Childhood and youth
Valery Alekseevich Afanasyev is a native Muscovite, born in the capital in August 1949. The family of the future artist survived the difficult war years. Father Alexey Vasilyevich served at the front as an officer in the Red Army; he was a military man. Valery Alekseevich’s mother, who sang in the choir named after M. Pyatnitsky, was related to art. Thanks to Antonina Maksimovna, sons Valery and Oleg became actors.
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As a child, Valery was fond of music, attended the rhythmic gymnastics section, and in high school he enrolled in the theater studio of the ZIL House of Culture. After school, the guy planned to master oceanology, although his parents saw their son as a chemist or doctor.
However, the graduate took the documents to the Shchukin School, where in 1966 there was an incredible competition - 3 thousand people per place. Afanasyev managed to pass the entrance examination and became a student in the workshop of Marianna Ter-Zakharova.
Price of experience
– Outwardly, you give the impression of a person without an acting touch... How did you manage to become an actor?
– Well, actually, I hate everything about acting on the face and in behavior. Although, naturally, after more than 40 years in the profession, I probably have some kind of touch... But how did it work out? Mom and dad are villagers. Father is from near Kaluga, mother is from near Moscow, Podolsk region. Mom sang well, she was even accepted into Pyatnitsky’s choir. But there was war, there was no time for choirs!.. My eldest brother, Oleg Afanasyev, who, unfortunately, is no longer alive, was the first in our family to become an actor. He is 10 years older than me.
Have I thought about acting? No, I'll be honest. I didn’t think about it until the 10th grade, although I loved the theater! But it was hidden. I was embarrassed to talk about it. I already got burned once when I wanted to join a music club for clarinet. I went out into the yard with an application for admission in my pocket, and the boys pulled it out from me, read my secret and began to mock me. Well, we got into a fight, and I didn’t go to the club. His musical career was over. It didn’t happen to me with music. I was shy. But now I’m so happy that my grandson Vaska goes to music school to study accordion and gets B’s and A’s in solfeggio! What if things work out for him?
And acting, apparently, had matured in me to some certain limit, so it was hidden. I played sports. Mainly in gymnastics, although I don’t have a gymnastic figure at all - I’m too big-boned and large. But I worked with such frenzy! I actually wanted to become a world champion! And already internally he was. Played at being a gymnast. When there was no one at home, I lost all the exercises - on the pommel horse, on the rings, on the horizontal bar, on the uneven bars...
– Have you found playing sports useful in your life?
– Gymnastics gave me good coordination. Somehow my floor exercises worked best – they have more artistry. And when I came out, I stood up so beautifully, even the coach, who at such moments for some reason called me not Valery, but Valerian, said: “Here, an artist!” And then there was an epiphany! I began to try myself - I went to the People's Theater-Studio DK ZIL. And after the 10th grade I entered the Shchukin School. It was generally very difficult to get there, and that year – 1966 – they also conducted a school experiment, and the 10th and 11th grades graduated from school together.
The influx into universities was terrible! In Shchukinsky the competition had almost 3 thousand people per place! I'm lucky. I also found old Vakhtangovites! They conveyed to us some kind of personal relationship to the theater. Even if these were stories, even if they were a little legendary Stanislavsky, Vakhtangov, but this is a special attitude towards the theater! Nowadays young people have a different attitude towards all this. I'm not complaining about this.
What can I say - they are different, you can’t change them. Nowadays, students strive to finish theater as quickly as possible, get into a TV series as soon as possible, slow down and “clip off coupons from this.” And then, after a couple of years, they are no longer visible. Young actors are now much less interested in theater. And I am, first of all, a theater person. For me, the theater is home. It is very important. And then theater is good training. You can't train yourself on the series.
Theater
In 1970, Valery became a certified artist and immediately joined the troupe of the Theater. N. Gogol, where he served for about 20 years. The actor was accepted into the Theater in the South-West in 1990. Theatergoers enjoyed going “to see Afanasyev” when he played star roles in the comedies and tragedies “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Marriage,” “The Master and Margarita” and “The Lower Depths.”
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And then the audience saw their favorite performer on the stage of the Theater. K. Stanislavsky. Among the roles in which the artist shone on this stage are Bunsch and Ivan the Terrible in the play “Ivan Vasilyevich.”
Valery Afanasyev still gives preference to the theater over the film set. Since 2020, the artist’s creative biography has continued on the stage of the Maly Theater.
New theater
The artist entered the theater in the South-West in 1990. Despite the fact that the troupe had already been formed, Afanasyev managed to find his own corner in it and become an indispensable artist. His work in the new theater began with his acquaintance with Valery Belyakovich. The famous director staged several performances in Yugo-Zapadny, which received stunning success. Valery decided to follow the example of his desperate friend and followed him to a new place of work.
The decision to radically change his life became fateful and winning for Afanasyev. At the Theater in the South-West, the artist was transformed, and his talent was fully revealed. Valery Alekseevich, with his beautiful, soulful voice, discovered his ability to captivate the audience, causing trembling delight in them. And his outwardly calm and imperturbable appearance, which confuses the viewer at the first meeting with the actor, creates an unsurpassed contrast on the big stage when the artist begins to play like a professional in drama and deep irony.
Valery Alekseevich Afanasyev
It was thanks to regular performances on stage at the Theater in the South-West that Valery Alekseevich Afanasyev finally achieved unprecedented heights. On April 18, 1990, he was awarded the Honored Artist of the RSFSR prize.
From that moment on, the actor no longer doubted his choice, because during his 20 years of service at the Gogol Center, Afanasyev did not achieve even a small fraction of what he achieved in the theater that was new to him. And in 2010, the artist received the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, for making a huge contribution to the culture of Russia.
Valery Afanasyev devoted 11 years of his life to theater in the South-West, deciding on new changes in 2011. It was then that he moved to the Moscow Drama Theater. K.S. Stanislavsky, where he currently works.
Movies
Valery Afanasyev's film debut took place in 1974. The actor was entrusted with an episode in the mini-series “Conscience” by Yuri Kavtaradze. This tiny role was followed by others, and each new one turned out to be larger than the previous one. The artist most liked acting in dramatic and detective films. The best films of “early Afanasyev” are still interesting to watch today.
Among these films are real masterpieces of Soviet cinema - “Mikhailo Lomonosov”, “Day Train”, “Blackmailer”, “Midshipmen, Forward!”, “Shirley Myrli” and others.
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Valery Afanasyev and Evgenia Rozanova
The artist is known to a wide audience for his roles in the TV series “The Files of Detective Dubrovsky” and “Cherkizona. Disposable People”, melodrama “Guardian Angel”, comedy “Kitchen in Paris”.
In 2020, Valery Afanasyev took a course for the first time at the capital's MITI (Moscow Institute of Theater Arts). Among the projects in recent years in which Valery Afanasyev appeared, viewers especially loved the films “Orlova and Alexandrov” and the 6th season of “The Eighties.”
The actor presented the main character on screen in the melodrama “Threads of Fate,” which was released in 2020. Work soon followed in the TV series “Temptation” and “Double Continuous”, and in 2017 Valery Alekseevich starred in the comedies “Kitchen. The Last Battle" and the 2nd season of "Hotel Eleon".
Maria Valerievna Aronova actress
When the reporters plucked up courage and directly asked the actor whether he and the artist really had a relationship, he did not deny it. “Yes, Maria Aronova and I had an affair, I don’t hide it. At that time, Masha’s little son Vladik was growing up, and I took him to kindergarten. We had a great relationship. Why didn't he marry her? There simply cannot be two geniuses in the same den. She's a great actress, but I'm no worse! We broke up. And this story, our love, could not be repeated,” Eg.RU quotes Afanasyev.
Let us note that Aronova herself spoke more than once in interviews about how in the mid-90s, after breaking up with her first husband, from whom she gave birth to a son, she fell passionately in love with an actor who was older than her, married and raising sons. After four months of a crazy romance, Maria and her lover began to live together when he told his wife about his hobby and left the family.
However, earlier Maria made a vow to herself not to destroy families. But the passion was so strong. that she could not restrain herself, which is why, according to the actress, she later paid. “I betrayed my own principles. If you go into temptation, loving so much that you become a complete fool, and it is clear to everyone that love deprives the last of your mind, if everyone around you tells you: “He is not a match for you,” and you are not even able to listen, if you love so much, that even if you cut yourself, you cannot resist the desire to go to bed with your loved one, if you obey only blind passion, take off and no longer live here - then any sin can be justified. But if you are able to understand that you are committing meanness, but you do it anyway, then there will certainly be retribution...” said Aronova.
The happiness of Maria and Valery did not last long. After some time, Afanasyev returned to the family, and Aronova herself was robbed, leaving her without a large fee, which she counted on to feed her son for several months. After some time, the actress was diagnosed with a severe form of hepatitis. However, Maria Aronova found her happiness with the head of the transport department at the Vakhtangov Theater, Evgeny Fomin.
Personal life
The artist did not immediately find family happiness. The personal life of Valery Afanasyev consists of 4 marriages. The first one turned out to be a student. The actor lived with Lilya, who was studying to be a translator, for a year and a half. The marriage with assistant director Evgenia turned out to be longer - 6 years. In this union, the first-born Vladimir was born.
One day Afanasyev went to visit friends at the N. Gogol Theater and met a girl, Anya. The actor suddenly realized that before this, such a feeling as love was unknown to him. Valery lived in a happy marriage for 40 years with Anna, who was 6 years younger than him and worked as a props maker in the theater. Two sons were born into the family.
Anya turned out to be the wife that the explosive and temperamental actor needed. The woman knew how to balance and “extinguish” her husband’s outbursts of emotion. Anna Afanasyeva passed away at the end of 2020. Her death was due to complications of hypertension. The day before, the couple were still making plans for the New Year; there were no signs of trouble.
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Afanasyev took this loss seriously. Fortunately, Valery Alekseevich has children and five grandchildren, and also a job that makes him live and create.
Soon after the death of his third wife, Afanasyev’s muse became the girl Natalya, who also works in the theater. Despite the fact that the chosen one is 40 years younger than the actor, Valery’s friends call them a harmonious couple, especially since the artist looks younger than his age for his age. With a height of 185 cm, his weight does not exceed 105 kg.
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At first they lived in a civil marriage, the actor was not ready to lead his chosen one down the aisle again. According to the performer’s friends, he spent a lot of time at Anna’s grave, from whom he asked permission to marry again. In the fall of 2020, the lovers visited the registry office. The wedding ceremony took place in secret.
Valery is open to communication with the press and television; interviews with the actor regularly appear on the pages of glossy magazines. Grateful viewers never cease to generously shower their favorite actor with attention; Afanasyev’s photos appear on Instagram in fan accounts.
Biography
Valery Afanasyev was born and raised in an ordinary Moscow family. His father was a military man, and his mother sang in the choir named after M. Pyatnitsky. Valery inherited good hearing from his mother. As a child, he attended music school, but was not a diligent student. I never finished my studies, although I later regretted it very much. But he excelled in sports - he did gymnastics and dreamed of the highest awards. However, his stocky physique prevented him from achieving great heights in sports.
During his school years, Afanasyev enjoyed participating in amateur performances and felt comfortable on stage. Having received a matriculation certificate, I decided to enter the theater school. The parents did not dissuade their son, despite the fact that his mother predicted a future for him as a military medic, and his father saw Valera as a chemist.
Later, the artist recalled: “Probably God paid attention to me and said: “You will be an actor!” I started going to performances and realized that I fell madly in love with the atmosphere, which always attracted me to it. I entered the famous ZIL studio at the People’s Theater, which produced many wonderful actors - from Vasily Lanovoy to Yuri Bogatyrev.”
Then Valery Afanasyev successfully completed Marianna Ter-Zakharova’s course at the acting department of the Higher Theater School in 1970. B.V. Shchukina.
Valery Afanasyev now
The artist’s filmography never ceases to be replenished with new projects. Afanasyev is still in service. He appears on the theater stage and acts in films, writes poetry and sings beautifully, accompanying himself on the guitar.
In 2020, the performer appeared in the project “Between Us Girls. Continuation”, where he appeared on the screen together with Yulia Menshova, Galina Petrova, Natalya Skomorokhova. In the detective drama "Embassy" Valery Alekseevich played the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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Valery Afanasyev in 2020
In 2020, with the participation of Afanasyev, the series “Nine Lives” was released, where such Russian film stars as Alexander Samoilenko, Zoya Berber, Inga Oboldina, Evgenia Dobrovolskaya played.
Valery Afanasyev also starred in the biographical film “Lev Yashin. The goalkeeper of my dreams”, the detective story “Revenge”, the melodrama “Hidden Motives”.
Afanasyev, Valery Alekseevich
Born on August 20, 1949 in Moscow in the family of Alexei Vasilyevich and Antonina Maksimovna Afanasyev. His father was a military man.
In the mid-1960s. Valery Afanasyev attended classes at the theater studio of the ZIL Palace of Culture. In 1970 he graduated from the acting department of the Theater School. B.V. Shchukin (now the Boris Shchukin Theater Institute at the State Academic Theater named after Evgeniy Vakhtangov). Graduate of the course of Professor Marianna Ter-Zakharova.
In 1970-1990 served at the Moscow Drama Theater. N.V. Gogol. He performed roles in the plays: “Riding a Dolphin” based on the work of Leonid Zhukhovitsky, “The Conspiracy of the Empress” based on the play by Alexei Tolstoy and Pavel Shchegolev, “The Shore” based on the work by Yuri Bondarev, “Profitable Place” based on the play by Alexander Ostrovsky, “The Soldier’s Widow” based on the work Nikolai Ankilov, “Home” based on the novel by Fyodor Abramov. In 1990-2011 Valery Afanasyev was a member of the acting troupe of the Theater in the South-West (Moscow). He was involved in the productions of: “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet” based on the tragedies of William Shakespeare, “At the Lower Depths” based on the play by Maxim Gorky, “The Master and Margarita” based on the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, “Three Sisters” and “The Seagull” based on the works of Anton Chekhov , “The Inspector General” based on the comedy by Nikolai Gogol. In 2011-2017 - actor of the Stanislavsky Electrotheater (until 2020 - Moscow Drama Theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky). He performed roles in the plays: “Ivan Vasilyevich” based on the play by Mikhail Bulgakov, “Fools” based on the work of Neil Simon, “Six Characters in Search of the Author” based on the play by Luigi Pirandello, “The Steadfast Principle” based on the works of Pedro Calderon “The Steadfast Prince” and Alexander Pushkin “ Feast in Time of Plague". From 2020 to present V. Valery Afanasyev is a member of the acting troupe of the State Academic Maly Theater of Russia. Involved in productions: “Marriage” based on the comedy by Nikolai Gogol, “Tsar Boris” based on the tragedy by Alexei Tolstoy, “Simplicity is enough for every wise man” based on the play by Alexander Ostrovsky, “Troubles. 1609-1611." based on the work of Vladimir Medinsky and “Always Call Dolly!” based on Thornton Wilder's comedy Beware the Matchmaker! Valery Afanasyev is known as a film actor. His debut was the role of Vasily Vasilyevich in the drama “The Bright River Vzdvizhenka” (1971, director Yuri Igorev). Among the most famous works: Foma in the multi-part television film “Mikhailo Lomonosov” (1984-1986, Alexander Proshkin), geologist Anatoly Ivanov in the comedy “Shirley-Myrli” (1995, Vladimir Menshov), life safety teacher Pyotr Kalitin in the series “Simple Truths” ( 1999-2003, Vadim Shmelev and others), General Gennady Kolov in the series “Citizen Chief” (2001, Nikolay Dostal), Valentin Georgievich in the series “Departing Nature” (2014, Dmitry Iosifov). The latest role to date is Mikhalych in the melodramatic series “Nine Lives” (2019, directed by David Tkebuchava). In total, Valery Afanasyev starred in more than 170 films and TV series.
Since 2020, he has been the head of a workshop at the Institute of Theater Arts (Moscow), and is a member of the academic council. Professor.
People's Artist of the Russian Federation (2005).
Awarded the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (2010). Laureate of the Russian Government Prize in the field of culture for 2020.
In 2009, he published a collection of stories and poems “Follow the Past...”.
Widower. His wife, Anna, died in 2020. From her marriage are sons Konstantin and Egor. From a previous marriage - son Vladimir. The elder brother is Honored Artist of the RSFSR Oleg Afanasyev (1939-2002).
Filmography
- 1974 — “Walking through torment”
- 1986 — “Mikhailo Lomonosov”
- 1987 - “Midshipmen, forward!”
- 1989 — “Dark nights in the city of Sochi”
- 1995 — “Shirley Myrli”
- 1996 — “Love in Russian 2”
- 1999 — “Family Secrets”
- 1999-2003 - “Simple Truths”
- 2002 — “Russians in the City of Angels”
- 2008—2010 — “Margosha”
- 2010 — “Operation Gorgon”
- 2014 — “Kitchen in Paris”
- 2017 — “Kitchen. Last fight"
- 2017 — “Temptation”
- 2018 – “Embassy”
- 2019 – “Nine Lives”
