Galina Kravchenko is a Soviet theater and film actress. One of the first to become a graduate of VGIK, previously called the State College of Cinematography. Kravchenko was a real star of silent films. The performer was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
Galina Sergeevna was born in Kazan in 1905, on February 11. Together with her mother, the future famous actress moved to Moscow. She was fond of ballet and dreamed of becoming a professional ballerina. In the capital, the then beginning director Vladimir Pudovkin drew attention to her.
Artistic career
The beauty and spontaneity of the girl so charmed the young director that he convinced Galina to try her hand at acting. Pudovkin considered the artist his goddaughter. For many years he closely followed her successes, in difficult moments he helped with advice.
In 1921, Kravchenko graduated from the theater and choreographic school. For two years she was a ballet soloist at Zimin's opera. In 1922 Galina became a student at the State College of Cinematography. She chose the acting department. The girl passed the tests successfully.
The future performer studied for five years. Her mentor was the famous teacher and director Lev Kuleshov. Galina did not work as a ballerina in the experimental theater, which began in 1922, even during her studies. The student began her film career.
Film school students willingly participated in the crowd scene. This made it possible in practice to declare themselves. For the first time, Kravchenko starred in the film "Aelita". The episode was small, but the talented actress made a great start. Galina learned to box, was engaged in aerial gymnastics, learned to ride. These skills were welcomed by the avant-garde instructor in his course.
The actress began to work as a stuntman rather than a performer. However, the new rules of the game had to be accepted. Galina Sergeevna turned into a dummy denouncing the bourgeois way of life. The debut was followed by "The Gang of Father Knysh", "A Cigarette Box from Mosselprom".
The first prominent role went to the performer in 1924 in the film "In the Heat of NEP". The picture told about the moral decay of a business executive who fell under the influence of the environment.
Star roles
The young actress was offered the role of a sophisticated matron. The director responded to the girl's bewilderment with a remark about the obligation for a real artist to be able to reincarnate. Kravchenko accepted the challenge and coped with the task brilliantly.
In 1925 Galina Sergeevna was invited to the studio "Belgoskino". The film "Wilderness" tells about the opposition to the Polish troops of the Belarusian partisans. Galina was approved for the role of Wanda, the daughter of a Polish landowner. After filming, Kravchenko took over the staff of the Mezhrabprom-Rus film studio. She worked there for a long time. In this factory, the actress turned into the brightest star.
All the characters performed by the actress were distinguished by brightness, beauty, vitality and amazing charm. Posters with the image of Kravchenko adorned the entire capital. She starred in "The Merry Canary", "Doll with Millions", However, over time, the fashion for movie heroines has changed. The beauty did not fit into the new standards. She remained unemployed for ten long years. Helped to correct the situation of Kuleshov.
In 1933, he invited a former student to play Anabelle Adams in the soundtrack The Great Comforter. The work became a kind of confession of the master, permeated with longing for the outgoing silent cinema. A parody of the movie heroine of the twenties, that is, herself, Kravchenko performed with graceful wit.
Until the eighties, the actress was actively filming. Its main characters were typical and mostly elderly heroines. She played in "Girl with character", "Air mail", "Suvorov".
Life off the screen
From 1942, for a year, Kravchenko worked at the Russian Drama Theater in Tbilisi. Then she moved to the Film Actor's Studio Theater. In the sixties, the performer switched to the role of aging society ladies and mothers. There were few high-quality roles, but Galina Sergeevna was always in sight with the roles she got.
She has become a real history of cinema. She performed this role with brilliance for almost four decades. Kravchenko published a book of memoirs called "Mosaic of the Past", appeared on television, spent evenings at the House of Cinema. The demand for the actress remained until the end of her life.
In 1980, the performer received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Galina Sergeevna's personal life resembled a movie. Her first husband in 1928 was her former classmate, actor Andrei Veit. The family broke up shortly after the wedding, in 1929.
The actress married a military pilot Alexander Kamenev for the second time. Galina talked with the most famous people of her time. She met Alexandra Kollontai, Sergei Kirov, Leonid Utesov and Sergei Eisenstein.
In 1931, the artist gave her husband a child, the son of Vitaly. In 1937, the performer became a widow. In 1946 Vitaly played the role of young Danila in the motion picture Stone Flower. Filming took place in Czechoslovakia. The fourteen-year-old spent several months there, visited the caves of the Moravian Karst, where the main action of the film took place.
In 1939 Galina Sergeevna remarried. The director Nikolai Sanishvili (Sanova) became the chosen one. The family had a daughter, who later became an actress. In the film "Princess Mary" Karina Sanova (Shmarinova) played the main role. The actress passed away in 1996 on March 5.
Until the last days, the actress remained a cheerful and witty person. She was a great artist who, under the influence of the ongoing changes, managed to rebuild and become a real legend of Russian cinema during her lifetime.
