Grandmother of the whole country: Natalia Tenyakova died

Natalia Tenyakova, the wife and faithful creative partner of Sergei Yursky, who starred in such iconic Soviet films as "Big Sister" and "Love and Doves", and for a long time remained one of the leading actresses of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, died at the age of 80. She was a non-public person, rarely gave interviews and preferred the theatrical stage to cinema. However, Tenyakova was an epoch in the history of Soviet and then Russian theater, and generations of young actresses learned the profession from her performance. The pages of Natalia Tenyakova's biography are leafing through Izvestia.

Modest, beautiful

Natalia Tenyakova was born in Leningrad on July 3, 1944. She dreamed of an acting career from an early age, and after graduating from high school, she enrolled in the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography (LGITMiK), a course for theater director and teacher Boris Zone. Such famous Soviet actors as Olga Antonova, Lev Dodin, Viktor Kostetsky, Leonid Mozgovoy studied with her on the course. Already at the institute, her colleagues called her the first beauty of the Leningrad theater world. However, Tenyakova herself has always been modest, and later in an interview described herself in her youth as a "fat girl with pigtails."

After graduation, her career developed quickly and successfully. Tenyakova was accepted into the troupe of the Leningrad Lenin Komsomol Theater, where in 1966 she played the main role of Polly Peacham in the play The Threepenny Opera. In the same year, she starred as Lida Ryazayeva in Alexander Volodin's film "Big Sister." A year later, Tenyakova moved to the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater, where she very soon became one of the leading actresses of the troupe. As colleagues recalled, for many years, almost all young theater actresses tried to copy her extremely deep and realistic acting style.

Creative tandem

In the 1960s, Sergei Yursky was one of the leading actors of the BDT. However, they met Natalia Tenyakova not on stage, but on the set of the TV play "The Big Cat's Tale." According to Tenyakova, she fell in love with Jurassic from the first meeting. The feelings turned out to be mutual: after the first meeting, the actors practically did not part. Tenyakova immediately announced the divorce to her first husband, classmate Lev Dodin, and Yursky left his colleague, actress Zinaida Sharko, with whom he lived in a civil marriage.

The actors were in no hurry to officially start a family, and for several years they lived without signing their names. According to legend, the need to put x stamps in passports was forced by production: actors often went on tour, and unmarried couples were not accommodated in the same hotel room at that time. However, there is another version. In the 1970s, Jurassic, who was extremely popular in those years and played star roles in The Republic of SHKID and The Golden Calf, had a conflict with the party authorities of Leningrad. The reason was Yursky's friendship with the poet Joseph Brodsky, who was exiled from the USSR, because of which the actor was accused of sympathizing with dissidents. Jurassic's career was under threat, and his loved ones were also under attack: Natalia Tenyakova was strongly recommended to break up with the actor. But Tenyakova not only did not agree, but, in addition to marriage, she officially took her husband's last name. After that, Tenyakova and Yursky moved to Moscow, which, according to colleagues, destroyed the Leningrad theatrical landscape, which became much poorer after their departure.

Prima

In the capital, Natalia Tenyakova got a job at the Mossovet Theater, and in 1988, at the invitation of Oleg Yefremov, she joined the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, where she served until the last days of her life. Thanks to her professional skills, she quickly became one of the leading actresses of the troupe, playing dozens of roles on stage, including Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Madeleine Bejar in The Cabal of Saints, Gurmyzhskaya in The Forest. According to colleagues, she always kept a low profile, rarely agreed to talk to the press and shunned theatrical intrigues, but her authority was recognized by everyone, since it was based on high professionalism.

Tenyakova, an actress, was a true generalist, she could play any role — lyrical and heroic, comic and tragic. "Natalia Maksimovna was a pillar of the Art Theater troupe, an actress — a natural phenomenon (it is impossible to teach how to play "like Tenyakova" and even describe her charm) and a person who was extremely honest and real in everything. She set the bar both in her profession and in life, a bar that was almost unattainable, but necessary as a guideline," the obituary on the theater's website says.

Tenyakova participated in many creative projects of Sergey Yursky. When the actor was invited to star in the film "Love and Doves," only Jurassic, at the request of the director, managed to persuade her to take part in the filming. According to Tenyakova herself, she did not want to accept the role because she felt nothing in common with her character. In addition, Baba Shura was decades older than the 40-year-old actress, and Tenyakova's transformation required extremely complex makeup. Nevertheless, Tenyakova later spoke about the role of Baba Shura as one of her favorites. Nevertheless, after filming, Tenyakova chose not to stay in the cinema, focusing on theatrical roles.

The death of Sergei Yursky in 2019 was a real shock for the actress. Unable to stay alone in their shared apartment, she moved in with her daughter. Her job became her salvation: she played on stage, created the project "Moscow Art Theater Fridays". In recent years, she has suffered from age-related illnesses. The cause of Natalia Tenyakova's death was acute heart failure.