"If I stop moving, my life will be gone." How Valery Garkalin lived

People's Artist of RUSSIA Valery Garkalin, who played dozens of roles in cinema and theater, died at the age of 67. In early October, he was hospitalized with covid-19Photo: from the personal archive Valery Garkalin was born on April 11, 1954 in Moscow. He called himself a Muscovite in the first generation. His mother, Valentina Polyanskaya (nee), came to the capital from MINSK and worked as a cashier in a canteen, his father, Boris Garkalin, originally from Tambov, worked in a car repair shop Photo:

After graduating from high school in 1971, Garkalin tried to enter acting universities in Moscow, but without success. Then he went to work as a mechanic at the plant of instrumentation in Fryazino, near Moscow, and in 1972 he went into the army.

Photo: from personal archive

After serving two years, Garkalin entered the faculty of puppet art of the Musical College. Gnesins. He studied under directors Leonid Khait and Sergei Obraztsov. After graduating from Gnesinka in 1978, Garkalin, together with other graduates, created the traveling theater "People and Dolls" at the Kemerovo Philharmonic. Khait and Obraztsov became its leaders. The theater was popular, in the 1970s-1980s it traveled all over the USSR

Photo: from the personal archive “I was a mediocre puppeteer, I had to leave this genre. To work behind the scenes, you need to be truly dedicated. Well, or absolutely brutally treat dolls, like me, ”recalled Garkalin.

Valery Garkalin and actor Armen Dzhigarkhanyan (right)

According to Garkalin, he was infected with a terrible "bacillus called the Drama Theater", already working in the "People and Dolls" group. In addition to performances where it was necessary to interact with the doll, Garkalin tried on "live" roles, playing characters from the works of Vasily Shukshin, Slavomir Mrozhek. “This muck (dramatic theater. -) entered me even then, it developed, formed and eventually pushed me out of the screen,” the actor ironically

Valery Garkalin and actor Andrei Panin (right) during the premiere of the play "Winter" based on the play by playwright and writer Yevgeny Grishkovets

In 1988, Garkalin graduated from the Faculty of Variety and Mass Performances of GITIS and from the same year performed on the stage of the Moscow Academic Satire Theater for 13 years. There he played Khlestakov (“The Inspector General” by Nikolai Gogol), Petruchio (“The Taming of the Shrew” based on a play by William Shakespeare), Picham (“The Threepenny Opera” based on a play by Bertolt Brecht), Kurolespov (“Hot Heart” based on a work by Alexander Ostrovsky), Taper ( "The Bedbug" based on the play by Vladimir Mayakovsky) and other roles.

“I don’t remember the moment when I said that I would be an artist: I was born with this consciousness,” the actor said. The mother, according to him, was loyal to her son's searches, but for many years his father did not understand his passion and love for theater and cinema, he believed that this was "not a man's occupation." After the death of the actor's father, it turned out that he had been collecting newspaper clippings for a long time, which talked about a film or performance in which Garkalin Jr. participated. “And Pluchek Valentin Nikolayevich (chief DIRECTOR of the Theater of Satire from 1957 to 2000. -) was in love with me. And all the work that lasted 12 years at the Theater of Satire with my friend Misha Sonnenstral, who passed away early ... And away we go! This career just took my whole life, ”Valery Garkalin recalled the beginning of work in theater and cinema.

Photo: Mosfilm

Shot from the film "Shirley Myrli"

Garkalin made his film debut a year after graduation, playing Alexei Grekov, the protagonist of Sergei Bodrov Sr.'s crime melodrama Katala. The next major role (in 1992) for Garkalin was in the serial film "White Clothes" based on the novel of the same name by Vladimir Dudintsev. The actor became widely known in the cinema for the main role (or roles) in the comedy Shirley Myrli by Vladimir Menshov (the film was released in 1995), where Garkalin played several characters at once, according to the plot - twins separated in childhood.

Menshov recalled that he liked the actor's face, he invited him to try, although he admitted that "it was not yet that." “With this mood, I tormented Valera for about a third of the filming period,” the director said. This continued until Garkalin, according to Menshov's memoirs, made a scandal, exclaiming: "Why do you dislike me so much?" The director noted that "he was monstrously wrong", and Garkalin turned out to be "a miracle for this material." “I laughed endlessly, but the main thing is that he laughed too,” Menshov added. In addition to Shirley Myrli, Garkalin played in more than 70 films and TV shows, including Tigran Keosayan's Silver Lily of the Valley and Poor Sasha, Alexei Kiryushchenko's film Between Us Girls and others.

Photo: Kirill Zykov / AGN "Moscow"

actors Valery Garkalin (left) and Yuri Stoyanov at the Arkhangelskoye estate museum during the XXX awards ceremony for the first Crystal Turandot theater award, June 20, 2021

Garkalin was busy not only in theatrical productions and filming, but also taught in his native GITIS at the department of variety art. In the past two years, due to the pandemic, according to the actor, he did not act anywhere, but said that he could see if the picture would be successful even when reading the script. “If there is a heart in the script, then everything will be fine,” Garkalin believed.

Photo: Igor Zarembo / TASS

Valery Garkalin with his wife Ekaterina (right) and daughter Nika during the opening of the Baltic Debuts film festival, July 23, 2005

Valery Garkalin survived two heart attacks: the first happened in June 2008 during a tour of the 54-year-old actor in Lithuania, the second a few months after that. Retelling the words of a French cardiologist, the actor called the cause of the disease the fact that he smoked a lot and worked hard. The first heart attack happened to Garkalin right on the stage - during the performance "Boots with Thick Soles".

Since 1978, the artist has been married to teacher Ekaterina Garkalina, who has worked for more than 30 years at the Puppet Theater of Sergei Obraztsov. The couple had a daughter, Nika, whose career is also connected with the stage - she is a theater producer. After the death of his wife in 2009, Garkalin announced that he would not marry again. In 2012, the actor said that, despite the tragic events in his personal life, he supports himself with thoughts about what his daughter and grandson need. “I think that, probably, what helps to live here is that ... Life itself, it does not stop, it lasts, its sign is movement. If I stop moving, then, probably, my life will not be, ”added Garkalin

Photo: TASS

Valery Garkalin in a scene from the play "Katya, Sonya, Fields, Galya, Vera, Olya, Tanya ..." based on the works of I.A. Bunin, staged by director Dmitry Krymov at the School of Dramatic Art Theater at the Center. Sun. Meyerhold

Garkalin was hospitalized on October 5 after contracting the CORONAVIRUS. His daughter said then that nothing catastrophic had happened and the actor was on the mend. By October 9, Garkalin, according to his agent, remained in intensive care. In early November, the actor's representative said that he was still in serious condition. On November 20, it became known that Garkalin had died.