4 June 1993
Georgy Millyar, the most impeccable Baba Yaga and other evil spirit of Soviet cinema, has passed away.
Every Koschei thinks he is immortal
He was born in 1903 to Franz de Milieu, a French engineer who came to Russia to work. His father died when he was not yet three years old. Thanks to his mother, the daughter of an Irkutsk gold miner, the boy enjoyed a comfortable childhood.
A legend is gossip raised to the level of an epic.
I first applied makeup to my face at age seven, wanting to create the image of Mephistopheles. My family laughed, not panicked. I was terribly disappointed.
An actor is a graveyard of unplayed images
After the revolution, the family was left penniless and propertyless. He later changed his surname to conceal his aristocratic roots.
The Gospel teaches us to love our enemies when our friends have lost our trust.
Millyar worked as a prop master at a Gelendzhik theater, but one day he filled in for an ill actor. He became one of the leading actors and moved to Moscow. He dreamed of a career in film. But he failed his first audition for director Rowe due to nervousness.
Youth. Gossip replaces the press, fame, and advertising.
In 1938, Rowe offered him the role of Tsar Pea. Millar did so—as an evil fool dressed in royal robes. The film was a success. Rowe was immediately commissioned to direct a new fairy tale. A long-standing friendship developed between the director and the actor.
Youth. There's no general who wouldn't want to become a soldier.
Millyar became Baba Yaga in 1939. Various actresses auditioned for the role of the witch in the film "Vasilisa the Beautiful," including Ranevskaya. But Rowe was dissatisfied. Millyar explained:
This isn't a woman's role. Tell me, what actress would allow herself to be made so ugly on screen? I'll put up with it.
The image was believable—children on the set ran away in terror. And Millar, in his own words, became "the official representative of evil spirits on screen." He received the title of People's Artist only in 1988—many believed it was due to his frosty relationship with the authorities.
Subordination - never remind an elephant that it was made out of a fly (quotes from Millar's Alphabet)
