Why did Frunzik Mkrtchyan die? Frunzik Mkrtchyan - biography, facts - an infinitely talented Armenian actor

The actor, who almost always brought a smile to the audience, saddened the audience only once when he died on December 29, 1993. Frunzik Mushegovich Mkrtchyan was buried on New Year's Eve.

Later, the authors of a documentary film about the fate of the Armenian actor will emphasize in sync: on New Year’s Eve, the Armenians drank the first glass without clinking and in silence. The time was difficult, almost a siege, there was no electricity supplied to the houses, and it seemed to everyone that the usual normal life was over. Amateur footage of the funeral was superimposed on the sound of a national wind instrument: your heart breaks out in tears when you hear the “lamentation” of the duduki - a paraphrase of folk melodies - and see in the frame the tear-stained faces of thousands and thousands of Yerevan residents applauding the actor for the last time... Such footage cannot be compiled.

Nowadays, the actor is most often remembered in the role of chauffeur Khachikyan in the film “Mimino,” and Mkrtchyan is familiar to biased viewers from an episode in the film “Don’t Cry!” Remember how two people who had committed a fine are sitting in a debt hole and Mkrtchyan’s character suddenly asks his counterpart: “Do you want some candy?” And then he answers himself: “No!”

Many called him a “sad, cheerful man.” Still, there is a tragic beginning in the comic. Journalists also called the world-famous clown Yengibarov a clown “with autumn in his heart”...

The media claimed that during the filming of Mimino, Frunzik Mkrtchyan began to drink heavily. Filming even had to be canceled several times. As a result, director Danelia set a strict condition for the actor - either alcohol or a role. Mkrtchyan did not touch alcohol for several days. And then, they write, he came to the director and sadly said: “I understood why the world is ruled by mediocrity. They don’t drink and start working on their careers from the very morning.” And the best scene of the interrogation of witness Khachikyan in court was masterfully improvised by Mkrtchyan.

It would seem that then, during life in the Soviet Union, universal adoration was a passport to a happy and prosperous life. For example, a famous actor went through passport control at airports without documents: he simply showed his famous profile. A big nose, sad eyes, eyebrows wrinkled in sadness... He was called a comedian without a smile, like the great Max Linder. The actor’s relatives said that even as a child, Frunzik was helpless, “everyone laughed at him.” The little actor turned the site of a communal apartment into a theater stage. He acted out one-man performances on it, saying “whatever came into his head.” And the neighboring spectators laughed...

Legend has it that the actor himself treated his massive nose with humor and even composed jokes about himself. Vakhtang Kikabidze told the following story in an interview: “Archil Gomiashvili and I went to the premiere of the play Cyrano de Bergerac, in which Frunz played the role of Cyrano. In this performance there is a very long monologue by Cyrano, where he talks about his huge nose. For Frunz, this monologue turned out to be very short, it didn’t even last a minute. When we were driving in the car after the performance, I said to him: “Listen, Frunz, why did you shorten this long monologue so much? Still, a classic work...” And he replies: “Buba jan, when you talk about your nose for a long time, it’s unpleasant for Armenians.”

The actor’s brother Albert Mkrtchyan recalled an incident in the USA. “I have an article from the New York Times. “Five minutes of silence of Mher Mkrtchyan” is called. The fact is that at one of his performances in America, more than half of the audience were Americans who spoke neither Russian nor Armenian. Then the brother came to the front of the stage and stood silently for five minutes and looked into the hall. The audience fell from their chairs to the floor laughing. And Frunzik looked at them once again, bowed and left.”

They say that even today in many offices in Yerevan there are portraits of the talented fellow countryman Frunzik Mkrtchyan.

The actor's personal life was secretive and complex. As it turned out later, she was terribly unhappy. Unlike the life of a star of the Soviet screen.

Due to tragic coincidences, neither the son, nor the daughter, nor the actor’s wife survived to this day. Frunzik Mkrtchyan had three marriages; they met actress Damira, his second wife, while still at the institute. They gave birth to two children. In professional circles they said that the death of his daughter finally finished off Frunzik Mkrtchyan’s heart, but in fact, Nune died five years after the actor passed away. His brother Albert spoke about this: Nune, who had undergone a complex operation, was sitting in the ward with her husband, and a blood clot came loose from her... By the way, after the death of Frunzik, his adult mentally ill son Vazgen was also adopted by him... Vazgen died at the age of 33 from cirrhosis of the liver . This happened quite recently.

Events developed and “finished off” Frunzik Mushegovich increasingly: life in the house after a while became unbearable due to scenes of Damira’s jealousy. As it was said in the same documentary, after performances or filming, the artist did not even want to return home. The wife's hysterics and scandals were inexplicable and became more frequent. The birth of a second child, a son, did not change anything. This continued until the famous artist turned to doctors. The verdict is schizophrenia.

And at the beginning of their life together, she even accompanied her husband on the set... For example, in “Prisoner of the Caucasus,” Damira was given an episode: she played the wife of Comrade Saakhov’s driver. Remember the beautiful woman who sadly tells Yuri Nikulin’s hero at the gate about local customs - bride kidnapping? In a word, when the efforts of local specialists were powerless, Damira was sent to a psychiatric clinic in France.

Later, Frunzik married again to a charming woman - the daughter of the chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia Oganesyan. They say that when the actor once again went to the registry office, one of his friends scolded him, asking if he frequented this institution. To which Frunzik replied with his characteristic humor: “Chaplin actually married eight times. Am I worse? Alas, this marriage also broke up. “Was he a reserved person? - says Albert Mushegovich. - No, he lived among people. And at the same time he lived alone. Once, when he was asked why he walked the streets at night alone, Frunzik was surprised: “Why alone? Cats are walking, dogs are walking. So I'm not alone."

After failures in his personal life, Frunzik focused his attention on children and theater. Everything seemed to be getting better. Nune's daughter got married and left with her husband for Argentina. The meaning of Frunzik’s life was his son Vazgen. However, the young man’s behavior also began to worry his father. Vazgen was consulted by the best psychiatrists, who, alas, were powerless in this case. The boy inherited his mother's mental illness. They say that when Vazgen was placed for some time in the same French clinic where Damira was, they did not even recognize each other. Tragedy...

In the last years of his life, Frunzik abandoned cinema, concentrating all his efforts on creating his own theater. Colleagues at the Yerevan Sundukyan Theater call him an actor from start to finish. Frunzik Mkrtchyan conquered all the roles: tragedian, comedian, classical, contemporary... And everything should have worked out for the famous and beloved actor... And the theater could and should have been... He didn’t have time. Or tired?

He died instantly in his sleep. Heart attack. People's Artist of the USSR, laureate of the USSR State Prize, laureate of the State Prize of the Armenian SSR Frunzik Mkrtchyan was only 63 years old.

Albert Mkrtchyan once expressed his version of his brother’s death: “Frunz wanted death, he was eager for it, he dreamed about it, cruelly extinguishing his life instincts. It was not time that destroyed him, nor his addiction to wine and tobacco... No, he deliberately walked towards his death, not having the strength to survive the illness of his son and wife - a huge family grief.”

- July 4, 1930, Leninakan - December 29, 1993, Yerevan) - famous Soviet theater and film actor, theater director. People's Artist of the USSR (1984)." />

Name	Frunzik Mkrtchyan
original name	Ֆրունզիկ Մկրտչյան
birth name	Frunze Mushegovich Mkrtchyan
Date of Birth	4.7.1930
Place of Birth	Leninakan, Armenian SSR, USSR
Date of death	29.12.1993
a place of death	Yerevan, Armenia
profession	actor, director
years of activity	1955-1993
imdb_id	0594796

Frunze (Frunzik, Mher) Mushegovich Mkrtchyan(hy Ֆրունզիկ (Մհեր) Մուշեղի Մկրտչյան; July 4, 1930, Leninakan - December 29, 1993, Yerevan) - a famous Soviet theater and film actor, theater director. People's Artist of the USSR (1984). Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1978).

Biography

Since 1945 - assistant projectionist at the textile factory club in the city of Leninakan, in his free time he attends rehearsals of an amateur theater.
Since 1947 - Leninakan Theater named after. Mravyan.
1951-1956 - studied at the Yerevan Theater and Art Institute.
1956 - accepted into the troupe of the Academic Theater named after Sundukyan in Yerevan. In parallel with his studies, he begins acting in films. The first film with his participation (“In Search of the Addressee”) was released in 1955.

Family

Father - Mushegh Mkrtchyan (1910-1961) timekeeper.
Mother - Sanam Mkrtchyan (1911-1970) dishwasher in the factory canteen.
Brother - Albert (born 1937) director, screenwriter.
Sisters - Ruzanna Mkrtchyan (b. 1943), Clara (1934-2003).
His first love is Juliet, whom he never married because her family objected and she was married off to someone else.
First wife - Donara (1941-2011), mother of his children, known in Russia as his wife Dzhabrailova in "Prisoner of the Caucasus". Theater actress Sundukyan. She suffered from a severe hereditary mental illness. She was hospitalized in France. She was also in a psychiatric hospital in the city of Yerevan. She spent the last 25 years of her life in the Sevan psychiatric hospital.
- Son - Vazgen (also called Vaag) suffered from a hereditary mental illness that was passed on to him from his mother, and died after the death of his father, in 2003, at the age of 33.
- Daughter Nune (Nina) died in a car accident in Argentina in 1988 (she was 39 years old). (according to other sources, in particular - brother Frunzik, died in the postoperative period (cervical cancer) from blockage by a blood clot. Source - http://akter.kulichki.net/se/mkrtchan.htm)
The second wife is Tamara, an actress, the daughter of the chairman of the Writers' Union of Armenia, Hrachya Hovhannisyan.
Granddaughter (from daughter) - Gayane, lives in Argentina.

Personal life

Mkrtchyan's first wife, Donara Pilosyan, suffered from mental illness and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Mkrtchyan became a single father with two small children. His son inherited his mother’s mental illness, which later led Mkrtchyan to depression and alcohol abuse. In 1993, he died in his apartment in Yerevan. Thousands of people came to the funeral; a funeral column with Mkrtchyan’s body passed along the central street of the city. He was buried in the Pantheon of Heroes of the Armenian Spirit in Yerevan.

Great actors, even comedic ones, often have complex and difficult destinies. I would like to remember the People's Artist of the Armenian SSR Frunzik Mkrtchyan (Frunze (Mher) Mushegovich Mkrtchyan (1930−1993)). The entire Soviet Union loved him - his memorable appearance, kind eyes, wonderful facial expressions, plastic movements, bright roles. There was no end to his fans; he was a welcome guest in almost any home, both in his historical homeland and throughout our vast country. He considered the great Charlie Chaplin his idol. He said: “Chaplin is for me like Bach in music - a teacher of humanity. Just as life is full of surprises, Chaplin never ceased to amaze me. One day Moscow television made a documentary about me. It began with footage of a little boy watching a film with Chaplin in a cinema, and burning with the desire to one day play in a movie just like him. This was no coincidence. I became a comedian because I dreamed of it since childhood. I have great respect for all the pioneers of the cinematic grotesque. They were what Gagarin became in astronautics. But I personally cannot put anyone on a par with Chaplin.”

Meanwhile, few knew about his difficult fate, about the tragedies that haunted Frunze Mkrtchyan. All his life, despite his dreams of serious dramatic roles, most likely even tragic ones, he most often got roles in comedy films such as “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Mimino”, “Vanity of Vanities”. He gave his all on the set one hundred percent, played with his soul, many of his phrases became catch phrases, and they were repeated by the whole country.

The man who gave joy to his viewers was deeply unhappy in his personal life. His wife Damira, with whom he lived for several years and who bore him two children, daughter Nune and son Vazgen, turned out to be mentally ill. The doctors' verdict was terrible - schizophrenia. Local doctors could do nothing to help her and her relatives sent her to a psychiatric clinic in France for treatment. Meanwhile, the actor’s daughter got married and left for Argentina - his son Vazgen became the meaning of Frunze’s life. Unfortunately, he, like his mother, was mentally ill. Mkrtchyan’s second marriage, his hope, with the charming Tamara, daughter of the chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia Oganesyan, did not bring him happiness and very soon broke up.

In the last years of his life, Frunze was engaged in creating his own theater. He died on December 29, 1993 in Yerevan. For many connoisseurs of the outstanding actor’s talent, this day became a day of mourning. On December 31, thousands of people took to the streets of Yerevan to see off the people's favorite on their last journey. Contrary to popular belief that the artist’s health was severely damaged by the death of his daughter in a car accident, Nune died in Argentina after the death of her father. She underwent a complex operation, after which a detached blood clot led to the death of the actor’s daughter. Son Vazgen died not long ago from cirrhosis of the liver.

Today in the city of Gyumri, in Frunze’s homeland, there is a museum named after him, and in Yerevan there is the Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theater, the artistic director of which was Frunze’s brother, Albert Mushegovich, a talented film director. On the theater building there is a memorial plaque depicting the famous profile of the great, talented actor and wonderful person, Frunzik Mkrtchyan, whose bright image is forever in our memory!

Almost all the films in which the nation's favorite actor played became classics of Soviet cinema. For his talent, he received the title of People's Artist of the USSR and became a laureate of the State Prize. However, Frunzik Mkrtchyan’s personal life did not develop as smoothly as his career, and perhaps domestic troubles brought his end closer - the cause of the actor’s death was a heart attack that occurred on New Year’s Eve 1993.

Brief biography of Frunzik Mkrtchan

He was born on July 4, 1930 in Leninakan in a family where besides him there were three more children. Frunzik's parents worked at a textile mill, and in order to feed the family, his father committed a crime - he stole a five-meter piece of fabric. For this, Mushegh Mkrtchyan was sent to camps for ten years, and his mother tried to feed her four children with her meager salary.

As a child, Frunzik discovered a talent for drawing, and his father wanted him to study to be an artist, but his love for drawing turned out to be less than the passion for theater that arose in Mkrtchyan’s soul when, at the age of ten, he began studying in the school drama club.

Before entering the Theater and Art Institute, Frunzik Mushegovich worked for several years as an assistant projectionist at a club and studied in a studio at a drama theater in his native Leninakan.

From the very beginning, teachers recognized Mkrtchyan’s extraordinary talent, and already in his second year he began playing on the stage of the Yerevan Theater. Sundukyan. He quickly gained popularity, and spectators went to the theater to watch Frunze Mkrtchyan play.

The cinematic biography of Frunzik Mkrtchyan began with a small role in the film “The Secret of Lake Sevan”, then, in 1960, he starred in the film “The Music Team Guys”.

After a five-year break, Mkrtchyan was invited to the comedy “Thirty Three,” but the real breakthrough in the artist’s career was the film comedy “Prisoner of the Caucasus,” which opened the talented actor to the entire Soviet Union.

Personal life of the actor

For the first time, Frunzik tied the knot while still studying - Mkrtchyan’s chosen one was his classmate Knara. However, the student family could not stand the test of lack of money and difficulties in everyday life, and soon broke up. Frunzik Mkrtchyan's second wife Donara Pinosyan was eleven years younger than him.

They met when Donara came to enroll in a theater university, and Frunzik himself was already working in the theater. They got married, a daughter, Nune, was born into the family, and thirteen years later, a son, Vazgen.

The personal life of Frunzik Mkrtchyan in the first years of marriage was successful - he and his wife worked in the theater, their children were growing up, and then it was discovered that Donara was seriously ill - she was inherited a serious mental illness, which could not be cured - even the best specialists to whom the actor showed his wife were powerless.

Family life for Mkrtchyan turned into a real hell - the wife became pathologically jealous, did not let her husband go even a step, and started terrible scandals. This affected the actor’s career - for a long time he did not appear on the theater stage and did not act in films.

Donara was placed in a psychiatric clinic, where she spent the last twenty-five years of her life. Meanwhile, Frunzik was left alone with his daughter and son, who, as it turned out later, was sick with the same hereditary disease as his mother, and this was another blow for Mkrtchyan.

In the early eighties, Frunzik met Tamara Oganesyan, the daughter of the chairman of the Writers' Union of Armenia, who was twenty-five years younger than him. For the sake of Mkrtchyan, she left her husband, but the marriage with Frunzik was short-lived - after a few years they separated, and the actor was left alone again.

In recent years, the actor refused invitations to star in this or that film, and devoted all his energy to creating his own theater, but never had time to fully enjoy the fruits of his labor.

Frunze Mushegovich Mkrtchyan (July 4, 1930 - December 29, 1993) - Soviet theater and film actor, Armenian by nationality. Over the course of his entire acting career, he starred in more than 35 feature films, and also worked for more than 30 years at the Yerevan Theater. Sundukyan, and later organized his own theater. In 1978, Frunze Mkrtchyan was awarded the USSR State Prize, the second most important award of the Soviet Union, and in 1984 received the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

To understand the full power of his talent, you need to look not only at his work in cinema, where he mainly played comedic roles, but also in the theater.

Frunze Mkrtchyan was born in 1930 in Armenia in the city of Leninakan (now the city of Gyumri) into a family of simple workers at a local textile mill. In the 1930s, it was fashionable in the USSR to name children after revolutionary heroes, military commanders and other cult figures. So the boy received a name in honor of the Soviet statesman Mikhail Frunze. Later, having already become a famous actor, he wanted to change his name to Mher, which translated means “bright, sunny.” According to another version, viewers began to call him Mher when the Theater named after. Sundukyan, in which Mkrtchyan played, toured Lebanon. According to Frunzik’s brother Albert, the actor had two passports: in one he was “Frunze Mkrtchyan”, in the other - “Mher Mkrtchyan”.

In 1952, Mkrtchyan entered the Yerevan Theater Institute, and while in his second year, he began acting at the Theater. Sundukyan. In 1955, the actor made his film debut in a cameo role in the film “Looking for the Addressee.” Subsequently, Mkrtchyan acquired a comedic role, and he successfully played in such famous films as “Thirty-three” (1965), “Prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik’s New Adventures” (1966), “Don’t Cry!” (1969), “Mimino” (1977), “Singles are provided with a hostel” (1983).

Frunzik Mkrtchyan's popularity grew with every film in which he starred. However, the actor’s personal life did not go so smoothly. He married very young for the first time and divorced quite quickly. Mkrtchyan met his second wife, Danara, in the mid-50s, when she came to Leninakan to enter the theater institute. Frunzik and Danara got married and began working together at the Yerevan Theater. Sundukyan. Later they had a daughter, Nune, and then a son, Vazgen. It seemed that Mkrtchyan’s personal life had improved, but suddenly Danara became seriously ill. She was diagnosed with a severe hereditary mental illness that was practically untreatable. Frunzik showed his wife to many specialists, but they just shrugged. Because of her illness, Danara was constantly jealous of her husband, claiming that in every corner of the country where he went on tour, his mistresses were waiting for him. The actor's home life became a real hell.

Due to family problems, Mkrtchyan had to refuse many film roles. They gradually began to forget about him. Fame returned to the actor in the late 1970s, when he starred in his triumphant role in the film Mimino, for which he received the USSR State Prize. But Danara’s condition worsened, and Mkrtchyan had to hospitalize her in a psychiatric hospital in France without the right to leave. Frunzik was left alone with two children. After some time, his daughter Nune married a student from Argentina and went to his homeland. Soon after this, Vazgen was diagnosed with the same disease as Danara. Mkrtchyan did not lose hope of curing his son, but all his efforts were in vain. Vazgen was hospitalized in the same clinic as his mother. They said that when they met in the hospital corridor, they never recognized each other. Mkrtchyan tried to establish family life again and married the daughter of the chairman of the Writers' Union of Armenia Tamara Hovhannisyan. But a few years later the couple broke up.

Due to unsettled personal life, Mkrtchyan began to abuse alcohol. He almost never acted in films and left the theater. One day Frunzik was hospitalized in a hospital, where he experienced clinical death, and doctors literally pulled the actor out of the other world. On December 29, 1993, Mkrtchyan drank a lot again. His brother Albert, who had been caring for him all this time, became worried when Frunzik did not answer his phone calls the next morning. Going to his apartment, Albert discovered that his brother had died. The death of Frunzik Mkrtchyan was a huge tragedy for the Armenian people, because the beloved actor was only 63 years old. Farewell to him took place on December 31, 1993. Thousands of people followed Mkrtchyan’s coffin, seeing him off on his last journey.

After Frunzik's death, his mentally ill son was adopted by his brother Albert. Vazgen Mkrtchyan died in 2004 from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 33. Nune Mkrtchyan died after a major operation in 1998, outliving her father by only 5 years.

As a child, Frunzik was helpless, everyone laughed at him, he was thin, with a big nose, but it turned out that God gave him enormous acting talent. He lived like this all his life - he was a funny and sad person at the same time. And the USSR adored its talent.
- Albert Mkrtchyan

Frunzik wanted death, he was eager for it, he dreamed about it, cruelly extinguishing his life instincts. It was not time that destroyed him, nor his addiction to wine and tobacco... No, he deliberately went to his death, not having the strength to survive the illness of his son and wife - a huge family grief.
... An actor from start to finish. We, colleagues, stood behind the scenes, watched and waited to see what new things he would do in his role today. We knew that he would definitely improvise, and it was a brilliant improvisation. It was amazing how resourceful he was. He could make the whole room laugh. I remember his performances, which began with Homeric laughter in the auditorium, and this laughter continued throughout the performance. In general, Frunzik was an amazing person - he started the day with a song and was happy. On the other hand, there was always a feeling of some kind of tragedy in him...
... A man comes into this world with an armful of brushwood and his task is to burn it to the end so that it does not turn into decay. Unfortunately, Frunzik could not burn it all, and there was a lot of fire there. We lost a lot of Frunzik's warmth.
- Khoren Abrahamyan

I understood why the world is ruled by mediocrity. They don’t drink and start working on their careers from the very morning.

A true comedic actor, somewhere in his second plane he is tragic. Such were Evgeny Leonov, Andrei Mironov, Yuri Nikulin, and of course, Frunzik Mkrtchyan... The Armenians have a phrase: “I will take your pain.” This is the highest manifestation of humanity. In many ways this remains from Frunzik in me.
- Alla Surikova