Alexei Petrenko: the blacksmith who played Rasputin. Biography and complete filmography

There are actors who are like strokes. Light, elusive, like watercolor. And then there are giants. Alexei Petrenko was exactly that. Huge, clumsy at first glance, but possessing some hypnotic, almost frightening inner strength. When he appeared on the screen, the others faded. Not because he was hogging the spotlight. It was simply the gravity of his talent.

A Smith of His Own Fortune

Do you know what the most interesting thing about his biography is? He didn't become an actor right away. He failed twice to get into the Kyiv Theater Institute. The examiners simply didn't see a spark in this tall, simple-minded guy from the Chernihiv village of Chemer. And what did he do? He didn't start crying or mooching off his parents. He went to work as a blacksmith. A real one, with a heavy hammer and a red-hot anvil. It seems to me that it was there, at the forge, that his character was forged. Later, when he played his powerful, heavy characters, this blacksmith's grip was felt in every gesture. He took the role like a piece of metal and beat it until he achieved the desired shape.

In 1957, specialized universities finally gave in. Petrenko entered the Kharkiv Theater Institute. And then the wanderings began – Zaporozhye, Zhdanov. The Leningrad Theater named after Lensoviet, under the direction of Igor Vladimirov, became his first real school. But Petrenko was not a man of the system. He changed theaters like others change coats in the seasons. Moscow Art Theater, Malaya Bronnaya, "School of Dramatic Art", Taganka... He was searching. He was looking for his director, his material. He preferred to choose himself, not wasting time on passing plays.

Rasputin and Other Demons

His breakthrough was Elem Klimov's "Agony." Rasputin. How many of them have there been in cinema? Dozens. But Petrenko played something transcendental. It wasn't just a cunning man who had seized power. It was an element. Dirty, terrible, but mesmerizing. On the set, he brought himself to such a state that he once had a heart attack. Literally. Ambulance, intensive care, clinical death. He worked to the point of rupture of the aorta, unable to save emotions. The film was shelved and waited for its time for almost ten years. But when it came out, it was an explosion.

And do you remember Knurov in Ryazanov's "A Cruel Romance"? Mokiy Parmenych. Not a single unnecessary movement. A cold, calculating predator with impeccable manners. He buys Larisa not out of vulgar lust, but because he is used to taking the best. "Little is impossible for me," his character says. And these words send chills down your spine. We believe every word.

Or General Ivolga in Bortko's "The Idiot". A drunk, pathetic, lying old man. But how much pain is in him, how much trampled human dignity. And the juror in Mikhalkov's "12"? A labor veteran, a simple man with calloused hands, who unexpectedly reveals such an abyss of compassion for everyone.

Songs, Fairy Tales and a Quiet Harbor

There was a lot of child in him. With all his power and external severity. Petrenko adored Russian folk tales - he read them so that both children and adults listened with bated breath. Recorded entire CDs. He sang beautifully. He had an amazing voice - thick, velvety, penetrating under the skin. Overtures, Ukrainian folk, spiritual chants. He performed with the Vladimir Fedoseyev Symphony Orchestra. For himself, he independently learned Church Slavonic. That was Petrenko all over - if you immerse yourself in something, then headlong.

His personal life was also difficult. Three marriages. With his first wife, singer Alla, his daughter Polina was born. Then - a long and, perhaps, the most important union with journalist Galina Kozhukhova. Petrenko became a stepfather to her son, now a famous TV presenter Mikhail Kozhukhov. When Galina passed away in 2009, it seemed that the light had faded for him. But in 2010, he found solace in marriage with Azima Abdumaminova. Life, despite everything, continued.

Full Filmography (A Trace in Art)

They say that he often refused offers. "Better a little and meaningfully than omnivorous," Alexei Vasilyevich liked to repeat. And yet, the list of his works is huge. This is a real chronicle of our cinema.

• 1967 — Day of Sun and Rain (waiter)
• 1970 — King Lear (Oswald)
• 1974 — Agony (Grigory Rasputin)
• 1976 — Tale of How Tsar Peter Married Off His Blackamoor (Peter I)
• 1976 — Key Without Right of Transfer (school director Kirill Alekseevich)
• 1976 — Twenty Days Without War (Yuri Stroganov)
• 1977 — Marriage (Ivan Kuzmich Podkolesin)
• 1977 — Portrait with Rain (Igor Petrovich)
• 1979 — Faithfully and Truly (architect)
• 1981 — Farewell (Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars)
• 1983 — TASS Is Authorized to Declare... (Paul Dick)
• 1984 — A Cruel Romance (Mokiy Parmenych Knurov)
• 1985 — Davydov and Goliath (Goliath)
• 1988 — The Prisoner of If Castle (Abbot Faria)
• 1988 — Servant (Roman Romanovich Bryzgin)
• 1989 — The Art of Living in Odessa (Froim Grach)
• 1989 — Belshazzar's Feasts, or Night with Stalin (Joseph Stalin)
• 1992 — Presence (Petya)
• 1993 — Candles in the Mist (Macarius)
• 1998 — The Barber of Siberia (General Radlov)
• 1999 — Listen, Is It Raining… (Yuri Kazakov)
• 2000 — Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle)
• 2000 — In August 44... (General Yegorov)
• 2001 — Black Rada (Bogdan Khmelnitsky)
• 2001 — Collector (collector)
• 2003 — The Idiot (General Ivolgin)
• 2004 — Chess Player (Kovalev)
• 2005 — Doctor Zhivago (Thaddeus Kazimirovich)
• 2006 — Wolfhound of the Grey Hound Clan (Kness)
• 2007 — 12 (5th Juror, Labor Veteran)
• 2007 — Lilac Branch (Nikolai Zverev)
• 2009 — Bury Me Behind the Baseboard (grandfather)
• 2009 — Wolf Messing: Seeing Through Time (Joseph Stalin)
• 2010 — Burnt by the Sun 2: The Stand (an elderly lieutenant-accountant)
• 2011 — Ёлки 2 (Grigory Zemlyanikin)
• 2012 — Petrovich (Trofim Petrovich Streltsov)
• 2014 — Passing Nature (Razzamazov)
• 2016 — Ёлки 5 (Grigory Zemlyanikin)

Instead of a Finale

He left quietly. February 22, 2017 in Moscow. The roles remained. Re-watch "A Cruel Romance" or "12" tonight. Look into his eyes. There is no actor's coquetry in them. There is a life lived there. With all its mistakes, pain and rare, but such bright moments of absolute happiness.