Вениамин Смехов: Жизнь и творчество актера и режиссера

Soviet and Russian actor

Veniamin Borisovich Smekhov (Вениами́н Бори́сович Сме́хов; born 10 August 1940 in Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor and director. He was the winner of the Petropol Award (2000) as well as the Tsarskoselsky Artistic Prize (2009). He refused the title of People's Artist of Russia, which was offered to him on his 70th birthday. Smekhov has long worked in the Moscow Taganka Theatre where his roles included Woland in a stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. His portrayal of the main antagonist of the story is considered to be the best of any adaption of the novel. In film, he is best known and loved for the role of Athos in a Russian version of D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978) and its sequels (1992, 1993). He also has written children's poetry, scripts, memoirs and comedic materials.

Father: Boris Moiseyevich Smekhov (10 January 1912, Gomel, Belarus 8 October 2010, Aachen, Germany professor, doctor of economics. Grandfather Moisey Yakovlevich Smekhov accountant. Mother: Maria Lvovna Schwartzburg (1918 1996) doctor, head of her department in a Moscow clinic. Grandfather Lev Aronovich Schwartzburg, born in the town of Shpola in Kiev Province, and then moved to Odessa. He was a shoemaker. Uncle (father's side) famous book illustrator Lev Moiseyevich Smekhov (1908, Petrovichi 1978). He was the father of artists Arkady Lvovich Smekhov (b. 1936) and Zinovy Lvovich Smekhov (b. 1939). Veniamin's other uncle (father's side), Yefim Moiseyevich Smekhov, was the head artist for the publication Meditsina. Alla Aleksandrovna Smekhova, a radio editor, was Veniamin's first wife and the mother of his daughters Alika (b. 1968), an actress and singer and Elena (b. 1963), a writer. His grandchildren include Elena's son, Leonid Smekhov (b. 1987), and Alika's sons, Artem Smekhov (b. 2000) and Makar Smekhov (b. 2007). Veniamin has been married to Galina Aksenova (Galina Gennad'evna), Candidate of Art, professor at the Moscow Art Theatre School, translator, and film and theatre scholar, since 1980.

Smekhov spent his childhood in Moscow on Second Meshchansky Street (present day Gilyarovsky Street). He saw his father only after he returned from the Second World War in 1945. From 1947 to 1957 he was a student at School № 235 on Pal'chikov Lane where he was a part of the Palace of Pioneers drama club. V. E. Struchkova led the club and Rolan Bykov worked with the students. In 1957 Smekhov was accepted into the B. V. Shchukin Theatre School, the conservatory of the E. Vakhtangov Theatre. He studied in the class of V. A. Etush. It was Veniamin's uncle, Lev Smekhov, who encouraged him to study at the school. In 1959 he was removed from his class and began the second year of study as an auditor. This was a probationary measure. In April of 1959 he regained his student status. His graduation performances included Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in which he played Covielle, and Ostrovsky's Warm Heart in which he played Narkis. In 1961 Veniamin graduated from acting school and was sent to the Kuybiyshevsky Drama Theatre where he worked for one year. Upon his return to Moscow in 1962, director A. K. Plotnikov accepted him into the Moscow Theatre of Drama and Comedy. In 1964 Yuri Lyubimov became head director of the theatre. Lyubimov reorganized the theatre and it became the Taganka Theatre. From 1985 to 1987 Veniamin worked in the Sovremennik Theatre where he, along with Leonid Filatov and Vitaly Shapovalov, fled after Lyubimov's expulsion from the Soviet Union. Veniamin returned to the Taganka Theatre in 1987 and worked there until 1998. Veniamin began acting in films in 1968, but he gained widespread popularity after playing the role of Athos in the famous made for television film D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers, filmed at the Odessa Film Studio in 1978. He played Athos in all of the followup films as well. In 1967 he began working as a freelance television director at Gostelradio USSR, the main producer of literary drama programs. His first work was the teleplay Mayakovsky's Day. It was based on his own script and aired as a part of the Poetic Theatre series. In 1990 he began directing theatre performances, operas and made for television films in Russia and abroad, and he taught acting for several years in American universities. During this time he continued to act at the Taganka Theatre when he was in Russia. In America Veniamin released a series of compact disks, The Library of Russian Classics, in 1998. He has made around 20 solo audio books as well as a large collection of audio book compilations. In 2011 Veniamin returned to the Taganka Theatre as a guest actor and director. He reprised the role of Woland in Master and Margarita on two occasions that included a dedication performance in memory of actor Vsevolod Sobolev and the 50th anniversary of the Taganka Theatre. He currently performs as an actor in two poetic performances No Years (he also composed and directed this performance) and The Spine of the Flute. He lives in Moscow and very frequently tours with his performances and evenings of poetry. Veniamin also makes poetic programs and documentary films for television. He is also the author of several books of both poetry and prose, and memoirs. He has called himself an actor, director, writer and traveler. Veniamin has participated in theatrical online readings of the works of Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and Mikhail Bulgakov, including Chekhov Is Alive (25 September 2015), War and Peace. We Read the Novel (8 December 2015) and a Google Reading of Master and Margarita. I Was There (12 November 2016).

"The Best Activity In the World." Journal Yunost', #9. 1970. "Notes From the Wings." Journal Yunost', #3. 1974. "The Service of Muses Does Not Tolerate Fuss." Journal Yunost', #9. 1976. "My Comrades Artists." Journal Aurora, #5. 1980. One Fine Day Soviet Writer, 1986. The Master's Violin. Ogon'ka Library, 1988. Alive and Only (memories of Viysotsky). Intercontact, 1990. Taganka. Notes of a Prisoner. Polikom, 1992. When I was Athos Moscow Actor, 1999. Theatre of My Memory. Vagrius, 2001. Aphorisms. Fruit of Leisure. Kindred. Retro, 2005. It Doesn't Happen Like That In Life. Ta Taganka In Two Volumes. Vremya, 2008. Ta Taganka. Ali Baba and Others. It Doesn't Happen Like That In Life (Collection of Essays In Three Volumes). Vremya, 2010. Golden Age of the Taganka Theatre. Staroe Kino, 2012. To My Father With Love (II): Collection. Ed. A. Fin, 2012. I Only Explain a Stitch In Poetry Collection of Poetry, Songs and Parodies. Put together by the Taganka Theatre, 2014. Notes From the Wings. Staroe Kino, 2016. It's Not Like That, Guys Vladimir Viysotsky Is Remembered By His Friends and Colleagues. ACT, 2017. Hello, However Memoirs About Vladimir Viysotsky. Staroe Kino, 2018.