Nune mkrtchyan. Frunzik Mkrtchyan: the sad fate of a funny man. Biography of Donara Mkrtchyan

The actor, who almost always made the audience smile, upset the audience only once when he died on December 29, 1993. Frunzik Mushegovich Mkrtchyan was buried on New Year's Eve.

Later, the authors of the documentary about the fate of the Armenian actor emphasized in sync: New Year's Eve Armenians drank the first glass without ringing and in silence. The time was difficult, almost blockade, electricity was not supplied to the houses, and it seemed to everyone that the usual normal life ended. Amateur footage of the funeral superimposed over the sound of the national wind instrument: the soul is sobbing when you hear the “lamentation” of the duduki - a paraphrase folk melodies- and you see in the frame the tearful faces of thousands and thousands of Yerevan residents applauding the actor in last time... You can't compile such shots.

Now, most often, the actor is remembered in the role of the driver Khachikyan in the film "Mimino", and Mkrtchyan is familiar to the biased viewer from the episode in the film "Do not Cry!". Remember how two wrongdoers are sitting in a debt hole and Mkrtchyan’s character suddenly asks his counterpart: “Do you want candy?” And then he answers himself: “No!”

Many called him "a sad cheerful person." Still, there is a tragic beginning in the comic. The world-famous clown Yengibarov was also called the clown "with autumn in the heart" by journalists...

The media claimed that during the filming of "Mimino" Frunzik Mkrtchyan began to drink heavily. Several times the shooting even had to be canceled. As a result, director Danelia set a strict condition for the actor - either alcohol or a role. For several days, Mkrtchyan did not touch alcohol. And then, they write, he came to the director and sadly said: “I understood why mediocrity rules the world. They don’t drink and start their careers in the morning.” And best scene Mkrtchyan masterfully improvised the interrogation of the witness Khachikyan in court.

It would seem that then, while living in the Soviet Union, universal adoration is a pass to a happy and prosperous life. For example, a famous actor went through passport control at airports without documents: he simply showed his famous profile. Big nose, sad eyes, eyebrows broken in sadness... He was called a comedian without a smile, like the great Max Linder. The actor's relatives said that even as a child, Frunzik was helpless, "everyone laughed at him." The little actor turned the site of a communal apartment into theater stage. He acted out solo performances on it, saying "whatever comes into his head." And the neighbors laughed...

Legend has it that the actor himself treated his massive nose with humor and even composed jokes about himself. Vakhtang Kikabidze told the following story in an interview: “Archil Gomiashvili and I went to the premiere of the play Cyrano de Bergerac, in which Frunz played the role of Cyrano. In this performance there is a very long monologue of Cyrano, where he talks about his huge nose. With Frunz, this monologue turned out to be very short, he didn’t even pull it for a minute. When we were driving in a car after the performance, I told him: “Listen, Frunz, why did you cut this long monologue so short? Still classic... "And he replies:" Buba jan, when you talk about the nose for a long time, it is unpleasant for the Armenians.

The actor's brother Albert Mkrtchyan recalled an incident in the United States. “I have an article from the New York Times. "Five minutes of silence by Mher Mkrtchyan" is called. The fact is that at one of his speeches in America, more than half of the audience were Americans who did not speak either Russian or Armenian. Then the brother went to the forefront and for five minutes stood silently and looked into the hall. The audience fell from their chairs to the floor with laughter. And Frunzik looked at them again, bowed and left.

They say that even today portraits of the talented countryman Frunzik Mkrtchyan hang in many offices in Yerevan.

The actor's personal life was secretive and complicated. As it turned out later, terribly unhappy. Not like the life of a star of the Soviet screen.

By tragic coincidence, to this day, neither the son, nor the daughter, nor the wife of the actor - no one survived. Frunzik Mkrtchyan had three marriages, with the actress Damira - the second wife - they met at the institute. They gave birth to two children. In professional circles, they said that the death of her daughter finally finished off the heart of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, but in fact, Nune died five years after the actor died. This was told by his brother Albert: Nune, who underwent a complex operation, was sitting in the ward with her husband, and a blood clot broke off from her ... By the way, after the death of Frunzik, he also adopted the adult mentally ill son Vazgen ... Vazgen died at 33 from cirrhosis of the liver . This happened very recently.

Events developed and "finished off" Frunzik Mushegovich on the rise: life in the house after a while became unbearable due to scenes of Damira's jealousy. As stated in the same documentary, after performances or filming, the artist did not even want to return home. His wife's tantrums and scandals were inexplicable and became more frequent. The birth of a second child - a son - did not change anything. This continued until famous artist didn't go to the doctors. The verdict is schizophrenia.

And at first they living together she even accompanied her husband on the set ... For example, in " Caucasian captive» Damira was given an episode: she played the wife of the driver comrade Saakhov. Remember beautiful woman, which sadly tells the hero Yuri Nikulin at the gate about local customs - bride kidnapping? In a word, when the efforts of local specialists were powerless, Damira was sent to psychiatric clinic in France.

Later, Frunzik again married a charming woman - the daughter of the chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia Hovhannisyan. They say that when the actor once again went to the registry office, one of his friends scolded him, saying that he did not frequent this institution. To which Frunzik, with his characteristic humor, replied: “Chaplin married eight times in general. Am I worse?" Alas, this marriage also fell apart. Was he a reserved person? — says Albert Mushegovich. No, he lived among people. And at the same time he lived alone. Once, when he was asked why he walks the night streets alone, Frunzik was surprised: “Why alone? Cats walk, dogs. So I'm not alone."

After failures in his personal life, Frunzik turned his attention to children and the theater. Everything seemed to be getting better. Nune's daughter got married and left with her husband for Argentina. The meaning of Frunzik's life was the son of Vazgen. However, the behavior of the young man also began to disturb his father. Vazgen was consulted by the best psychiatrists, who, alas, were powerless in this case. The boy inherited his mother's mental illness. They say that when Vazgen was placed for some time in the same French clinic where Damira was, they did not even recognize each other. Tragedy...

AT last years life, Frunzik abandoned cinema, concentrating all his efforts on creating his own theater. Colleagues from the Yerevan theater named after Sundukyan call him an actor from beginning to end. Frunzik Mkrtchyan obeyed all the roles: tragic, comedian, classical, contemporary ... And the well-known and loved by everyone actor should have worked out ... And the theater could and should have been ... I didn’t have time. Or tired?

He died instantly in his sleep. Heart attack. People's Artist of the USSR, laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, laureate of the State Prize of the Armenian SSR Frunzik Mkrtchyan was only 63 years old.

Albert Mkrtchyan once expressed his version of his brother's death: “Frunz wished for death, he yearned for it, he dreamed of it, cruelly extinguishing his life instincts. It was not time that killed him, and not addiction to wine and tobacco ... No, he deliberately went to his death, not having the strength to survive the illness of his son and wife - a huge family grief.

Frunze Mushegovich Mkrtchyan (July 4, 1930 - December 29, 1993) - Soviet actor theater and cinema, Armenian by nationality. For the entire acting career acted in more than 35 feature films, also worked for more than 30 years at the Yerevan Theater. Sundukyan, and later organized his own theater. In 1978, Frunze Mkrtchyan was awarded the USSR State Prize, the second most important award. Soviet Union, and in 1984 he received the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

To understand the full power of his talent, you need to watch not only his work in the cinema, where he mainly played comedic roles, but also in the theater.

Frunze Mkrtchyan was born in 1930 in Armenia in the city of Leninakan (now the city of Gyumri) in a family of simple workers of a local textile mill. In the 1930s, it was fashionable in the USSR to name children in honor of revolutionary heroes, military commanders and other cult personalities. So the boy got a name in honor of the Soviet statesman Mikhail Frunze. Later, already famous actor, he wanted to change his name to Mher, which means "bright, sunny." According to another version, the audience began to call him Mher when the Theater. Sundukyan, in which Mkrtchyan played, toured Lebanon. According to Frunzik's brother Albert, the actor had two passports: in one he was "Frunze Mkrtchyan", in the other - "Mher Mkrtchyan".

In 1952, Mkrtchyan entered the Yerevan Theater Institute, and being in his second year, he began to play at the Theater. Sundukyan. In 1955, the actor made his film debut in episodic role in the film "In search of an addressee." Subsequently, a comedic role was assigned to Mkrtchyan, and he successfully played in such famous paintings, like "Thirty-three" (1965), "Prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures" (1966), "Don't Cry!" (1969), "Mimino" (1977), "Lonely people are provided with a hostel" (1983).

Frunzik Mkrtchyan's popularity grew with every film in which he starred. However, the personal life of the actor did not develop so smoothly. The first time he married very young and divorced quite quickly. Mkrtchyan met his second wife, Danara, in the mid-50s, when she came to Leninakan to enter the theater institute. Frunzik and Danara got married and began to work together in the Yerevan Theater. Sundukyan. Later, they had a daughter, Nune, and then a son, Vazgen. It seemed that Mkrtchyan's personal life improved, but suddenly Danara became seriously ill. She was diagnosed with a severe hereditary mental illness that was practically untreatable. Frunzik showed his wife to many specialists, but they only shrugged. Due to her illness, Danara was constantly jealous of her husband, claiming that in every corner of the country where he went on tour, mistresses were waiting for him. home life the actor became a real hell.

Due to problems in the family, Mkrtchyan had to refuse many film roles. It gradually began to be forgotten. Fame returned to the actor in the late 1970s, when he starred in his triumphant role in the film "Mimino", for which he received State Prize THE USSR. But Danara's condition worsened, and Mkrtchyan had to hospitalize her in a psychiatric hospital in France without the right to leave. Frunzik was left alone with two children. After some time, his daughter Nune married a student from Argentina and went to his homeland. Shortly thereafter, Vazgen was diagnosed with the same disease as Danara. Mkrtchyan did not lose hope of curing his son, but all his efforts were in vain. Vazgen was hospitalized in the same clinic as his mother. They said that, meeting in the hospital corridor, they never recognized each other. Mkrtchyan tried to re-establish family life and married the daughter of the chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia, Tamara Hovhannisyan. But after a few years the couple broke up.

Due to the disorder in his personal life, Mkrtchyan began to abuse alcohol. He almost did not act in films, he left the theater. Once Frunzik was hospitalized, where he had a clinical death, and the doctors literally pulled the actor from the other world. On December 29, 1993, Mkrtchyan drank a lot again. His brother Albert, who had been caring for him all this time, became worried when the next morning Frunzik did not answer his phone calls. Going to his apartment, Albert found that his brother had died. The death of Frunzik Mkrtchyan was a huge tragedy for Armenian people, because the beloved actor was only 63 years old. Farewell to him took place on December 31, 1993. Thousands of people followed the coffin of Mkrtchyan, seeing him off on his last journey.

After the death of Frunzik, his mentally ill son was adopted by his brother Albert. Vazgen Mkrtchyan died in 2004 from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 33. Nune Mkrtchyan died after a major operation in 1998, having outlived her father by only 5 years.

As a child, Frunzik was helpless, everyone laughed at him, he was thin, with a big nose, but it turned out that God gave him a huge acting talent. He lived his whole life like this - he was a funny and sad person at the same time. And the USSR adored his talent.
- Albert Mkrtchyan

Frunzik wished for death, he yearned for it, he dreamed of it, cruelly extinguishing his life instincts. It was not time that killed him, and not addiction to wine and tobacco ... No, he deliberately went to his death, not having the strength to survive the illness of his son and wife - a huge family grief.
… An actor from beginning to end. We, colleagues, stood behind the scenes, watched and waited for what he would do new in the role today. We knew that he would definitely improvise, and it was a brilliant improvisation. It's amazing how resourceful he was. He could make the whole room laugh. I remember his performances, which began with Homeric laughter in auditorium and this laughter continued throughout the performance. In general, Frunzik was amazing person- the day started with a song and was happy. On the other hand, there was always a feeling of some kind of tragedy in him ...
... A person comes into this world with a bunch of brushwood and his task is to burn it to the end so that it does not turn into decay. Unfortunately, Frunzik could not burn it all, and there was a lot of fire there. We lost a lot of Frunzik's warmth.
- Khoren Abrahamyan

I understood why mediocrity rules the world. They do not drink and in the morning they begin to pursue their careers.

A real comedian, somewhere in his second plan is tragic. Such were Yevgeny Leonov, Andrei Mironov, Yuri Nikulin, and of course, Frunzik Mkrtchyan ... Armenians have a phrase: "I will take your pain." This is the highest manifestation of humanity. In me, this is largely left over from Frunzik.
- Alla Surikova

Ֆրունզիկ (Մհեր) Մուշեղի Մկրտչյան; July 4, 1930, Leninakan - December 29, 1993, Yerevan) - a famous Soviet theater and film actor, theater director. National artist USSR (1984)." />

Frunze (Frunzik, Mher) Mushegovich Mkrtchyan(hy Ֆրունզիկ (Մհեր) Մուշեղի Մկրտչյան; July 4, 1930, Leninakan - December 29, 1993, Yerevan) - a famous Soviet theater and film actor, theater director. People's Artist of the USSR (1984). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1978).

Biography

• Since 1945 - assistant projectionist in the club of the textile factory in the city of Leninakan, in his spare time attends rehearsals of the amateur theater.
• Since 1947 - Leninakan Theater named after. Mravyan.
• 1951-1956 - studying at the Yerevan Theater and Art Institute.
• 1956 - accepted into the troupe Academic theater named after Sundukyan in Yerevan. In parallel with his studies, he began acting in films. The first film with his participation ("In Search of the Addressee") was released in 1955.

Family

• Father - Mushegh Mkrtchyan (1910-1961) timekeeper.
• Mother - Sanam Mkrtchyan (1911-1970) was a dishwasher in the factory canteen.
• Brother - Albert (born 1937) director, screenwriter.
• Sisters - Ruzanna Mkrtchyan (b. 1943), Clara (1934-2003).
• First love - Juliet, whom he never married, as her family opposed, and she was married off to another.
• First wife - Donara (1941-2011), mother of his children, known in Russia for her role as a wife Dzhabrailova in "Prisoner of the Caucasus". Theater actress. Sundukyan. She suffered from a severe mental illness. She was hospitalized in France. She was also in a psychiatric hospital in the city of Yerevan. She spent the last 25 years of her life in the Sevan Psychiatric Hospital.
  • Son - Vazgen (also called Vaag) suffered from hereditary mental illness, which was transmitted to him from his mother, died after the death of his father, in 2003, at the age of 33.
  • Daughter - Nune (Nina) died in a car accident in Argentina in 1988 (she was 39 years old). (according to other sources, in particular, brother Frunzik, she died in the postoperative period (cervical cancer) from clogging with a blood clot. Source - http://akter.kulichki.net/se/mkrtchan.htm)
• The second wife is Tamara, an actress, daughter of the chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia Hrachya Oganesyan.
• Granddaughter (from daughter) - Gayane, lives in Argentina.

Personal life

Mkrtchyan's first wife, Donara Pilosyan, suffered from mental illness and was placed in a psychiatric hospital. Mkrtchyan became a single father with two young children. His son inherited his mother's mental illness, which led Mkrtchyan to depression and alcohol abuse later on. In 1993, he died in his apartment in Yerevan. Thousands of people came to the funeral, the funeral column with the body of Mkrtchyan passed along the main street of the city. He was buried in the Pantheon of Heroes of the Armenian Spirit in Yerevan.

The actor, who brought a smile to the screen, had little reason for fun in his personal life.

In the film "Don't Cry!" the hero of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, sitting in a debt hole, suddenly turns to a comrade in misfortune: “Do you want candy? .. But no!”. She also played with the “sad funny Armenian” and his own fate. On July 4, he would have turned 88 years old ...

Difficult childhood

Frunze Mkrtchyan was born on July 4, 1930 in Leninakan (Gyumri) into a family of Armenian refugees who escaped the Turkish massacre. He was given life by the workers of a textile mill: at the enterprise just built by that time, Mushegh Mkrtchyan's father was a timekeeper, and Sanam's mother was a dishwasher in the factory canteen. The Armenian Genocide took away all relatives from Frunzik's parents. Both parents were brought up in an orphanage, and both at the age of five were picked up just on the road. Having created own family, Mushegh and Sanam gave birth to four children (brothers and sisters - equally), which the father of the family tried to feed by all means. Having received a sentence for the theft of several meters of fabric, he felled a forest in Nizhny Tagil for ten years, and all the worries about the children fell on the mother and eldest son Frunzik. The father of the future national favorite will live only 50 years, and his mother will not become 59 ...

Ugly pet

The mother did not hide from the children that she loved Frunzik more than others, and bathed him in the bathroom with maternal care, even when he grew up. There was simply no one else to feel sorry for her ugly son. Relatives and neighbors recalled that from childhood everyone laughed at the touchingly helpless Frunzik - and not only during home performances that he arranged in communal apartment. He had two names: the official Frunze (in honor of the hero civil war Mikhail Frunze) and Mher (that was the name of the son in the family), but those around him called out to the colorful little boy only by his nickname - Nose.

Only over time, the owner of the “proud profile” learned to treat the recognizable lack of his own appearance philosophically: instead of a passport, he showed his long hook-shaped nose with a hump to the border guards at airports and made fun of himself in jokes. When they trust him on stage leading role in Cyrano de Bergerac, the artist will joke that this is how the theater decided to save on make-up. At the premiere, Frunzik, by the way, greatly reduced main monologue his hero, explaining this to his friend Vakhtang Kikabidze in his usual manner: “Bubajan, when you talk about your nose for a long time, it is unpleasant for the Armenians.”

Comedian without a smile

But the most a big nose will not hide the sad eyes and sadness-broken eyebrows of the artist, whom colleagues described as "a comedian without a smile."

For the expressive face of the assistant projectionist in the factory club, they first took him to an amateur drama club at a textile factory, then to the studio and troupe of the Leninakan Theater, to the Yerevan Theater and Art Institute and the Armenian Theater in Yerevan. And Mkrtchyan was invited to act in films while still studying - the first picture with his participation was released in 1955 (“In Search of the Addressee”). During his short life by Caucasian standards (63 years), the artist played in 56 films, creating beloved images in Do not Cry and Mimino, Captive of the Caucasus and Vanity of Vanities. In his creative arsenal - the First Prize for the best acting work in the film "The Soldier and the Elephant" at the All-Union Film Festival in Yerevan and the USSR State Prize for his work in "Mimino".

The People's Artist of the USSR was truly loved by the people: Mkrtchyan was called to his house by everyone he met, they were allowed everywhere without tickets and money, and at performances they applauded for the fact that he simply went on stage. The New York Times, for example, had an article entitled “Five Minutes of Silence by Mher Mkrtchyan.” In the USA, the artist went out to the public, who did not understand either Armenian or Russian, and simply silently looked into the hall, filled with laughter. Frunzik calmly stood in front of the audience, giving vent to their feelings, and then bowed and left.

personal grief

He was “his own” everywhere, never boasted of fame and did not talk in an interview about personal tragedies that began as a student, when the parents of his beloved Juliet refused the young man the hand of their beautiful daughter. Out of annoyance, Mkrtchyan married a classmate, but the marriage with Knara broke up a year later. In the walls theater institute Frunzik also met his second wife, the course star Donara Pilosyan. Friends dissuaded him from marrying a talented but impulsive actress with unpredictable behavior and frequent mood swings that alarmed everyone. Later, Frunzik's wife will have a severe hereditary mental illness that will destroy the life of her unfortunate husband.

Whenever Mkrtchyan was approved for a role, Donara insisted on filming together. Only thanks to her husband, she starred in an episode in the “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, where she played the wife of Jabrail, the hero of Mkrtchyan. Women's creative jealousy was mixed in, and the wife, who did not know how to control herself, became hysterical and fought not only at home, but also in public: she made scandals in the theater when her husband simply greeted the actresses.

Having given birth to a second child, Donara generally stopped taking care of children, the care of which fell on Frunzik Mkrtchyan. The son was only 2 years old and the daughter was 12 when their mother fell into depression. The artist had to be torn between work and home, because there was no one to feed and wash the children.

When his wife was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Frunzik collected all the money and sent Donar to France for treatment. After foreign doctors, their Armenian colleagues tried to treat her, but no one could give hope for recovery. Until the end of her days, the woman remained under the supervision of doctors in psychiatric hospitals: first in Yerevan, and the last 25 years of his life - in Sevan.

Truth in wine

With his third marriage, Frunzik married the daughter of the chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia Hrachya Oganesyan, Tamara. When one of his friends jokingly asked if he frequented the registry office, Frunzik answered with humor: “Chaplin married eight times. And what's worse for me?"

But this step of the father was not approved by the daughter of Nune, who emigrated after marriage to Argentina. Unfortunately, the family did not work out, and Frunzik had one joy left - his son Vazgen. Alas, his behavior soon began to give cause for concern. The examination confirmed that the boy had the same illness as his mother.

Snikshiy Mkrtchyan sent his son to the very clinic where his wife was treated. When the doctors showed Vazgen to Donara, mother and son did not recognize each other...

Frunzik forgot his misfortunes in work and glass. He drank as much as he acted. Each shooting day ended for the artist in a restaurant. While working on the painting "Mimino", due to Mkrtchyan's binges, shooting was even canceled several times. George Danelia offered his favorite actor a choice: a role or alcohol. After surviving without alcohol for several days, the sad Frunzik shared sad thoughts with the director: “I understood why mediocrity rules the world: they don’t drink and spend all their free time on their careers.”

"I'm not alone"

Once Frunzik was asked why he was wandering around the night city alone. The artist was surprised: “Why am I alone? Dogs walk, cats - I'm not alone ... ".
When the Soviet cinema collapsed, Mkrtchyan set about creating his own theater in Yerevan and, as theater director staged performances in Armenia and abroad. But his life was already running out.
Frunzik did not attach importance to the fact that he was in a pre-infarction state. A heart attack struck him on December 29, 1993. This death God gives good people: the actor stopped breathing in his sleep.

“Frunzik self-destructed because his life was not a joy,” said the artist’s brother and head of his theater Albert Mkrtchyan. “He did not spare himself consciously, because he suffered because of the illness of his son and wife.”
The brother adopted Vazgen's nephew, but at the age of 33, Mkrtchyan's son died of cirrhosis of the liver. The father and daughter survived for a short time: Nuna, who was operated on for a tumor, died five years later - in recovery period there was a blockage of a blood clot (the 34-year-old granddaughter of the artist Gayane Terteryan remained to live in Buenos Aires). Frunzik's brother, screenwriter and director Albert Mkrtchyan, also died this year.

The Yerevan Artistic Theater created by the actor, named after Frunze Mkrtchyan, remained, and his works are in film and stone: monuments to his heroes stand in Moscow, Tbilisi, Yerevan and Dilijan.
In Armenia, Frunzik Mkrtchyan is a national hero. At home in Gyumri, a museum named after him was opened, and a monument to a talented countryman was erected in front of the building of the local drama theater. His portraits hang in Armenian homes and offices, and on the grave of the artist in the pantheon of the park. Komitas in Yerevan all year round - fresh flowers ...