25 June 1937
В Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) was born Albert Filozov — theater and film actor. Mr. Banks from "Mary Poppins."
Acting can only teach you certain professional skills. You can only learn to live by yourself.
His father, a Polish emigrant, was arrested and executed as an “enemy of the people” when Albert was only a few months old.
I didn't apply to the Komsomol for a long time, considering myself unworthy. I only joined after Stalin died.
His mother worked as a projectionist and often took her son to work with her. He watched films from a projection booth. He attended a drama club and sang in a choir. His first role was as a bear in the fairytale opera "The Girl with Seven Tile."
As the heroine walked through the forest, a bear grabbed her. Then the girl's friends appeared and began singing, "Let her go, let her go, bear!" And I let her go. I loved that role.
After 8th grade, I got a job as a turner at a bearing factory and studied at evening school.
In 1955, at 18, I dropped in “for company” and passed the exams of the visiting commission of the Moscow Art Theatre School.
I was acutely aware of my provincialism. When I arrived [in Moscow], I was wearing a heavy, ankle-length beaver coat, in the Sverdlovsk style. The width of the trousers at the bottom was 32 centimeters, although in Moscow at that time they were already wearing drainpipe trousers. Looking around, I quickly narrowed the trousers and shortened the coat. And so it was with everything.
After graduating from the Moscow Art Theatre, at 23, he starred in a cameo role as a Komsomol organizer at a community work day in the film about the everyday life of the criminal investigation department, "Probationary Period."
He worked at the Stanislavsky Drama Theatre in Moscow, but “only played replacements.”
Yevgeny Leonov had just started acting a lot, and I was forced to perform his repertoire. Can you imagine what it was like to go out to an audience that had come "to see Leonov"?
In 1961, he was drafted into the army and served in a sapper battalion. He returned to the stage in 1963.
He didn't get his first leading role until he was 35, in Residence Permit (1972). His character is a young psychoanalyst who, while on holiday, remains abroad but can't find his place. The lead role was supposed to be played by Vysotsky, but his candidacy was rejected by the KGB.
The assistant director was visiting theaters, looking for an actor "with an untrustworthy appearance." She saw my portrait in the lobby, tracked me down, and invited me to audition. Right from the door, the directors looked at each other and said in unison, "This one can do it."
Since then, he has starred in over a hundred films. His most famous are Tehran-43, You Never Dreamed of It, Red, Honest, in Love, The Man from Boulevard des Capucines, Night Fun, Mary Poppins, Goodbye!, and In August '44.
- Dad, you promised to tell us what money is made of!
- Let your mother tell you where they disappear to.
(Mary Poppins, Goodbye!)
His characters are modest, shy, even plain, often wimps and losers. He was somewhat similar to his heroes in real life. His aloofness, isolation, and melancholy earned him the nickname "the man in the case" in the acting community.
I always understood that with my appearance I had no place in the performing arts.
I didn't know the bosses and never went into their offices.
He taught at VGIK and worked extensively on theatre stages.
In the last years of his life, he battled cancer. He begged for performances not to be cancelled—he never missed a single performance in his entire life. He performed even with a high fever and in a cast.
He made his final public appearance on March 27, 2016, International Theatre Day. He died two weeks later at the age of 78.
Guys, cut the crap! Episode two is coming!
(The Man from Boulevard des Capucines)