The filmography of the Soviet and Russian theater and film actor Dmitry Orlovsky includes 93 films, and among this huge number there is only one film in which the artist played the main role. He began to actively act in films at the age of 50, and his lot was constantly played the roles of venerable old people and honored leaders. Orlovsky is an outstanding master of the episode, so he was in great demand as a supporting actor in the period 1960-80s.
Biography facts
Dmitry Dmitrievich Orlovsky was born in Moscow on October 18, 1906. He went to the profession of an artist for a long time and stubbornly, while not receiving any special acting education. It is known that from the age of 12, in 1918-1923, Orlovsky lived and worked in the Smolensk province in the village of Slobodishche. At 22, he was drafted into the army in the 8th Vorovsky Red Banner Regiment.
During the three years of his army life - from 1928 to 1931 - Dmitry Orlovsky mastered military science and realized that he did not like it at all. It was much more interesting for him to play sports and participate in amateur performances - this is how Orlovsky's acting talent began to show himself. The command of the regiment decided to appoint a young energetic soldier as a political instructor, but he categorically opposed and, with the help and support of one of his staff acquaintances, fled from the army.
Orlovsky returned to Moscow and got a job at the Krasny Proletary plant as head of a club and leader of an amateur group. For almost two years (1931-1932) he was doing what he loved, and then he was again called up for military service, where he "held out" until 1933, until he came up with a plan - how to part with the army forever. By that time, Dmitry Orlovsky had already joined the ranks of the CPSU, and this gave him the opportunity to carry out his plans, namely, to achieve expulsion from the party ranks as a "demoralizing element." It is not known what Orlovsky did to achieve his goal, but he was expelled from the CPSU in disgrace and demobilized from the army.
And he returned to Moscow again, worked for two years at the Theater of Cooperation and Trade, and then, in 1935, decided to return to the party ranks and appealed to the Central Control Commission of the CPSU. Dmitry Orlovsky was reinstated in the party, which in Soviet times was very important for the formation and development of a career.
The beginning of an acting career
At the end of the 30s, Dmitry Orlovsky's professional theatrical work began: he became an actor in the Theater of Working Youth (TRAM), which later transformed into the Lenin Komsomol Theater (Lenkom). Here he played the role of a guard in the play "How the Steel Was Tempered" (director I. Sudakov). And in 1939, Orlovsky made his debut as a film actor - he starred in a small episodic role of a railway worker in the film "Engineer Kochin's Mistake". However, this work in cinema was so insignificant that it makes no sense to consider it the beginning of a film career; Dmitry Orlovsky's full-fledged work in cinema will begin ten years after the Great Patriotic War - in 1956.
When the war began, Dmitry Dmitrievich Orlovsky was already 35 years old. He spent all four military years at the front as part of a concert brigade. Artists often had to perform in front of the fighters almost on the front line - to raise their spirits before the next battle; many times he even had to leave the environment, risking his life - the artist later recalled that he miraculously survived. For his contribution to the victory over the enemy, Orlovsky in 1946 was awarded the medals "For the Defense of Moscow" and "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". And in 1985, the artist was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree.
Shortly before the end of the war, Dmitry Orlovsky was sent to work in Yakutsk, where he headed the local drama theater. Later he was transferred to Vladimir, where he was engaged not only in the management of the theater, but also in its construction. And then Orlovsky left for Germany (GDR), where he worked in the First Theater of the Group of Soviet Forces. The incredibly colorful and varied administrative and theatrical activity of Dmitry Dmitrievich continued until he once again returned to Moscow. Here he began to work at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, and later - from 1962 - formally became an actor in the Theater of the Film Actor, which included almost all film actors who were not in demand in other theaters.
Creativity in cinema
In 1956, Dmitry Orlovsky again appeared on the set of Mosfilm: director Vladimir Basov filmed him in the episodic role of a member of the provincial council in the film "An Unusual Summer". Orlovsky's surname was not even included in the credits, but nevertheless, filming in this film marked the beginning of the artist's incredibly fruitful work in cinema.
Dmitry Orlovsky was a very charismatic figure - gray-haired, stately and dignified, and he played the same people in the movies: a shipbuilder in "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", the head of construction in the Golden Calf, Colonel in the Garage, Eldar Ryazanov, an old sailor in "Optimistic tragedy", the old master in "Andrei Rublev", etc. In the vast majority of films, his characters do not even have a name, but only a position or rank - school director, postmaster, militia commander, neighbor - the list is long.
93 albeit small film roles are an unconditional contribution to Soviet and Russian cinema. In 1989, Dmitry Dmitrievich was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
the main role
In 1971, Dmitry Orlovsky's "finest hour" came - he played the main role of the forester Mikhalych in the touching film "The Path of Unselfish Love", directed by Agasi Babayan. The plot of the film is based on the story "Murzuk" by Vitaly Bianki: Mikhalych found a lynx in the forest, which was saved from a bear by the mother lynx, herself dying at the same time. The forester fed and raised the baby. The grown-up Kunak - as Mikhalych called him - grew up and got used to it, began to study the house and its forest surroundings. Meanwhile, news about the new pet of the forester spread around the district, he was even offered to buy the lynx cub for a lot of money, but Mikhalych flatly refused. Once he detained a group of poachers and brought them to justice. After leaving prison, the poachers decided to take revenge on the forester: they stole Kunak and sold him to the zoo, and Mikhalych was tied up and thrown in the forest to be torn to pieces by the wolves. But the ending of the film is happy: the lynx escapes from captivity, finds Mikhalych in the forest and saves its friend and master from death by gnawing the ropes.
Subsequently, Aghasi Babayan made three more films - the continuation of the story about the life of Kunak the lynx: "The Lynx Goes on the Trail" in 1982, "The Lynx Returns" in 1986 and "The Lynx Follows the Trail" in 1994. However, in the second film of the tetralogy, the role of Mikhalych is no longer so significant, and in the third film, according to the plot, he generally dies at the hands of poachers, and Kunak has a new forester owner.
Personal life
There is no information at all about the personal life and family of Dmitry Dmitrievich Orlovsky - about his parents, wife, children. It is known that several years before his death, he lived in the House of Cinema Veterans, in the company of other actors - Anatoly Kubatsky and Daniil Sagal.
Dmitry Orlovsky lived for 98 years and died on December 4, 2004. He was buried in Moscow at the Danilovskoye cemetery, in the same grave with Orlovskaya Pelageya Ivanovna (1873-1951), as the inscription on the granite slab says. Comparing the dates of life and death, we can say with a fair degree of confidence that Pelageya Orlovskaya is the mother of Dmitry Dmitrievich Orlovsky.
In addition, in the comments to the actor's filmography, a certain man named Ivan claims that he is the grandson of Orlovsky, writes that he did not even suspect what an honored grandfather he had, since in his life he never boasted of his achievements, and expresses pride in the number of films in which Dmitry Orlovsky played.
