April 28, 1994
Passed away Oleg Borisov. Theater and film actor.
If you think about it, how many times in my life have I died an unnatural death? How many lives have I lived—it sounds trite, right? And what's interesting is: when I die, when I really die, some of my heroes, maybe not my favorites, will still live on.
Born in 1929 Ivanovo region. His father was the director of an agricultural institute, and his mother, half German and half Romanian, was an agronomist. His real name Albert.
At that time, the Belgian Prince Albert was visiting Moscow. Everything was as expected, on an official visit—handsome, not bow-legged. My mother even named me after him... I spent a long time looking for his traces—I went to London, stood at the Royal Albert Hall... But everything got completely mixed up on the day my parents picked me up from the maternity hospital. They brought me home—bam! And there it was, a girl! How could this be? My mother knew for sure she gave birth to a boy! She went back to the maternity hospital and explained: so-and-so, where is your proletarian conscience, comrades?.. All this happened in 29. This mark is on my entire generation: they mixed us up at birth! But once we were born, there was no escape, we had to live
In 1933, a brother was born Leo — named after Tolstoy, he also became an actor (Antibiotic from "Gangster Petersburg").
Soon moved to Yaroslavl region. The mother enrolled in an amateur performance group and took the boys to rehearsals – both fell in love with the theatre from childhood.
Albert was a wild child. One day, he and a friend were playing a game of dispossession and stole a neighbor's moonshine still, drank the stolen liquid along the way, and fell asleep right there in a ravine. The neighbor found him and beat him up, saying he should have "snatched the cucumbers."
He started school in 1937. He excelled in amateur performances, playing leading roles in school plays. However, he struggled with mathematics and physics.
A physicist named Zayats hated me. Fiercely. In his subject, I was the worst performer. He'd burst into class like a firecracker. Before we'd even get up to greet him, he'd shout from the doorway, "Borisov, two!" I'd ask, "For what?" And he'd say, "Two!" So loudly, my tonsils would nearly pop out.
In 1947, after finishing school, I went to Moscow with friends to enroll in the Japanese department of the Institute of Oriental Studies. But I found a copy of Stanislavsky's Conversations, forgotten on a bench. And I changed my mind.
I was deeply impressed by the exercise where a mute had to declare his love to a woman, and how a hideous creaking sound had to appear instead of a charming voice. I trained this creaking sound well and began pestering everyone with it.
Entrance exams for theater schools were still underway, and Borisov enrolled at the Moscow Art Theatre School. His classmates came up with a stage name for him. Oleg.
They kept us in line. Our master, Gerasimov, patiently stripped away the artificial, the lifeless, and insisted that we do everything without falsehood.
After graduation, I expected to be accepted to the Moscow Art Theatre. But they assigned me to Kiev, to the Lesya Ukrainka Theatre. I considered meeting my wife to be the greatest gift of fate during my 13 years there. Alla Latynskaya lived together all their lives.
Then he served in the Bolshoi Drama Theatre for almost 20 years. Georgy Tovstonogov He appreciated the actor, but admitted that working with him was "hell," as Borisov was known for his meticulousness. Colleagues even nicknamed him "the meticulous one."
In all cases, the actor works as a lawyer, and his task is to cleanse any image from historical cliches and dust.
From 1983 to 1990 he worked at the Moscow Art Theatre, after the division of the theatre he remained with Oleg Efremov.
He began acting in films in the mid-1950s. He gained fame in the 1960s after starring in the comedies "Chasing Two Hares" and "Give Me the Complaint Book." He starred in nearly 80 films, including "The Collapse of Engineer Garin," "The Marriage," "The Prince and the Pauper," and "Treasure Island."
He performed on the radio as a reader; his voice can be heard in dozens of radio shows.
He spent the last 16 years of his life seriously ill with a form of leukemia. He regularly received blood transfusions, but never complained about his illness to anyone. He passed away at 64.
He left behind diaries he kept for 20 years. And many vivid images.
Don't think I'm writing this for anyone to read. Nonsense. I just want to talk to someone. Let it be on paper.
