Oleg Vidov died: the unpleasant truth about the deceased actor. Why actor Oleg Vivid fled from the USSR to the West

Oleg Vidov was one of the most popular Soviet actors. And one of the few who managed to star in foreign films. What made the Honored Artist of the RSFSR secretly flee to the West in the early 80s?

Foreign film star

Oleg Borisovich Vidov was born on June 11, 1943 in Vidnoye, near Moscow. His father, Boris Nikolaevich Garnevich, was an economist, his mother, Varvara Ivanovna Vidova, was a school director. Since childhood, the boy was interested in music and cinema. After school, Oleg initially worked as an electrician, but in 1960 he played his first film role - a tiny episode in A. Saltykov’s film “My Friend, Kolka!” In 1962, he successfully passed the exams for acting department VGIK and was enrolled in the workshop of Yuri Pobedonostsev and Yakov Segel.

While still a student, Vidov starred in “The Snowstorm” by Vladimir Basov, “ An ordinary miracle"Erast Garin, "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" by Alexander Ptushko. And in the leading roles! And in 1966, the Danish director Gabriel Axel invited him to play the main male role in the film “The Red Robe” based on the ancient Scandinavian sagas - the actor was very suitable for the type, and the auditions were successful.

In the late 60s, Oleg married the daughter of KGB general Natalya Fedotova - close friend Galina Brezhneva. Perhaps a profitable marriage contributed to future career actor. One way or another, he continued to be invited to appear in foreign paintings Oh. These were mainly Yugoslav films - “The Battle of Neretva”, “Do not mention the cause of death”, “Poison”... His main role in the Soviet-Cuban film “The Headless Horseman” (1971) became truly stellar for him. famous novel Mine Rida. This film became especially popular among Soviet teenagers.

In 1973, Vidov also entered the directing department of VGIK. In parallel with his studies, he continued to act in films. So, in 1974 he starred in the Soviet-Japanese film “Moscow, My Love”, and in 1976 - in the film “The Legend of Tila” by V. Alov and A. Naumov.

Opal

In 1976, Vidov divorced his wife. Natalya not only forbade him to communicate with her son Vyacheslav, but also tried to ruin his film career. “From above” even put pressure on the leadership of VGIK, demanding that Oleg not be given a director’s diploma. However, he still received it.

They stopped giving Vidov decent roles. Besides, most of the money he earned from filming foreign films went to the state treasury.

Oleg Borisovich began to think about leaving abroad, where he could live freely, where no one would “harass” him... The last straw was the cinematic authorities’ ban on concluding a seven-year contract with the Italian-American producer Dino De Laurentiis. Soviet officials said: “We don’t need Western stars in the Soviet Union.” The actor was not allowed to play Yesenin in the film “Isadora’s Lovers” by British director Karel Reisz. Reish was told that Vidov allegedly “fell ill”...

In 1983, Vidov was invited to star in the next Yugoslav film “Orchestra”. Despite his disgrace, he managed to travel to Belgrade on a tourist visa. Remaining in Yugoslavia, he starred in several films and TV series. However, in 1985, his native “authorities” found him and demanded that Oleg return to the USSR within 72 hours. A friend, Austrian actor Marian Srink, hid it in his car and drove it across the border into Austria. So Vidov ended up in the West, where he asked political asylum. From Austria he moved to Italy, where he met his future wife– American producer and journalist Joan Borsten. Together they left for the USA, where their son Sergei was born...

Our man in Hollywood

Oleg Vidov became the only one Soviet artists who actually managed to build successful career in Hollywood. His first American painting became the film "Red Heat". Then Vidov made a short film “The Legend of the Emerald Princess” for the Disney Channel and himself starred in leading role. The film received a prize at the New York Film Festival. Offers from American directors followed. He starred in “Wild Orchid”, then there were the films “Captive of Time”, “ Love story”, “Immortals”, “My Antonia”... In 1993, Vidov, after a long break, appeared on Russian screens - in the film “Three Days in August” about the August putsch in Russia in 1991.

The last film with his participation was released in the USA in 2014. On May 16, 2017, Oleg Vidov died in the USA at the age of 74.

NEW YORK– Oleg Vidov liked to repeat that he was a Russian actor, who, by the will of fate, lives in America. On May 15, he passed away after a long and unpublicized battle with cancer. On June 11, the favorite of several generations of Russian viewers would have turned 74 years old...

Just a couple of months ago, he and his wife, Joan Borsten, moved from a mountaintop mansion in Malibu to a larger, more accessible home in Westlake Village. Oleg, who several years ago actually retired from business due to ill health, helped Joan as best he could in her vigorous activities, met with friends, traveled a lot and wrote poetry.

Many of those who are older remember and love him from his undoubtedly stellar time, when in the 60s and 70s Vidov personified the male ideal in Soviet cinema. It was his irresistible attractiveness and powerful charisma that made him a standard of beauty and a sex symbol for tens of millions of Soviet viewers, and in an era when no one in the USSR had ever heard of this expression, and the word “sex” itself was actually banned.

Suffice it to recall his mustanger Maurice Gerald from The Headless Horseman, Prince Guidon from The Tale of Tsar Saltan, and the imperturbable policeman from Gentlemen of Fortune. And what myths surrounded the “export tour” of the blond idol to Denmark to film the “erotic” action film “Red Robe”...

In total, Vidov played more than fifty roles in films of various genres. Soviet authority was wary of his fame, fearing the actor’s “inappropriate” behavior. He was invited to prestigious international projects– “Battle of Neretva” and “Waterloo”, where he met at film set with such titan actors as Rod Steiger and Orson Welles.

His escape to the West in 1985 turned out to be a rather dangerous adventure, where only a series of favorable circumstances helped him cross the border safe and sound (he moved from Yugoslavia to Austria and then to Italy). And in Italy, probably the most important event of his hectic life"on two banks." He met Joan Borsten, a journalist working in Rome as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. It was love at first sight, both Oleg and Joan told the author of these lines many years later.

In America, interest in the artistic fugitive was fueled by the political background of his daring escape. The handsome Slav “chose freedom,” and then, at the time cold war, this spurred the curiosity of the media and the general public. The extent of Vidov's newfound fame is evidenced by this: the New York Times newspaper used his last name in its crossword puzzle.

Then, on the wave of interest in the “defector”, he began to be invited to prestigious projects. He played small roles in such popular Hollywood blockbusters as Red Heat and Wild Orchid. He played in both television films and TV series such as The Immortals and The West Wing.

Together with Joan Vidov, he was involved in restoration and publication in the USA for many years. Soviet cartoons on video media, and their partner in this project was Mikhail Baryshnikov. The Vidovs and their company Films by Jove received the rights to the Soyuzmultfilm studio collection and invested considerable resources in updating and translating into English best works Soviet animation.

The Russian side challenged the ownership of Film by Jove in court and demanded that the library be returned to Soyuzmultfilm. Legal battles continued for many years. And only when the New York court decided in favor of the Californian company, Russia, represented by the “authorized” oligarch Alisher Usmanov, bought the rights to rent the Soyuzmultfilm animation collection from the Vidovs’ company.

IN last years Vidov acted much less often. Affected by what he suffered complex operation on the pituitary gland. He told me: “America gave me a second life.”

Once, in one of the conversations, he admitted that his accumulated roles in American cinema and TV allow him to consistently receive good “royalties,” that is, deductions from the fee for the use of films with his participation. And he spoke sadly about the fact that many wonderful fellow actors in Russia end their lives in disastrous financial situation, since in Russia this system of payments to actors does not exist.

“My amazing husband and soul mate, whom I met almost 32 years ago in Rome at the home of Richard and Francesca Harrison, died last night peacefully and with dignity,” Joan Borsten said in a statement posted on her Facebook page. – Sergei, Anya (Sergei’s son’s fiancée) and I were with him continuously when he was discharged from the hospital, where he spent a week. Every day we sat together and watched his films, yesterday it was “Thirteen Days” and “The Tale of Tsar Saltan.”

The passing of the wonderful artist Oleg Vidov is mourned by his sons Vyacheslav and Sergey, friends and relatives of Oleg and Joan, and numerous fans of his talent in America, Russia and all over the world.

Films starring Oleg Vidov are remembered and loved to this day: “The Headless Horseman”, “Blizzard”, “An Ordinary Miracle”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “Gentlemen of Fortune”, “Moscow, My Love”. However, in the early eighties, the blue-eyed idol of millions suddenly disappeared from Soviet screens: he was one of the first film actors to leave for the West.

AiF.ru recalls the life of a popular artist who was banned in his homeland.

Gentleman of fortune

Vidov said about himself: “Difficulties do not frighten me. As long as they don’t touch me, don’t order me around.” He started working early: at the age of 14. IN work book The Honored Artist of the USSR has records of working as an electrician and even as an orderly. However, after graduating from school, the young man decided to radically change his life and went to the acting department at VGIK.

The directors quickly noticed the spectacular blond and, while still a student, began inviting him to episodic, but bright roles: a cyclist with an umbrella in “I'm Walking in Moscow”, the brother of the main character in “If You're Right...”, a polar explorer in “On Duty”. When the aspiring artist received an invitation to play the main role in the film adaptation of Pushkin’s story “The Snowstorm,” VGIK forbade the student to participate in the filming. The principled young man made his choice, for which he was immediately expelled from the university.

Director Alexander Ptushko and the leading actors in the film “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, actors Ksenia Ryabinkina and Oleg Vidov. 1966 Photo: RIA Novosti / Mikhail Ozersky

Public recognition and new roles were not long in coming: Pushkin’s Vladimir was followed by the Bear in Erast Garin’s “An Ordinary Miracle,” and Prince Guidon in “The Tale of Tsar Saltan.” Even the leadership of VGIK admitted their mistake and reconsidered the decision to expel the talented student. Vidov was allowed to immediately return to the fifth year, and the sought-after actor passed the academic difference in just eight months.

We can safely say that everyone New film with Vidov’s participation ended up in the golden fund of Soviet cinema, and the actor became one of the most promising artists of the Soviet screen. The actor’s greatest popularity came from filming in the Soviet-Cuban film “The Headless Horseman” based on the novel Mine Rida.

Oleg Vidov as Maurice Gerald in the film “The Headless Horseman”, 1973. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Opal

Oh so brilliant acting career like Vidov, many did not even dream of: he was not only known as a star of the domestic screen, but also regularly received invitations to participate in foreign projects. However gossips It was rumored that the secret of the artist’s success was a profitable marriage. Vidov married Natalia Fedotova daughter of a KGB general who was a close friend Galina Brezhneva, daughter of the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee.

The actor himself recalled the disgrace like this: “In 1976, I divorced Natalya Fedotova. I was not allowed to communicate with my son Vyacheslav. Regular attempts ex-wife ruining my life and career then served as one of the reasons for my departure... When I graduated from the directing department of VGIK in 1978, the management of the institute was faced with a choice: to award me a diploma or not. Because “from above” they demanded: “Don’t extradite!” “Thank God, I received my diploma. And then - for the same reason - how many roles I lost!”

Oleg Vidov with his son. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Once popular artist to fix own life, saw only one way out: to leave the USSR. He got this chance in 1983 in Yugoslavia, where he was finishing work on the film “Orchestra”. At this time, Vidov received a telegram demanding that he return to Moscow within 72 hours, but instead he left for Austria, and from there to Italy.

So Vidov ended up in the West, where, along with political asylum, he found real home: very soon he met his American wife and moved to live in the USA.

Ours in Hollywood

In America, the popular Soviet actor had to start everything from scratch: first he worked in a factory, and only then made his way to Hollywood.

Oleg Vidov and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film “Red Heat”, 1988. Photo: Still from the film

His first American film was “Red Heat,” where the Soviet actor’s partner was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then Vidov shot the short film “The Legend of the Emerald Princess” for the Disney Channel, where he himself played the main role. And then there was “Wild Orchid”, in which the Soviet “Prince Guidon” starred with Mickey Rourcom, Jacqueline Bisset and Carrie Otis. Only in 1993, the disgraced Vidov returned to domestic screens: he played in the Russian-American film “Three August Days,” dedicated to the August putsch in Russia.

Vidov is rightly considered one of the few Soviet actors who managed to continue his professional career in Hollywood. It is not surprising that the former idol of Soviet moviegoers did not regret his choice. And when the aged Vidov Russian journalists asked if he was happy in America, the actor replied: “In the Union, people’s hands were “cut off,” it was impossible to do anything. And here - please, go along any path. If you want, you can even become a millionaire, just work hard. People are respected here, even if your language is bad.”

Last Saturday, May 20, Soviet and American actor Oleg Vidov was buried in the USA at the Hollywood Forever memorial cemetery. He passed away at the age of 74 after a serious cancer illness.

In America, there was a sparing response to the death of Oleg Vidov: only the Hollywood Reporter came out with a long article, noting that in the USSR he was a box office movie star, and in the States he played two notable roles: in “Red Heat” with Schwarzenegger and in “Wild Orchid” with Rourke. It was also noted that his films remained in Soviet distribution - with the actor’s name cut out from the credits, and after perestroika he willingly came to his homeland and even appeared on Andrei Malakhov’s “Let Them Talk” program for his 70th birthday.

What did the Americans write about his departure?

The New York Times sparingly but respectfully reported that in Hollywood Vidov was called the “Soviet Robert Redford”, that the cowboy film “The Headless Horseman” sold 300 million tickets in 1973 (that is, we will be surprised personally, it turns out that all the population of the USSR, including babies, watched the picture almost one and a half times) and that the director of “Red Heat” Walter Hill categorically did not want to give Vidov the role of a bad guy, a Soviet drug dealer. "The camera doesn't want to believe that you negative character“, he told the artist, but he insisted: “I want to work with Arnold.” Before his death, his wife said, he and his family were rewatching “Thirteen Days,” a 2000 political thriller about the Cuban crisis, in which he starred as the Soviet representative to the UN (after filming this episode, everyone on the set applauded for a long time).

Other obituaries recall that he was an active philanthropist, opened a clinic for the treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction with his wife Joan Borsten (sold it in 2014), and explained his craving for charity in an interview in 2013 as follows: it’s hereditary for us, my aunt in Kazakhstan helped evacuees settle in a new place, so I want to help someone start new life... In general, everyone in California who knew him - and he had plenty of acquaintances among immigrants from Russia - says that he was a modest, friendly person without the slightest signs of star fever.

Left from bitter resentment

As for the Russian responses to his death, there is, oddly enough (although what’s strange about this in these days), a lot of anonymous online schadenfreude: he left... he betrayed... he didn’t do anything significant there, just like Kramarov, who advised him... here carried in their arms, was married to Brezhnev’s daughter, and there he played third-rate roles of Russians... according to merit and oblivion. Everything here is not true: he was friends with Galina Brezhneva, he was married to her friend Natalya Fedotova, and even then not for long. “Third-rate roles for Russians” is also a serious understatement; the majority of those who left Russian actors and they didn’t achieve that, but Vidov, after all, had twenty notable roles in major films, and if he had been allowed to leave in the mid-seventies, when Dino De Laurentiis, after playing Tomlinson in “Waterloo,” offered him two pictures a year, - he would become a world-class star. In the same way, at one time Tatyana Samoilova, the star of the film “The Cranes Are Flying,” was denied permission to leave - and, having played in Russia insignificantly for her talent, she died three years ago in loneliness, half-oblivion, half-madness. Vidov did not leave for a career, this is what everyone who today does not want to forgive his departure should understand: he did not have any career considerations, and he honestly expected to work abroad as a builder (fortunately, he had the skill since adolescence). And his cancer had not yet been diagnosed - it was in the early nineties that he began to experience so-called loss, a narrowing of his visual fields. So he was not going for treatment. He left into complete obscurity, out of bitter resentment, after several severe insults that he did not want to swallow - that’s all his fault.

In the sixties, he was still allowed to act abroad - and in 1966 he starred in the famous Danish-Swedish-Icelandic “Red Robe” together with the then twenty-year-old Gitte Henning; in the only erotic scene, he flatly refused to act naked, and only director Gabriel Axel convinced him: “Oleg, the Vikings didn’t wear underwear!” Vidov’s fee for the main role in this film went to pay for Annie Girardot’s work in Sergei Gerasimov’s film “The Journalist” (1967), which he himself talked about with constant irony.

From country to country

The author of the samizdat biography of Vidov, Alexander Rudensky (his book is posted online), tells in detail how on February 24, 1983, Vidov registered his third marriage - with the Yugoslav Verica Jovanovic - and on an ordinary tourist visa went to her in Belgrade, where he was immediately invited to star in several paintings. He exceeded his period of stay in Yugoslavia, he was categorically demanded to return to his homeland - and then his co-star in the film “Youth Orchestra” Marian Srink helped him obtain an Austrian visitor visa. Vidov’s departure to the West is surrounded by a lot of legends: they just wrote in Russia that he was transported across the border in the trunk of a car (otherwise trunks are not inspected at the border!). He left quite legally, although not without incident: he was recognized by the secretary of the Austrian embassy, ​​who had previously worked in Mongolia, where Vidov’s films were shown all the time. The visa was obtained without any problems. From Austria he left for Italy, and then - with the help former actress Joan Borsten - to the States (here they created a small company Films by Jove, and then got married). At first, he himself withdrew from friends’ funds. a small picture“The Legend of the Emerald Princess” (fortunately, he had a director’s education, he graduated from the Higher Directing Courses with Efim Dzigan and even directed the short film “Moving”) - the film was made for pennies, but it was noticed at the New York Film Festival; then, two years later, he was invited to “Red Heat”.

Like Kramarov, he did not become a millionaire

Of course, neither Kramarov nor Vidov achieved such fame in the States as in Russia, and did not lay claim to it. Both were leaving the late-stagnation USSR, where degeneration was visible in everything, there was a smell of rot everywhere and hopelessness seemed eternal. They left simply to live as they wanted. For Vidov, the opportunity to live without humiliation and act in accordance with your own desires, and not with the opinions of the film bosses, was more valuable than any success. He didn’t become a millionaire here, he made friends with whomever he wanted, traveled, wrote poetry, invited children from Russian marriages - and did not regret anything. He was a normal person, and the fickle adoration of the audience meant less to him than personal freedom. And those who, for the sake of this love, remained in their homeland, agreeing to endure everything for the sake of the comfort of their native nest, secretly envied him. Indeed, many people envied him: he was handsome, had an even character, and was loved by everyone (he really had the gift of instantly and effortlessly winning people over). And he himself said only to his younger self: “I had more strength and desires.”

For the past five years he has been seriously ill. No one heard his complaints.

He will lie in the Hollywood Forever cemetery next to the stars of the first magnitude, with whom he lived next door, and he will be remembered not for his acting achievements, but for the special expression in his eyes, especially noticeable in the film “The Headless Horseman” that brought him fame. It is obvious that this man does not need anything, but he will not allow anyone to humiliate himself. And if there were more of these, everything in Russia would be different.

Oleg Vidov was one of the most popular Soviet actors. And one of the few who managed to star in foreign films. What made the Honored Artist of the RSFSR secretly flee to the West in the early 80s?

Foreign film star

Oleg Borisovich Vidov was born on June 11, 1943 in Vidnoye, near Moscow. His father, Boris Nikolaevich Garnevich, was an economist, his mother, Varvara Ivanovna Vidova, was a school director. Since childhood, the boy was interested in music and cinema. After school, Oleg initially worked as an electrician, but in 1960 he played his first film role - a tiny episode in A. Saltykov’s film “My Friend, Kolka!” In 1962, he successfully passed the exams for the acting department of VGIK and was enrolled in the workshop of Yuri Pobedonostsev and Yakov Segel.

While still a student, Vidov starred in “The Snowstorm” by Vladimir Basov, “An Ordinary Miracle” by Erast Garin, and “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by Alexander Ptushko. And in the leading roles! And in 1966, the Danish director Gabriel Axel invited him to play the main male role in the film “The Red Robe” based on the ancient Scandinavian sagas - the actor was very suitable for the type, and the auditions were successful.

In the late 60s, Oleg married the daughter of a KGB general, Natalya Fedotova, a close friend of Galina Brezhneva. Perhaps the profitable marriage contributed to the actor’s further career. One way or another, he continued to be invited to appear in foreign films. These were mainly Yugoslav films - “The Battle of the Neretva”, “Do not mention the cause of death”, “Poison”... His main role in the Soviet-Cuban film “The Headless Horseman” (1971) based on the famous novel by Mine Reid became truly stellar for him. . This film became especially popular among Soviet teenagers.

In 1973, Vidov also entered the directing department of VGIK. In parallel with his studies, he continued to act in films. So, in 1974 he starred in the Soviet-Japanese film “Moscow, My Love”, and in 1976 - in the film “The Legend of Tila” by V. Alov and A. Naumov.

Opal

In 1976, Vidov divorced his wife. Natalya not only forbade him to communicate with her son Vyacheslav, but also tried to ruin his film career. “From above” even put pressure on the leadership of VGIK, demanding that Oleg not be given a director’s diploma. However, he still received it.

They stopped giving Vidov decent roles. In addition, most of the money he earned from filming foreign films went to the state treasury.

Oleg Borisovich began to think about leaving abroad, where he could live freely, where no one would “harass” him... The last straw was the cinematic authorities’ ban on concluding a seven-year contract with the Italian-American producer Dino De Laurentiis. Soviet officials said: “We don’t need Western stars in the Soviet Union.” The actor was not allowed to play Yesenin in the film “Isadora’s Lovers” by British director Karel Reisz. Reish was told that Vidov allegedly “fell ill”...

In 1983, Vidov was invited to star in the next Yugoslav film “Orchestra”. Despite his disgrace, he managed to travel to Belgrade on a tourist visa. Remaining in Yugoslavia, he starred in several films and TV series. However, in 1985, his native “authorities” found him and demanded that Oleg return to the USSR within 72 hours. A friend, Austrian actor Marian Srink, hid it in his car and drove it across the border into Austria. So Vidov ended up in the West, where he asked for political asylum. From Austria he moved to Italy, where he met his future wife, American producer and journalist Joan Borsten. Together they left for the USA, where their son Sergei was born...

Our man in Hollywood

Oleg Vidov became the only Soviet artist who really managed to build a successful career in Hollywood. His first American film was the film Red Heat. Then Vidov shot the short film “The Legend of the Emerald Princess” for the Disney Channel and starred in the title role. The film received a prize at the New York Film Festival. Offers from American directors followed. He starred in “Wild Orchid”, then there were the films “Captive of Time”, “Love Story”, “Immortals”, “My Antonia”... In 1993, Vidov, after a long break, appeared on Russian screens - in the film “Three Days in August" about the August putsch in Russia in 1991.

The last film with his participation was released in the USA in 2014. On May 16, 2017, Oleg Vidov died in the USA at the age of 74.