Valentina Kovel is a Soviet and Russian film and theater actress. People's and Honored Artist of the RSFSR and the USSR was awarded a Special Diploma at the First Festival of Contemporary Drama in Smolensk.
The famous theater director Tovstonogov called his favorite performer Valentina Pavlovna Kovel. The actress was never shy about appearing funny. Until the last days she strove to maintain optimism and vitality.
The beginning of the path to the top
The biography of the future actress began in 1923. A girl was born in Petrograd on January 23 in the family of the head of the Murmansk Directorate of Glavsevmorput.
The child loved sports. Valya played basketball and dreamed of a professional career. After school, Kovel planned to receive education at the Lesgaft Institute. However, the director of the school recommended a theatrical career to the talented girl. Valentina decided to try it, and in 1941 she became a student at the workshop of the famous actor Leonid Makariev.
The beginning of the training coincided with the beginning of the war and the blockade of the city. Valya worked in the hospital, managing to sing and dance for the wounded. The students and teachers were evacuated in the winter of 1942. Kovel shared all the hardships of wartime with her friend Dina Schwartz. Together, the girls began working in the BDT years later. Even in a terrible time, Kovel tried not to lose optimism, hoping that soon all the horrors would end.
In 1945, the graduate was invited to the troupe of the Pushkin Theater (modern Alexandrinsky Theater). She made her debut on stage as an aspiring actor in the role of Zoya Tolokontseva in Years of Wanderings.
Family and career
The audience remembered the small role for a long time thanks to the talented performance of Kovel and the skillful copying of the behavior of the "experienced fighters" by the young performer. Critics reacted favorably to the artist's first work. She received laudatory reviews.
The first husband of the performer was the artist Igor Dombek. A child appeared in the family, daughter Catherine.
Kovel attributed her favorite roles to Polixena in "Truth is good, but happiness is better", Nastya in "At the bottom", Marya Antonovna, the mayor's daughter, in "The Inspector General". By the early fifties, a meeting with her future husband, actor Vadim Medvedev, took place at the Pushkin Theater.
Together, young people were never bored. Both were connected not only by love, but also by true friendship. Tue that the couple officially became husband and wife, formed a family, at first no one who knew them believed.
Together, the couple began work in the BDT team at Tovstonogov. The director taught Valentina the profession, inner monogues, the ability to fill scenes. Among the most valuable skills of artists, he attributed the uttermost. silence in the hall while they are performing performances. Valentina Pavlovna said that earlier she believed that laughter among the audience was good luck for a funny play, it turned out that silence is much more important.
Accustomed to the typical repertoire, the artist had a chance to make her debut with Tovstonogov. Valentina Pavlovna was assigned the role of Lida Belova, an employee of a savings bank, in the production of Traditional Collection. This and all subsequent works were strikingly different from the usual role. They did not have an eccentric comedic beginning, but they were sincere, inconspicuous. Playing the characters required the highest skill.
Universal performer
They said about Valentine that the actress is not afraid to appear ridiculous on stage. She also managed to play equally brilliantly the brawler Brandakhlystova in the opera farce "The Death of Tarelkin" with Manetha in the comedy "Enough for Every Wise Man," and Esther, who was going through difficult trials in Miller's "Prices,"”, Liza in“Valentine and Valentine”, Anya Khoroshikh in the play“Last Summer in Chulimsk”.
The sharp-witted performer preferred not simple comedies, but the tragicomedy genre. Critics called her work sniper accurate.
The artist was equally successful in the image of Vera Sergeevna Kuzkina, the wife of a speculator and an alcoholic in Energetic People, and the mare Vyazopurikha in The History of a Horse. The director himself especially singled out Kovel for her courage.
For her flamboyance of character, honesty, and directness, Valentina Pavlovna became the favorite of the whole troupe. The actress in relation to herself and others was demanding, but she was responsive, always came to the rescue. Kovel was especially distinguished by her incredible optimism and amazing sense of humor. She was always radiant with energy, was hospitable.
According to the recollections of friends and colleagues, in everything the talented Kovel even managed to collect mushrooms brilliantly quickly. During the time when the people around had time to collect a few pieces, she already had half the basket. Valentina Pavlovna was famous for her famous "bachelorette parties" Kovel. Actresses from all theaters gathered at them.
Film and TV activities
In the movie, the actress starred very rarely. She was assigned the roles of the second plan. However, thanks to the skill, all the characters played on the screen turned into bright and lively people, and not into subtle shadows against the background of the main characters.
So, in the famous television series "Born by the Revolution" Kovel surprisingly vividly portrayed the pimp Nyurka. Together with her, her husband Vadim Medvedev starred in the image of the old investigator Nil Kolychev.
Most often, the performer took part in television performances. The most famous role of the artist was matchmaker Kabato in the legendary production of "Khanuma".
Receiving the title of People's Artist of the country in 1988 did not diminish the actress's usual self-discipline. In the new 1997-1998 season, rehearsals of the comedy "Quadrille" began. In it, the performer got an interesting role. However, in 1997, on November 15, the talented artist died. A documentary film "The Mocking Happiness of Valentina Kovel" was filmed about her in 2008.
