The name of the People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR Borislav Nikolayevich Brondukov is well known to the Russian audience. He was remembered and loved for his work in the movies such as Citizen Nikanorova, Afonya, Sportloto-82, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Man from the Capuchin Boulevard, Garage and many others. During his creative career in cinema, Brondukov starred in more than 150 films. These were for the most part supporting roles and episodes in which the appearance of this remarkable characteristic actor was invariably remembered.
Becoming
He was born in the small village of Dubovaya in Polesie near Kiev. Date of birth - March 1, 1938. Like many children, born in early spring, the boy was weak and thin. A child whooping cough caught in early childhood could not survive at all. The baby came out as a herbalist-healer, she managed to put the boy on his feet in spite of the forecasts of the abandoned official medicine.
Borislav was brought up in a mixed Russian-Polish family, and for the rest of his life he retained a noticeable accent, a "talk", which often annoyed the directors. In many films, the heroes of Brondukov were re-voiced to remove this “defect”, and they are said from the screen by the voices of other actors.
In a religious family of the Roman Catholic faith, he was baptized (Boleslaw was baptized), received an upbringing not typical of the Soviet era, and attended a parish school at a primary school age. Then he studied in high school. To receive secondary technical education, he chose the Kiev Construction College. He worked in his specialty, having reached the level of foreman in the brigade. Everything changed the entry to work at the Kiev Arsenal plant. It was here, in a factory amateur drama theater, a sharp turn took place in the fate of Brondukov. He makes a firm decision to enter the theater institute.
From construction to cinema
We can’t ignore the widely known joke about the case in the admission committee of the Institute of Theater Arts. I.K. Karpenko-Kary. Brondukov did not want to accept documents, citing the fact that he should work as a foreman at a construction site with his appearance. However, the omnipotent Fortune promptly intervened in the person of the rector of the institute, Nikolai Zadneprovsky.
It turned out that he saw Brondukov on the amateur stage and was convinced of his outstanding talent. With his direct instructions, the fate of the entrant, student, and then actor Brondukov begins.
At the end of high school, the actor becomes a full-time employee of the Kiev Film Studio. A. Dovzhenko. For a decade, in 1965 ÷ 75, Having a good command of the Ukrainian language, he starred in many film studio films created in Russian and Ukrainian. The debut work was the film "Flower on a Stone" about mining everyday life.
During this period, the actor’s most successful project is the role in the film “The Stone Cross”, which brought victory in the nomination “Best Actor” at the All-Union Festival (Leningrad). But soon the film "put on the shelf", largely due to the fault of Brondukov himself. His overly truthful recognition during the presentation of the award of the desire to embody on the screen the image of the leader of the proletariat V.I. Lenin in a comedic perspective almost erased the entire creative career of the actor and became the reason for the proceedings in the KGB.
Supporting genius
The image of the “little man”, funny, awkward, touching in its sincerity, becomes a find for Brondukov. Rather than heroes, but characters in whom he is always recognizable and increasingly loved by the viewer, are increasingly appearing on the screen. Brondukov also played several major roles, among which the most noticeable work is in the melodrama "Citizen Nikanorova is Expecting You".
And yet the main success is brought to him by supporting roles and episodes. Yielding to the project partners' central roles, enhancing their sound, Brondukov was able to make his characters surprisingly natural, charming and memorable. The policeman Grishchenko, distributing moonshine to relatives “for temporary use”, an alcoholic who needs “Afonya ruby owes”, an unlucky bridegroom who didn’t have a wedding night due to a meeting of a garage cooperative — Brondukov’s appearance in the film guaranteed that the role would be remembered and the text sorted out on winged expressions, living for decades in the people.
He knew how to make a memorable and small role without a special text. It was enough to endow your hero with a comic touch that struck into memory - such, for example, the silly limp booze in the movie "We Are From Jazz". It is precisely such images that Brundukov brilliantly succeeds in, having earned him the epithet of Ukrainian Chaplin from film critics.
The title of national actor receives in 1988, 4 years after suffering the first stroke.
In 1994, the Ukrainian Dovzhenko Prize was established in Ukraine, marking the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the most outstanding director in Ukrainian history. And next year, Borislav Nikolaevich becomes her first laureate.
Across the screen
Brondukov's first marriage was tragically unsuccessful. His chosen one suffered from a mental disorder, which became known after the wedding. The marriage broke up, leaving Brondukova "inherited" a long depression.
The second marriage in 1968 was the result of a genuine and deep feeling. Brondukov was already thirty, his passion Catherine - 18. A year of persistent courtship convinced her of seriousness of intentions, and she accepted the offer to become the wife of the actor, which she never regretted. All the romanticism and hidden lyricism of his soul during long forced separation, care at home and tender attention during a joint stay. Brondukov generously gave back to his beloved, and she answered him with faithful reciprocity. In this marriage, the couple raised two sons, Constantine and Bogdan.
