed rehearsals, dined in restaurants, drank and smoked excessively, and ran into scandals. In the theater I almost got into a fight with one of the actors - thanks, the director stopped him in time. But because of his behavior, Arkady Isaakovich had a heart attack.

Mikhail got away with everything until he began to teach the maestro himself to play. Having finally become insolent, he said to Raikin: “Here you go, you all play well, but you leave completely wrong!” After that, he was shown the door. Svetin began to wander around the provincial stage of Kamyshin, Kemerovo, Petropavlovsk, Irkutsk, Penza, Petrozavodsk. Believing in yourself, your purpose, your talent has always supported you from within. “I can only envy actors close to my role. But there are few like me!” - Mikhail Semenovich confessed many years later. And you can’t argue.

Meeting Raikin

So, Mikhail did not succeed in becoming a student at a theater university, but the stubborn young man did not intend to give up. One day he came across a poster for “Tour of the Raikin Theater.” Calling on all his arrogance to help, Svetin firmly decided to achieve a meeting with the famous entertainer. Having found out that the star was vacationing at the Moscow Hotel, he called Raikin’s room, but he did not want to talk to him.

Surprisingly, even after this Mikhail Svetin did not give up. The biography of the Russian film star indicates that he still managed to waylay Raikin at the hotel. The entertainer initially refused to give the young talent an audition, but Svetin still managed to convince him to give him a chance.

An important audition for him took place at the Mayakovsky Theater. Mikhail tried so hard that he still managed to impress Raikin, who agreed to accept him as a student. Svetin joined the supporting cast and began working with Raikin. However, this collaboration did not last long, as the young man began to tell others how they should play their roles, after which he was kicked out. Nevertheless, he remained grateful to fate for this invaluable experience.

12/11/1930, Kyiv - 08/30/2015, Moscow

People's Artist of Russia (1996) Winner of the Special Prize of the Higher Theater Award of St. Petersburg “Golden Sofit” (2003 – 2004)

Childhood

Mikhail Svetin was born on December 11, 1930 in the city of Kyiv, into a fairly wealthy family that owned a haberdashery store. A hooligan and a merry fellow from birth, Mikhail Svetin constantly “performed” from the age of three - gathering an audience around him, making everyone laugh. In the eighth grade, the future actor was expelled from school due to a conflict with a Ukrainian language teacher.

Since Mikhail Svetin dreamed of becoming an artist since childhood, he trained all the time. The young talent constantly needed an audience, an audience, and here - a whole class! Mikhail Svetin made jokes, joked, asked questions, attracting attention to himself - there was continuous laughter in the class.

Path to glory

Silent cinema had a strong influence on Mikhail Svetin. The artist believes that in general, a glance, a pause, or movement can express more than words. That is why Charlie Chaplin was and remains Svetin’s idol. These eyes... You can read everything in them.

After graduating from the Kyiv Music College in oboe class, Mikhail Svetin joined the army. Having served, and firmly deciding that he would only enter the theater school, he left for Moscow.

His path to fame was long and difficult. Possessing pronounced qualities as a comedian, Mikhail Svetin, however, was not accepted into any of the Moscow theater universities - he was called mediocre, citing either a speech impediment or short stature.

Great entertainer...

What to do? Mikhail Svetin considered himself quite an adult - 22 years old after all! In addition, he was spontaneous, stubborn and even arrogant. And when he saw the poster “Tour of the Raikin Theater”, he decided to look for a meeting with the great entertainer himself. Svetin went to the Moscow Hotel and called Raikin’s room on the phone. No. He called like that for six days in a row. Then... lo and behold! Raikin is walking, black-haired, with a gray strand in front. Picture! He blocked his way: “I want to work for you!” And he responded with something like “even if you are at least three times talented, I can’t take you, the staff is only 12 people!” Svetin did not back down and begged Raikin to listen to him. The maestro made an appointment at the Mayakovsky Theater.

Before this, Mikhail Svetin had never been to the theater. But he stood up, folded his arms over his stomach (I saw the entertainer fold them like that) and began to read! I tried so hard, I grimaced so much, I wanted to make him laugh so much! Then Raikin approached: “I liked you, I’m taking you to the theater as a student!” So Mikhail Svetin became an actor in Raikin’s supporting cast. A practical school, it is perhaps better than any GITIS. Undoubtedly, but... Very soon Svetin was kicked out of there with a bang: he allowed himself to be told how to play.

Svetin... not Svetin...

Then there were provincial stages in Kamyshin, Petropavlovsk (Severokazakhstansk), Irkutsk, Kemerovo. Finally - Penza. Once the Kiev Operetta Theater was touring here, and the actor got a job there. It would seem that operetta is an easy genre! But they also kicked me out of the Operetta Theater as soon as the national question arose. They said: “Misha, you are pathological on stage.” Svetin begged: “For God’s sake, don’t kick me out, I’m a Kievite, I want to live and work at home.”

It turned out that everything was very simple: it turned out that Svetin was not Svetin at all, but... His last name was already stated in “The Sevastopol Waltz.” It didn’t help - they demanded that the actor be removed from the role and removed from the theater troupe altogether, so that later they would not say that a branch of the synagogue was set up in the theater.

The whole point is that the actor’s real name was Goltsman. The fact that Svetin now has such a surname is his daughter Svetlana’s fault. After her birth, the actor decided to become Svetin. The actor resisted for a long time, not wanting to make his stage name his real name. But the fees, and even in the hotels they asked stupid questions: “Why don’t the data in your documents match?” I had to “give up.”

And finally, Peter...

At fifty, the actor moved to the northern capital, where his new, “star life” began. The Maly Drama Theatre, now the Theater of Europe, or the Dodin Theater, where Mikhail Svetin stayed and has been playing on stage for more than 20 years. The actor walks to his native theater, since he lives nearby, on the Fontanka.

Performances with his participation - “Twelfth Night”, “Blue Sky, and There are Clouds in It” - have been in the theater’s repertoire for years and invariably attract full houses. Each theatrical role of the artist is distinguished by the brilliance of acute character, extraordinary semantic content, and the filigree mastery of acting technique.

As a genuine, experienced and skillful professional artist, Mikhail Svetin masters the widest range of acting colors: from the bright grotesque in “Shadow” to the soulful lyricism in “Difficult People”. The inexhaustibility of his creative potential, the unfading and strength of his exceptional gift was demonstrated by the premiere of the benefit performance “Give America!”, “Elephant”, which became a complete triumph for the master.

To the cinema

Cinema brought fame to Mikhail Svetin. Actor Mikhail Svetin began acting in films when he was already over forty. He started in two films at the same time. It so happened: they invited me to play two main roles at once. Elem Klimov invited him to “Agony”, to play the role of a spy named Terekhov. And then the Ukrainian comedian Viktor Ivanov, who, by the way, directed “Chasing Two Hares,” invited “No fluff, no feather” into his film. A film based on the hunting stories of Ostap Vishny, where the actor played the role of doctor Stepan Stepanovich. Mikhail Svetin starred together with the wonderful actor Nikolai Grinko. And then it went...

About "Sorcerers"

Mikhail Svetin often got truly stellar roles, in particular, in the famous “Sorcerers”. The filming took place very calmly, they filmed in Odessa, right in the large studio pavilion. Nothing particularly funny happened, and no one expected the result to be so successful. True, director Konstantin Bromberg allowed the actors to improvise on the set - he liked many of the discoveries. The artists felt free and relaxed. With this approach to the process, Bromberg resembled Leonid Gaidai, who gave the actor a bottle for a successful find. “Sorcerers” took a very long time to film, but the actors handled the film with ease. The viewer loved this picture - it is kind. Svetin's theme there is a little man, his tragedy. This is Chaplin’s theme, the artist’s favorite theme.

The creative activity of Mikhail Semenovich amazes with its fullness and intensity. And each new work of the artist, no matter in what field of art it was carried out, revealed more and more unexpected facets of his extraordinary talent.

His heroes, so different in character and habits, social and professional affiliation, are given the great ability to be kind. Their spiritual breadth, organic inability to anger and aggression, easy disposition and optimism have their origins in the acting and human personality of Mikhail Svetin. With a good-natured smile and sincere joy of the wise “red clown”, the artist painted his heroes - naive eccentrics, mischievous inventors, touching louts, cunning craftsmen - those seemingly simple and ordinary people who hold the world together. His art is creative, it brought light and bestowed happiness. And therefore it always found a grateful response in the hearts of his admirers.

Ah, Odessa...

The actor filmed a lot in Odessa. Moreover, two films are specifically about Odessa. In total, Mikhail Svetin starred in about twenty films at the film studio, such as “The Beloved Woman of Mechanic Gavrilov,” “A Child for November,” or “Marshmallow in Chocolate.” Once upon a time, the actor came to Odessa for creative meetings; his relatives lived here. Then almost no one was left, many left...

In 2006, Mikhail Svetin again starred in Odessa, in a new film adaptation of The Golden Calf. Oleg Menshikov played Ostap there, and Mikhail Svetin was given the role of Pound. “It's one big stage. I couldn’t refuse, although my role is Panikovsky. Of course! I don't want to say anything bad about the director. Pound, so Pound,” the actor shared his impressions.

In recent years, Mikhail Svetin has rarely acted in films. But not because they weren’t invited - I just didn’t see my favorite image of the “little man” and hated “bloody” TV series with all my heart. The actor really wanted to play a classic role... Of course, Mikhail Svetin was invited to the series, but he refused, and the directors were offended. "Why do I need it? They won't give me more than I have. I played in such wonderful films, why do I need another “Cops”? - said the actor - “And I don’t want to play in twenty-episode films, quickly, quickly, quickly... I would like them to come up with a special role for me, so that it would not be an elderly famous artist flashing on the screen”...

Personal life

Mikhail Svetin met his future wife, now a serious actress of the Maly Drama Theater Bronislava Proskurnina, in Kamyshin. She was 17 years old at the time, it was her first season. They were brought together by the play “A Reluctant Marriage,” where Svetin, a vile old man, chased her, and she cheated on him during the course of the action. This “reluctant marriage” lasted a lifetime...

Sveta's daughter did not become an actress. She got married and left with her husband and children for the USA.

Alexandra Sonechkina

Materials used: Encyclopedia of Cinema of Cyril and Methodius-2000; Irina Frolova, “Mikhail Svetin: I’m not only lazy, but also stubborn,” “Russian Germany”; Anna Maiskaya, “Mikhail Svetin: I taught Raikin how to play,” from M. Svetin’s book “Telephone Conversations”; Vladislav Barkar, “Thank you to Odessa for not forgetting!” Svetlana Mazurova, “The famous comedian Mikhail Svetin turned 70 years old,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta; “Born to make you laugh. Mikhail Svetin”, headings Picture of the day; Alexander Lavrov, “Mikhail Svetin: Love without sadness”, “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”

Last name change

For some time, Mikhail toured cities, performed on provincial stages in Irkutsk, Petropavlovsk, Kemerovo, Penza. For a short time, he managed to get a job at the Kiev Operetta Theater, but soon the actor was kicked out from there. This decision was associated with the emergence of the national question.

Mikhail Solomonovich Goltsman is the actor’s real name. Svetin is the surname that he used as a stage name. It is possible that it was the story with the theater that forced the comedian to officially abandon his parents’ surname and become Svetin. It’s interesting that he also changed his middle name, becoming Mikhail Semenovich.

The beginning of the career of Mikhail Svetin

Failures in his studies did not prevent Mikhail Svetin from getting a job in the supporting cast of the Arkady Raikin Theater.

Svetin Mikhail Semenovich

However, his eccentric character and a certain irresponsibility became the reason for his dismissal from this institution. The artist himself claims that he was kicked out because he taught Raikin to play correctly.

Then the actor began to develop his talent independently and worked in theaters in various cities of the USSR: Kamyshin, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Petropavlovsk, Penza and others. In addition, Mikhail spent some time teaching music to children in schools.

In the 60s, the actor returned to his homeland and got a job at the Kiev Operetta Theater. He only worked there for a short time. Already in 1970, Svetin moved to Leningrad and continued his career at the Maly Drama Theater. After 10 years, the talented actor was noticed by Pyotr Fomenko, who invited Mikhail Semenovich to the Comedy Theater.

Moving to St. Petersburg

The actor had already celebrated his 50th birthday when he once again changed his place of residence. This time St. Petersburg took him into its arms, Svetin found work at the Theater of Europe, where he devoted more than 20 years of his life to service. It is known that the apartment in which Mikhail and his family lived was located not far from the theater, so the actor could get to his place of work on foot.

It is difficult to list all the productions in which Mikhail Svetin became the star. The star’s biography says that the audience was greatly impressed by the performances “Blue Sky with Clouds in It” and “Twelfth Night” with his participation. “Elephant”, “Bring on America!”, “Difficult People”, “Shadow” - he played brilliantly in these productions. The actor prepared for each role for a long time and carefully, making sure that the images he created on stage were not repeated. It is not surprising that many regulars of the Theater of Europe came to see him.

Death of Mikhail Svetin

In the summer of 2020, already in old age, Mikhail Svetin vacationed with his wife at the dacha in Vyritsa.
After lunch, he sat down in a chair and suddenly lost consciousness. Stroke. Ambulance, intensive care, the condition is extremely serious. A neurosurgeon was delivered from the regional hospital by helicopter, and he performed a complex operation. Relatives tried to transfer Svetin to the St. Petersburg hospital, where he had been observed for a long time, but doctors expressed fears that the actor would not survive the transportation. After the operation, Mikhail Semenovich was connected to an artificial lung ventilation system. All this extended the actor’s life by only a week. He never regained consciousness. The cause of the actor's death was a stroke.

Conquest of cinema

Of course, actor Mikhail Svetin gained popularity thanks to cinema, and not theater. The comedian began acting actively relatively late, having already crossed the threshold of his fortieth birthday by that time. However, he received his first role back in 1961, playing One-Eye in the musical “Free Wind”.

The next time Mikhail was on the set was only in 1973. Ukrainian director Viktor Ivanov, who became famous thanks to his comedy “Chasing Two Hares,” invited the actor to his film “Neither Pooh nor Feather,” the plot of which was borrowed from the stories of Ostap Vishny. In this film about pensioners who love to hunt, Svetin embodied the image of a doctor. The audience liked the film “No Pooh, No Feather,” and Mikhail was actively offered roles.

Creative career

After studying, Svetin worked as a music teacher. Later, he decided to master acting and tried to get into the Shchukin School, GITIS, but to no avail. In Moscow, Svetin was taken to the Arkady Raikin Theater (in the supporting cast), but was soon fired.

Mikhail worked in theaters in Kemerovo, Kamyshin and other cities. During that period, he came up with the pseudonym Svetin, from the name Svetlana. That was the name of the actor's daughter. And in 1983, he formalized his new surname by changing his passport.

In the mid-60s, Mikhail Semyonovich ended up in the Kyiv musical comedy theater, and after 6 years he began working at the Maly Drama Theater in Leningrad. In 1980, Pyotr Fomenko, artistic director of the Comedy Theater, invited the actor to join the troupe. The actor’s most striking roles were in the plays “The Flatterer,” “The Tale of the Forest of Arden,” and “Bathhouse.”

In 1974, Svetin played in the film “Neither Pooh, Nor Feather”, “Agony”. But the actor became famous after a cameo role in the film “Afonya”. In 1976, Svetin worked on the set of the film “12 Chairs” by Mark Zakharov. The actor became in demand in cinema, starring in several films every year. The most famous: “Piggy Bank”, “Be My Husband”, “Silva”, “Beloved Woman of Mechanic Gavrilov”.

Svetin became truly popular after starring in the film “Sorcerers” (1982). At an older age, the actor played in the films “The Man from the Boulevard des Capuchins”, “Bright Personality”, “The Golden Calf”, “Paradox”. He appeared on the theater stage in the plays “Difficult People”, “Twelfth Night”, “Shadow”.

In 2010, the work “Telephone Conversations: Memoirs” was published, the authors were Mikhail Semyonovich and Elena Alekseeva, a film critic. The latest film work is a role in the film “Martha’s Line”. Svetin died at the age of 85 on August 30, 2020, the cause was a stroke.

Interesting roles

“Afonya” is another famous film in which Mikhail Svetin starred, whose films and biography are discussed in this article. The comedy tells the story of the life of a simple mechanic who likes to chase girls and drink. Mikhail created a vivid image of the driver Voronkov, and his colleagues on the set were Kuravlev, Ruslanova, Leonov.

One cannot fail to note the film “Agony”, which is considered one of the most serious film projects with Svetin’s participation. The action takes place during the reign of Nicholas II, the film touches on the events of 1916. In this film, the actor played the role of a police officer named Terekhov.

Of course, the mini-series “12 Chairs” with his participation, which tells about the adventures of the legendary Ostap Bender, also deserves mention. In this television project, the actor starred in the role of engineer Bruns, whose chairs Father Fyodor is hunting for.

"Sorcerers"

It is believed that Mikhail played his starring role in “The Sorcerers,” a New Year’s fairy tale that tells about the miracles that true love can create. The focus is on an unusual institute where the production of a magic wand is in full swing. The employees are ready to present their invention on December 31, but the enemies of the director of the institute are trying to prevent this. In this musical comedy, Svetin embodied the image of Foma Ostapovich Bryl - a little man who has his own personal tragedy. It is known that the master of disguise especially liked such roles.

Odessa is the city where “Sorcerers” was filmed. Mikhail Svetin later told reporters that director Konstantin Bromberg actively encouraged improvisation on the set. Many successful discoveries were born right during work; an atmosphere of relaxedness and freedom reigned. The audience liked the New Year's fairy tale, and many of the actors who starred in it, including Svetin, acquired star status.

In Odessa

Odessa is one of those cities in which Mikhail Semenovich Svetin loved to be. It is not surprising that many famous films with his participation were shot there, for example, “A Child by November”, “The Beloved Woman of Mechanic Gavrilov”, “Marshmallow in Chocolate”.

In 2006, it was in Odessa that the next film adaptation of Ilf and Petrov’s work “The Golden Calf” was filmed. In this film, Mikhail received the role of Pound, and the image of Ostap himself was embodied by Oleg Menshikov. It is known that Svetin regretted that he was not entrusted with playing Panikovsky, but still was not offended by the director.

Filmography

• 1974 — “Agony”
• 1975 — “Afonya”
• 1975 - “It can’t be!”
• 1976 — “12 chairs”
• 1980 — “Piggy Bank”
• 1981 - “The beloved woman of mechanic Gavrilov”
• 1981 — “Silva”
• 1982 — “The Trust That Broke”
• 1982 — “Sorcerers”
• 1985 — “Primordial Rus'”
• 1987 — “The Man from the Boulevard des Capucines”
• 1989 — “Don Cesar de Bazan”
• 1989 — “Bright Personality”
• 1989 — “Cyrano de Bergerac”
• 1989 - “Private Detective, or Operation Cooperation”
• 1991 — “The Sukhovo-Kobylin Case”
• 1993 — “About businessman Thomas”
• 2006 — “Golden Calf”
• 2014 — “Martha’s Line”

Dislike for TV series

Mikhail Svetin, whose films and biography are discussed in this article, did not like to act in long-running television projects. From time to time, the actor agreed to small roles in TV series, but still preferred feature films. This was largely due to the fact that he was not satisfied with the quality of the scripts that were offered to him. Also, the star of Russian cinema did not like television projects that hold the audience’s interest mainly with scenes of violence.

Nevertheless, the actor sometimes agreed to small roles in television projects. For example, in 2014, the last series with his participation were released - “Martha’s Line” and “Seasons of Love”.

Life behind the scenes

Was the talented comedian Svetin married? Yes, the actor lived for many years in marriage with Bronislava Proskurina, an actress of the Maly Drama Theater. Mikhail met his future wife during his stay in Kamyshin, when she was only seventeen. The production “A Reluctant Marriage” helped them get closer, in which Svetin embodied the image of a vile old man chasing the heroine Bronislava.

Svetin and Proskurina were married for about 50 years. Bronislava gave birth to the actor’s daughter, Svetlana, whom he doted on. Mikhail loved to say that only his daughter truly understands him, and also always admired Sveta’s sense of humor. His daughter currently lives in the United States, married to a programmer. The family had two children - girls Alexandra and Anna.

Family, early years

Mikhail Semyonovich was born on December 11, 1929. The family lived in Kyiv.
Mikhail's parents were Jewish by nationality. His father worked as a worker, his mother was a teacher in an orphanage. Before the revolution, the boy's grandfather ran a grocery store. During the war, the family lived in Tashkent. As a child, Misha showed a sense of humor and acting talent; he often made his classmates laugh. After the 8th grade, Svetin was expelled from school for hooliganism. He began his studies at a music school, where he mastered playing the oboe. In the army, Mikhail ended up in a military orchestra. After serving, he graduated from college and became a certified musician.