Algimantas Masiulis: biography and personal life

The other day marks the eighth anniversary of the death"The main German of the Soviet Union." He died in Kaunas after a serious illness. In the distant 70-80s of the last century, both ordinary Soviet spectators and directors, who took pictures of the war without stopping, considered this Lithuanian artist the best performer of the roles of fascists and Germans of all ranks and suits. So, the hero of this article - Algimantas Masiulis, Honored and People's Artist of the Lithuanian SSR.

The first years of life of the great Master

One of the most famous Lithuanian and Sovietactors of the second half of the twentieth century saw the whole of this huge world on the tenth day of July 1931. This happened in the small village of Surdeghis, Anikščiai district, in Lithuania. The boy was named Algimantas.

He was still very young when he took a veryan important decision for him to become an actor. And not just an actor, but very famous. The boy was drawn to this profession. He was attracted to her in that there he could fully open his soul, all his emotions, his talent, his skill. Therefore, Algimantas Masiulis, right after he received the certificate of high school, becomes a student at the famous Panevezhsky Drama Theater. The young man diligently learns acting skills and reincarnation in the studio, giving it all his strength, all the time. So, gradually, trying to translate his dream into reality, Masiulis Algimantas went to achieve his goal.

Theater Olympus

The future actor graduated from the studio in 1948. He was one of the best students in his release. Now in his luggage of knowledge there was a lot of experience and fundamental knowledge gained during his studies. The young actor seemed to be inspired by his first successes.

After receiving the diploma, Algimantas Masiulis becomes an actor who became close to him, dear and dear to the Panevezhsky Drama Theater. There he worked until 1978, and then left for the Kaunas Academic Drama Theater.

Fame in the Country of the Soviets

It is unfortunate that from a huge amountadherents of theatrical art only a small circle of theater-goers knew about the truly infinite talent of the most ordinary boy, a peasant son. But those few were looking forward to the announcement that they would organize a trip to Panevezys, the theater of Miltinis.

And already there, on the famous stage, embodying manycharacters, with inimitable skill played by a beautiful, noble and handsome actor Masiulis Algimantas. As a rule, along with him, supporting the magical atmosphere of the theater, Donatas Banionis, Bronius Babkauskas, Václavas Bledis were on stage ...

With a light hand of Miltinis

Masiulisu was lucky to be in the teamJuozas Miltinis, a great teacher and theater director. It was this talented person who could not only see the abilities of Algimantas, but also develop them. Juozas, with a specific goal, recruited nonprofessionals to the troupe, then teaching them both acting skills and cultural history in good manners and foreign languages. It was a great school for a beginner in his creative career Masiulis.

Many years later in one of the interviews MasiulisAlgimantas Ionovich shared his memories, telling that he was in a firm and unbreakable confidence: there are no recipes in art. No mathematical formulas can explain and describe the work. There are no rules here, but there are moral and ethical requirements. After all, the artist, even belonging to the caste of outstanding, has no right to humiliate a person or deprive him of the right to hope.

A contemporary of Lithuanian cinema

For the first time to step on the set AlgimantasMasiulis decided in 1955. We can say that he is of the same age as the Lithuanian cinema. At first he starred in a film about Ignotas, who returned home, but his real film debut, after which they began to recognize him, took place a little later, just a year later. It was a short film with the strange name “The Drowned Man”, which became the first feature film created at the Lithuanian studio.

The tape, which is the adaptation of the novel classicPetras Zvirki, consisted of only one part. Algimantas was invited to the main role - Ionis Shatas - an official of bourgeois Lithuania. His character gets into a situation that seems to be taken from anecdotes. All the ambitious aspirations of Shatas fail.

During the preparation for the shooting Masulis decidedplay in the manner of tragicomedy. He worked on the border between grotesque and earnest. At that time, Algimantas was one of the leading actors of the Panevezys Theater, he had a good school in store, and he played with high-level professionalism. Since the release of this short film, Masiulis began to appear on the screens with enviable regularity. At first these were works exclusively in Lithuanian films, and from the mid-sixties he began to collaborate with other studios.

"Cinema" fate

The short film "Drowned" was the debut ofthe work of director Vytautas Zalakyavichusa. It was with him in the tandem Masulis played some of his best characters. The actor has a sustained acting style of performance, a very expressive type, a minimum of visible performing costs with a maximum of form acuity. All this made Masiulis a vital recognizable and characteristic hero of the world of predators.

Each of his hero has a sharp expressiveness.with the greatest external restraint, focus of every moment of life, clear thought out and ability to build a role in general from the first to the last movement. All this, plus a bright characteristic appearance for many years determined the “cinematic” fate of Algimantas. On the stage, he shone in different roles, but on the set in the image of the villains. But, as you know, the villains, too, are different ...

Intelligent villains

As a joke Algimantas got the nickname of the mainfascist of the Soviet Union. And he himself dreamed of playing Don Quixote. But almost always, filmmakers saw in him a completely “not our” person. It seemed to them that it was Masulis who would ideally play a Western spy or SS man. So it was. For some reason, they thought that he had a typical bourgeois texture: the master's habits, the face of a real aristocrat, the look of an intellectual.

In Soviet cinema, the actor was responsible for the rolesforeigners. Beautiful blue-eyed blond with thin lips, a manly chin and very expressive, even a little predatory nostrils. Such an interesting texture, plus a light accent doomed him to play in the pictures about the war of the Germans, and in detective stories from the lives of Americans - the people of the United States.

This is not surprising, because his debut was the rolefascist officer. And yet, all-Union glory brought him the role of again the fascist Willie Schwarzkopf in the film "The Shield and the Sword." The director of the film, Vladimir Basov, suggested that he play his character not in the way that was customary in Soviet cinema, but in a completely different way. And he, thinking about the war, recalled that the soldiers did not care for the war, but among the officers it was possible to meet real ideological Nazis, educated people.

The last battle

Algimantas Masiulis, whose films are alreadyMillions of viewers watch with great pleasure for half a century, have played many interesting and diverse roles. In the movie, it was almost a hundred characters. On the theater stage - almost two hundred. And now, when this name sounds, his characters stand before his eyes: Squire Trelawney from Treasure Island, Shtufen from Engineer Garin's collapse, knight Guy Gisborne from Ballad of the Gallant Knight Ivanhoe, Sherlock Holmes from Blue Carbuncle, attorney Jeffson from the “American tragedy”, Karl Weierstrass from “Sophia Kovalevskaya”, Mr. Regan from the “Hearts of Three”, Dorman from “Kamenskaya” ...

His last work was the painting "Fritz and Blondes". The way he was in the frame of the film, and Algimantas Masiulis was remembered.

The actor himself often recalled with nostalgia the Soviet cinema and his past "German officer".

Algimantas Masiulis: family

With his wife Grazhina he lived for many years inKaunas, working in the local drama theater. Means in the family was not very much, because in Russia the stars are rarely remembered. They were helped by daughter Milda with granddaughter Agne, who, having decided to continue the medical dynasty of her mother and grandmother, graduated from the medical department and came to work at the children's clinic in Vilnius. The son took part in the filming of "Fritsev and blondes." This documentary became their collaboration with their father.

Algimantas Masiulis lived a long and interestinglife, during which he presented his viewers with beautiful characters and heroes. He was gone in 77 years. The heart of the great Lithuanian actor stopped beating on August 19, 2008.

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