27 1899 October, the
An actor was born Mikhail Zharov. The bandit "Zhigan", the courtier Menshikov, the clerk Dymba, the oprichnik Skuratov and the village police officer Aniskina.
I'm lucky. When I meet strangers on the street, I see their eyes warm up, the wrinkles around their mouths smooth out, and the joyful creases around their eyes suddenly gather. For me, bringing joy to people is the highest reward.
He was born in Moscow. His father was a foundling—he was found outside an orphanage with a note saying, "Call him Ivan." His surname, "Zharov," was given to him by his governess. When he grew up, he became a printer. His mother, a former serf from the Smolensk region, was orphaned early and left for Moscow, where she worked as a laundress. She and Zharov Sr. had a son and three daughters.
Misha adored cinema. At 16, after working for a couple of years as a typesetter's apprentice in a printing house, he got a job as an administrator in the Opera Theatre troupe. Sergei Zimin. There I first went on stage as an extra. I watched the game. Feodor Chaliapin As Mephistopheles. There's a story that once, while practicing his acting, he hid backstage and carefully imitated the singer's facial expressions. Chaliapin thought the guy was making faces at him. He had to explain himself.
That same year, Misha made his film debut in a cameo role as an oprichnik in the film Ivanova-Gaya "Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible" (a film adaptation of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Maid of Pskov"). This same "film" also marked Chaliapin's film debut.
"Students, all who can ride, please go to the makeup artists and have a beard applied. We need mounted oprichniks for Ivan the Terrible's retinue."
Putting on a beard and riding a horse, accompanying Fyodor Ivanovich—that was something I dreamed about at night… And so I, a city boy who had never ridden a horse, or even taken a cab, except perhaps by hanging on to the back of a droshky, boldly stepped forward and headed toward the makeup artists to have my beard applied… My legs trembled constantly with excitement, and, unaware of the consequences, I spurred on the horse's flanks. The horse bolted, I grabbed its mane with my hands, leaned toward its neck, and found myself whispering, "Whoa…" Feeling out of control, the clever horse suddenly stopped and walked slowly back to the set. The delighted assistant director exclaimed:
— Bravo, well done! Gentlemen, don't be shy! Everyone, jump like that!
This is how I first became acquainted with filming and understood the wisdom of the proverb: “Courage takes cities.”
In 1918, he began studying at the studio of the Theater of the Artistic and Educational Union of Workers' Organizations. Over the next 20 years, he worked as an actor in a dozen different theaters, working with Fyodor Komissarzhevsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Tairov. In 1938, he transferred to the Maly Theater, where he served until the end of his life. The actor could be "hilariously funny and passionate." But he could also portray psychologically complex characters.
It's often said that cinema will kill theater. I don't think that's serious. Nothing can kill a living person, an artist who breathes the same breath as the audience.
In film, from the mid-1920s onward, he was considered an unrivaled master of the episodic style. He found expressive qualities in each of his characters, all of whom were confident and full of life. It happened that when a film didn't have a role suitable for him, directors would create one. For example, in a comedy Yakov Protazanov "Don Diego and Pelageya" (the only film in which he starred) Osip Brik), a character appeared - "a member of the society for the study of village life" named Mikhail Zharov.
All-Union fame came in the 1930s. He starred in Kozintseva и Trauberg, Petrov и Annensky.
Petrov "produced" him for the role of Menshikov in "Peter the Great" Alexey Tolstoy. Even though Zharov had failed his audition—his round face looked out of place in a French wig with curls. They decided to give Zharov the script and task him with developing the character.
The makeup search began. I thought—Menshikov obviously loved Peter very much. And he tried to imitate him in everything. And they made me a wig just like Peter's. And the same mustache, like a cat's. Only everything was younger and more playful.
In total, he appeared in over 60 films. Over the years, his characters became calmer and wiser. His final film character is the village police officer Aniskina.
He died in 1981, at the age of 82.
