29 Dec 1993
A 63-year-old man died in Yerevan. Frunzik Mkrtchyan. Uncle Jabrail from "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style," Rubik-jan from "Mimino." A comedic actor with dramatic talent and a very sad fate.
Funny and sad are very closely intertwined in life.
Born in 1930 in Armenian Leninakan (Gyumri). Had two names: Mher ("solar") and Frunze, in honor of the hero of the Civil War.
My parents grew up in an orphanage in 1915, during the Armenian Genocide, when they were young, they were picked up on the road by other refugees and transported from Turkey в Armenia They worked at a textile factory. For stealing five meters of fabric, the father was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. The mother was left with four children. Frunzik, a thin boy with a distinctive profile, was nicknamed "The Nose" by his neighbors.
He dropped out of school at 13. During the war, he worked as a shoemaker's apprentice, a puppeteer, and a tailor. He then became an assistant projectionist at a textile factory club. After seeing a local theater production, he decided to become an actor.
My professional stage debut was in Hamlet, when I stepped in as an emergency replacement for an ill actor in a very minor, almost mime role. And when I took the stage without rehearsal, my face caused such a sensation that the entire performance nearly fell apart—one of the actors couldn't resist making a line that was far from Shakespearean, eliciting a Homeric but hearty laugh.
From the age of 17, he played in the Leninakan Theater troupe. At 21, he was accepted into the Yerevan Art and Theater Institute on his first try, thanks to his good looks.
I didn't think about whether I was handsome or not. I wanted to be an actor...
"Has this guy ever looked at himself in the mirror?" the very kind and sweet actress said sympathetically. Perhaps something tragic was reflected on "my high brow," and I was accepted. So, so to speak, a tragicomedy led to the fulfillment of a dream.
At 26 he became an actor at the Armenian Theatre named after Sundukyan. He acted in film episodes.
One day I ran into someone in the corridor of Mosfilm Georgy Danelia, And he cast him in his film "33" to play a professor. The film only ran for a couple of weeks—one scene was seen as a parody of a cosmonaut meeting, and Daneliya refused to cut it. But the actor and director's relationship developed further in the films "Don't Grieve!" and "Mimino."
— Do you want some candy?
- Want!
- And no
Valiko-jan, I'll tell you something smart, but don't be offended!
Danelia's films always have a mixture of the funny and the sad, there is always something deep for the soul
Mega-popularity came at 36 – after the role of Dzhabrail, the driver "Comrade Saa... ah, what a groom", in "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style." There's a story that when Mkrtchyan lost his passport, people would sell him plane tickets and book hotels for him even without it. And representatives of the Armenian diaspora anywhere (well, almost) in the world offered to help with any issues.
Once, the hospitality of his fellow countrymen almost ruined the filming of an episode of "Mimino." Before a dance in the Rossiya Hotel restaurant, his new acquaintances pumped up the crew—and Rubik-jan botched the splits scene (he had to use his teeth to pick up a handkerchief from the floor after sitting down). The film included a version where Kikabidze, who had grabbed the handkerchief, saves the situation. Danelia was furious: it was either the movie or alcohol. A saddened Mkrtchyan declared:
I realized why the world is ruled by mediocrities. They don't drink and start working on their careers early in the morning.
His personal life turned out tragically. His second wife Donars (Jabrail's film wife), with whom he lived for 15 years and had two children, developed a mental disorder. Later, his son was diagnosed with the same disorder. Both ended their days in hospitals. The daughter died at 29 from a blood clot.
You know, there have long been two traditional clown masks in the circus: the jolly Red Clown and the sad White Clown. So, I'm probably the White Clown. And, contrary to what many people think, I consider myself a tragic actor, not a comedian.
He died of a heart attack. Due to the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan had no electricity or public transportation at the time, but thousands of people attended the actor's funeral.
My hero is a man of the people, charged with optimism... [These are] Adult children, asking life endless questions and receiving the most incredible answers from it.
