On September 28, in Moscow, at the 86th year of his life, the Soviet and Russian director Mark Anatolyevich Zakharov died.
According to the director of the Lenkom Theater, Mark Warsawer, death occurred after repeated pneumonia. Last time, Zakharov was hospitalized with suspected pneumonia on August 20, 2019. On September 9, it became known that he was discharged from the hospital, but the director was never able to fully recover.
Condolences on the death of Mark Zakharov were expressed by many Russian cultural and political figures, including President Vladimir Putin. In a telegram addressed to the daughter of the director, people's artist Alexandra Zakharova, Putin noted that Mark Anatolyevich was a man of extraordinary talent, inner freedom and dignity.
“The legendary Lenkom, famous works in the cinema, all the work of Mark Anatolyevich Zakharov has become a unique phenomenon in Russian art, a symbol of the highest artistic culture and bold innovation. We will forever preserve a bright memory of this outstanding Master and Creator, ”the president emphasized.
“A whole generation leaves with such people”
In turn, the mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, called the death of the director an irreparable loss for Moscow and all Russian culture.
“For decades, the performances and films of Mark Zakharov have brought joy from contact with real art,” the mayor wrote on Twitter.
For decades, the performances and films of Mark Zakharov have brought joy from contact with real art. My sincere words of sympathy and support to Alexandra Markovna Zakharova and all the relatives and friends of this wonderful person.
The memory of him will remain in our hearts.
The Minister of Culture of Russia Vladimir Medinsky said that he grew up on the performances and films of Zakharov and had the good fortune to communicate a lot with the master.
“I understand how his brilliant work, imbued with subtle irony, justice and love for people, helps us, his compatriots, be kinder, more responsive and attentive to each other,” the head of the department said.
People's Artist of the RSFSR Larisa Golubkina, in an interview with RT, said that the news of Zakharov’s death caused her “endless sadness” and “a feeling of natural departure”. Nevertheless, Mark Zakharov left behind good memories: Golubkina said that in the past she and the director had a lot of communication and jokes.
“Before the departure of my husband, Andrei Mironov, Mark Anatolyevich and I had a very close relationship. We almost always spent free time together, went somewhere, came to each other for birthdays. It is very difficult to feel that a person is leaving. At this moment, I want to hide from sadness. Like yesterday we were all together. Markusha was a very interesting person. He gave me a sickle for my birthday and promised to give me a hammer ... We constantly somehow had fun, it was fun, ”Golubkina recalls.
Soviet and Russian theater and film actress, Honored Artist of Russia Anna Frolovtseva expressed regret that talented and good people are leaving the life.
“We worked with him two films. Life is life, but I'm just in shock. Mark Anatolyevich was a very good person, I'm not only talking about directing. We were friends with him. It’s very sorry and insulting that this is the way life is arranged, ”she said in a conversation with RT.
Igor Zolotovitsky, director of the Central House of Actor, rector of the Moscow Art Theater School, says that in the 1970s and 1980s, Zakharov turned people's minds over with his creativity, “he made some incredible accents because he felt today’s time.”
“I will be sorely missed even by everyday life. He was a sage who calmly taught important things in life: patience, calmness, that people should not be offended. And in this he was beautiful, ”quotes Zolotovitsky TASS.
Music producer Joseph Prigozhin stressed that with people like Zakharov, an entire era of the greatest directors - symbols of the country - is leaving.
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“Mark Anatolyevich is precisely the symbol of our country. He had such a wise look. After all the films and performances that he staged, he will be immortalized in the history of Russian culture. We were fortunate enough to come into contact with such people. It is very sad and sad that life is finite. This is scary. We become orphans, losing such people. They live in the name and for the sake of business, ”said producer RT.
Prigozhin also expressed hope that Lenkom would be named after Mark Zakharov, since the director had served in this theater for almost his entire life.
Russian singer Valeria emphasizes: when people talk about Lenkom, they immediately remember Mark Zakharov - and vice versa.
“Back in Soviet times, the theater was a symbol of something progressive, incredibly modern. Mark Anatolyevich was able to collect amazing actors, shot them in the movies. We still speak with quotes from his films. A lot has been done for his life, he fit into the history of Russian culture, his works will remain with us, and his memory will be alive. With such people a whole generation leaves. And it is not known whether someone will appear in modern times of the same scale, ”the artist concluded.
Director Andrei Konchalovsky noted that it was thanks to Zakharov that Lenkom got its creative look - “the look of bright directing based on the classical traditions of Stanislavsky and developing the traditions of Vakhtangov and Meyerhold.”
“I will always remember Mark Zakharov young, mocking and slightly tired, as he was covering his energy with some such eternal fatigue,” Konchalovsky said in an interview with 360.
Actor, director and savior of Lenkom
Mark Anatolyevich Zakharov was born on October 13, 1933 in Moscow. He spent his childhood on Krasnaya Presnya, on Zamorenov Street.
During the war, Zakharov and his mother left for evacuation. There he began to attend a drama club. Mark Zakharov was very fond of the theater: he went to the Obraztsov Theater, to the Moscow Art Theater. After school, he tried to enter the Moscow Art Theater School, but there he was advised to think about another profession. The young man did not listen to the advisers and ended up in the acting department at GITIS, where he studied with Grigory Konskoy and Joseph Raevsky.
After graduation, Mark Zakharov left to serve in the Perm Drama Theater. There, in Perm, he began to direct.
Returning to Moscow, the actor got a job at the Gogol Moscow Drama Theater, and then - at the Moscow Theater of Miniatures. There Zakharov staged the play "Merry Sclerosis" (and he himself played the role in it). Thanks to this production, the young director was noticed and invited to work by the chief director of the Moscow Satire Theater, Valentin Pluchek. So in 1965, Mark Zakharov became the director of the Moscow Theater of Satire.
- At the rehearsal in the theater
- globallookpress.com
- © Aleksandr Sternin / Russian Look
“It was a risk: the arrival of an unknown director in a famous metropolitan troupe is a dramatic phenomenon in itself, I felt skepticism soon enough, although in general the cast was correct. Except for my future love - Tatyana Ivanovna Peltzer. She ... once asked: “And why did you go to directing? As soon as a person doesn’t know how to do anything, then immediately to directing, ”Zakharov recalled.
Zakharov’s career developed rapidly. Already in 1973 he became the main director of the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theater. In it, Mark Zakharov worked until his death - 46 years.
Lenkom emphasizes that it was precisely with Zakharov’s arrival that the difficult times ended for the theater: immediately after the appointment, the director “moved Lenkom off the ground”. The beginning of a new - post-crisis - era for the theater was marked by the premiere of Avtograd-XXI, prepared by Mark Zakharov and poet Yuri Vizbor. A year later, the director subsequently released a spectacular performance based on the play by Grigory Gorin "Til". In 1976, the legendary opera Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta with Alexander Abdulov was released in Lenkom. The play "Juno and Avos" will also become the hallmark of the theater. At a rapid pace, Zakharov worked in the following years. It was thanks to Zakharov that Lenkom acquired its own unique “style”.
Of course, Zakharov is known for his directorial work in the cinema. It was he who shot the series “12 Chairs” with Andrei Mironov, Anatoly Papanov, Oleg Tabakov and George Vitsin. The audience owed Zakharov the appearance of Ordinary Miracle, The Same Munchausen, and The Formulas of Love. Mark Zakharov has staged over twenty television shows.
In addition, he became the author of several books in which he spoke about the professions of the actor and director, creativity and inspiration.
“Despite the presence of a certain number of admirers of my writing talent, I reject the talent as such with indignation, but I insist on the literary skill,” the director wrote in one of the books.