Anna Kolomiytseva is a Soviet theater and film actress. She lived 77 years and almost 50 of them worked at the Moscow Art Theater named after Gorky. She was not destined to play bright main roles - neither in the theater nor in the cinema. However, the characteristic images of the second plan created by Kolomiytseva were remembered by Soviet and Russian viewers - for example, the role of Lyubasha's mother in films about Ivan Brovkin.
Biography
Anna Andreevna was born on November 10 (October 29, old style), 1898 in the Kanavino settlement, a suburb of Nizhny Novgorod. The surname "Kolomiytseva" had nothing to do with her family: her father's name was Andrei Kondratyevich Puzanov (1867-1928), her mother's name was Alexandra Ivanovna Puzanova (1868-1942), Anna's older brother was Valentin Andreevich Puzanov (1896-1930), and the future the actress nee bore the surname Puzanov.
Anna spent her childhood and youth in the Nizhny Novgorod province: here she received her education, for two years (1919-1921) she studied at the studio school at the Nizhny Novgorod Drama Theater, one of the oldest in Russia. Such studios of Proletkult (proletarian culture) were then created throughout the country in order to reorient the theatrical art of Soviet Russia to a new ideology and to establish Soviet drama on the domestic stage. Studying in the studio was carried out at the level of professional theatrical educational institutions: in addition to general education subjects, the curriculum included the history of theater and art history, acting, diction, rhythm and plastic, the art of make-up and costume, musical accompaniment and design of the performance, as well as many other subjects. The training was conducted by actors, directors and theater teachers of the "old" school, passing on their experience to the younger generation, adapting it to the socialist revolutionary ideology. After graduating from such a studio school, the young actor had all the knowledge and skills of acting. The most talented students were assigned by a special commission to the troupes of Proletkult theaters. And in this way, after completing the training, Anna Andreevna Puzanova became an actress of the Military Proletkult Theater, and then, in 1921-1922, of the Moscow Working Mobile Theater. It was during this period - in 1922 - that Anna Andreevna took the stage name Kolomiytseva instead of the Puzanova surname, which was not quite euphonious for the artist.
Career in theater
In 1925, Kolomiytseva was invited to work at the Moscow Art Academic Theater (MKHAT) named after Gorky. The artist devoted almost half a century to serving this theater! Here she played about fifty roles, the most significant of which are Mrs. Cloppins, a neighbor of the main character's landlady in the play The Pickwick Club (after Charles Dickens), Annushka, Anna's maid in Anna Karenina (after Leo Tolstoy), the girl Glasha in the house of Kabanikha in "The Thunderstorm" and the old housekeeper Mikhevna in "The Last Victim" by A. N. Ostrovsky, elderly nanny Marina in "Uncle Vanya" and 80-year-old nanny Anfisa in "Three Sisters" by A. P. Chekhov, - the list is very significant. It is immediately clear that all the roles played by Anna Kolomiytseva are supporting roles, and most often age-related roles: nannies, aunts, grandmothers. And these roles fully reflected the character of the actress: she was very quiet and even somewhere timid, always remained in the shadow of her husband - Sergei Kapitonovich Blinnikov, also an actor of the Moscow Art Theater, whom she met and worked all her life together not only in the theater, but also in movie. Nevertheless, Kolomiytseva made a certain contribution to the domestic theater, creating very soulful images of her heroines. The services of the actress were appreciated by the state: in 1951 she was awarded the Stalin Prize of the II degree for her contribution to theatrical art.
Personal life and creativity
Anna Kolomiytseva's husband, Sergei Blinnikov, was three years younger than his wife. The figure is colorful: tall, stately, bald, in the theater and in the cinema he played bosses, collective farm chairmen, commanders. So he was in life: dashing, loud-voiced, with a very original sense of humor. His quiet and intelligent wife obeyed and obeyed her husband in everything. According to the recollections of Daya Smirnova, who played the bride of the protagonist Lyubasha in a dilogy about Ivan Brovkin, Kolomiytsev under Blinnikov "could not even utter a word." By the way, after the wedding, Anna Andreevna began to bear her husband's surname.
In 1928, the couple had a son, Kirill Sergeevich Blinnikov. He did not follow in the acting footsteps of his parents, but became a doctor, received a Ph. D. in medical sciences, and was a researcher at the Polio Research Institute. Cyril lived a short life - only 37 years old, died in 1965. The cause of death is unknown - Kolomiytseva and Blinnikov never told anything about their family and did not give any interviews. After the death of her son, Anna Andreevna, apart from her husband, had no close relatives at all.
Among the few facts known about the personal lives of Kolomiytseva and Blinnikov, it is necessary to note their contribution to the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Sergei Kapitonovich, like some other members of the Moscow Art Theater, asked to be sent to the front, but the management of the theater convinced the artists of the need to fight the enemy with the power of art: to go with concerts to military units and hospitals, to raise the morale of soldiers and officers. Spouses Kolomiytseva-Blinnikov performed a lot on the fronts of the war. And in 1942, they transferred to the state an impressive amount of money - for the construction of a bomber.
Film career
In 1950, the film career of Anna Andreevna Kolomiytseva-Blinnikova began. Her first film role was the cameo role of Marusya Gorova, the wife of the head of the mine. Further, as in the theater, followed by a string of supporting roles. In several films, the actress starred with her husband Sergei Blinnikov, and they very organically played the roles of spouses. So, in the film "Different Fates" (1956) Blinnikov plays the head of the workshop Zubov, and Kolomiytsev plays his wife Lyudmila.
The main contribution of Kolomiytseva to Russian cinema is her roles in the films "Soldier Ivan Brovkin" (1955) and "Ivan Brovkin on the Virgin Land" (1958). In these films, Kolomiytseva and Blinnikov also played spouses: Sergei Blinnikov embodied the image of Timofey Kondratyevich Koroteev - the imperious but fair collective farm chairman and Lyubasha's father, the bride of the protagonist. His wife and mother Lyubasha, a quiet and wise country woman, was played by Anna Kolomiytseva.
The actress also performed minor roles in such films as Anna Karenina (1953, the same role of Annushka as in the theater), A Simple Story (1960), My Little Brother (1961), Literature Teacher (1965) and others. In total, Kolomiytseva starred in 11 films.
The last years of the life of Anna Kolomiytseva
In 1969, the husband of Anna Kolomiytseva, Sergei Blinnikov, then already People's Artist of the USSR, passed away. And in 1974, Anna Andreevna decided to end her acting career and retire. The awarding of the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR to her was timed to this event. But life in retirement did not last long: on July 30, 1976, Anna Andreevna Kolomiytseva-Blinnikova died at the age of 78. They buried her at the Novodevichy cemetery next to her husband Sergei Kapitonovich and son Kirill Sergeevich.
