Actor Alexander Shirvindt, the king of phlegmatic humor, has died

Alexander Shirvindt was called “the king of phlegmatic humor,” recalls with the BBC. He was one of the most popular Soviet actors, although he played only one leading role, and not in the most famous film - the handsome swindler Leonido Papagatto in the comedy “A Million in the Marriage Basket.”

But his supporting roles were so vivid that the public remembered them no worse than the main characters. Shirvindt is Harris in “Three Men in a Boat” (perhaps this role can also be called the main one), one of Zhenya Lukashin’s friends in “The Irony of Fate”, director Firelli in “The Circus Princess”, restaurant pianist Shurik in “Station for Two” and bureaucrat Myasoedov in “Forgotten Melody for Flute”.

Shirvindt’s acting type was completely definite: even when playing ordinary people, he remained an imposing gentleman with high self-esteem, who moves slowly, speaks little and weightily, is self-confident and calmly calm, and behaves with emphasized dignity in any situation. A smoking pipe, with which he often posed, suited the artist’s image very well.

In the cult performance of the 1970s on the stage of the Moscow Theater of Satire, they formed a magnificent duet with the impetuous, sparkling Andrei Mironov: he is Figaro, and Shirvindt is Count Almaviva.

In total, Alexander Shirvindt played 64 roles in the theater and 53 on the screen.

He was born into the family of a violinist in the Bolshoi Theater orchestra, a friend of the famous Leonid Utesov. His parents sent their son to a music school, but when choosing a profession, he, in his own words, chose theater without hesitation.

He graduated from the Shchukin Theater School, played in the Lenin Komsomol Theater (Lenkom) and the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya. In 1970, he finally found himself at the Satire Theater. As a result, he was the artistic director of this theater for about 20 years.

The actor loved fishing and complained about the lack of freedom in the Russian Federation. According to him, living in Russia is “interesting, but scary.” However, Shirvindt was not involved in political activity - according to him, he was too ironic about everything.

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Shirvindt and Derzhavin

Perhaps, Shirvindt’s greatest fame was brought to him by his pop duet with Mikhail Derzhavin, in which he played a gloomy character, and his partner played an expansive and verbose one.

The phrase “Shirvindt and Derzhavin” was at one time as stable as “Ilf and Petrov” or “Kartsev and Ilchenko”.

Shirvindt and Derzhavin organized sit-down stand-ups (so to speak) - they sat on stage and joked.

The actors were born in the same maternity hospital in the center of Moscow - only Shirvindt was a little older. Then, all their lives, they remembered some kind of family party at which “Shura was given champagne to drink, but Misha had not yet.”

They studied together at “Pike”, served at the Satire Theater, in the 1960s they became famous in the world of metropolitan bohemia as members of the “cabbage makers” that flourished in the House of Actors, and in the 1990s they hosted the Sunday “Morning Mail” on television.

Their friendship lasted 72 years - until Derzhavin's death.