April 11, 1954
Born in Moscow Valery Garkalin — a theater and film actor. A "star" of the 1990s, he played Associate Professor Dezhkin in "White Clothes" and the twin brothers in "Shirley-Myrli."
Comedy is a complicated business. Laughter is an individual feeling.
In films I'm mostly a charming scoundrel.
His father managed a garage workshop, and his mother worked as a cafeteria cashier. They wanted their son to pursue a technical career, but he dreamed of the stage.
I don’t remember the moment when I said I would be an artist: I was born with this consciousness
After school, I worked as a mechanic at a factory for a year, then served in the army. Upon returning, I enrolled in the Gnessin Academy's puppetry department. To Sergei Obraztsov. Theatrical role: Gray in Scarlet Sails.
After graduation, he and his classmates created the traveling theater "People and Puppets" at the Kemerovo Philharmonic and toured the Soviet Union with it. He mastered facial expressions, gestures, and movement.
At 30, he transferred to the Central Puppet Theater under Sergei Obraztsov. He also performed at the Satire Theater. He excelled in a wide range of genres—classics, musicals, and avant-garde productions. His signature role was Petruchio in Shakespeare's comedy "The Taming of the Shrew." Other roles included Khlestakov, Hamlet, Bunin, Shakespeare, Mozart, Pontius Pilate, and the Master.
At 35, he had his first leading role in a film: the gambler and sharper "Grek" in the crime melodrama Sergei Bodrov Sr. "Cheating." To make the filming more realistic, I took lessons from professional card sharpers, but I never learned how to cheat.
Despite detailed instructions, I did everything blindly, without understanding the essence at all.
At 38 he withdrew from Zhanna Epple и Lyudmila Gurchenko in film Leonid Belozorovich "White Clothes." Critics noted that Garkalin's role as a biologist in the story of the confrontation between real science and "Lysenkoism" was one of the best in his career.
These, clothed in white robes, who are they and where did they come from? They came out of great tribulation.
(epigraph to the novel "White Clothes" by V. Dudintsev)
The world of biologists during the totalitarian era is presented by the authors as a vivid reflection of the entire life of that time, where hostile Western influences and violations of the “norms of party life” were constantly fought, and angry anonymous letters were written “to the top.” But the film appeared on television when the wave of general revelations and analysis of “blank spots” in history had already begun to subside, so it did not become the cinematic sensation of the year.
(film scholar Alexander Fedorov)
In the midst of the 1990s, he acted in many films and became famous as a comedic actor.
As they say, it rolled along
Her most "star" film role was in 1995 - in the comedy Vladimir Menshov "Shirley-Myrli," in which Garkalin played twin brothers (Krolikov, Shniperson, Almazov, and Krolikou). The doubles were filmed in a single shot using an old technique—on a single piece of film, with sections of the frame being covered one by one.
I am ready to share your grief, Mom... But point by point
Cabbage, of course, is a good thing, but you need to keep meat snacks in the house!
Many auditioned for the role of the twins, even the director himself. At the Kinoshock festival, 41-year-old Garkalin won the award for Best Actor.
Auntie! How many babies were there in total? And where did you put us?
In 1997, he appeared in the role of the bandit-traitor Kolya Kryshkin in the New Year's melodrama "Poor Sasha" - with Glagoleva и Zbruev.
He starred in the television series “Detective Dubrovsky’s File,” “My Fair Nanny,” the comedy “Lily of the Valley,” and the fairy tale film Eldara Ryazanova "Andersen. Life without Love" and others.
It's common practice in Russian cinema to take a new actor, squeeze him to the max, and then dump him and move on to the next victim. That's why the same faces appear on screen.
Professor at GITIS, teacher in the Variety Arts Department. He directed the Variety Arts Faculty's workshop.
In 2008, while touring in Lithuania, he suffered a heart attack, and a few months later, he had a second one.
In 2014, together with other figures from science and culture, he protested against the policies of the Russian government in Ukraine and Crimea.
He died in 2021 in Moscow, at 67, after contracting coronavirus.
I'd like to advise you not to get too caught up in what you do, but to reserve the right to live. Life itself isn't about what you do; it's just an activity. I advise you to love life.
