The wonderful actress was 84 years old. Photo: Yuri Mashkov / TASS
Nina Drobysheva became famous, in general, for two roles. One in the movie – in the movie “Clear Sky”. And one in the play: “Edith Piaf” (there were many more performances, but the image of Piaf was perhaps the most striking; moreover, the production was preserved on film and greatly impressed the viewers at that time). But even a “clear sky” would be enough for Nina Ivanovna to enter the history of Soviet art. It was one of the most popular films of the thaw, it can easily be compared to “The Cranes Are Flying” and “The Ballad of a Soldier”. Grigory Chukhrai, the author of the “Ballad,” was not afraid to speak out in defense of Russian soldiers who had been in captivity. After the Victory, this became a stigma for them, but in 1961 it was possible to say openly that these people were not to blame for anything in front of their country. The anti-Stalinist film was named the best film of the year by Soviet screen readers. Actor Evgeny Urbansky was already a superstar, and Nina Drobysheva instantly became one, and her photos were bought at newsstands and hidden under the pillows of a movie lover.
Nina Ivanovna was born in 1939. The family was not an actress, and was generally far from art, but Nina from childhood imagined herself in the images of the heroines of books and plays. And after school he went to study at the theater studio at the Leningrad Theater for Young Spectators. In the entrance exams, she read Juliet’s monologue and fascinated everyone (she was soon taken to the role of Juliet in the Youth Theater production). And in the film, Nina made her debut as a high school student, playing Sanya Grigoriev’s sister in “Two Captains.” The student was noticed by Grigory Chukhrai, and almost immediately approved the role in “Clear Sky” (fortunately, she really liked it in the auditions and her partner Urbansky).
It soon replaced the Leningrad Youth Theatre with the capital’s Mossovet Theatre, to which it remained faithful for many decades. It was in the theater that the main creative successes awaited him. He acted in productions of Tennessee Williams, Shakespeare, Henry Belle… One of the last brilliant roles on stage was Katerina Ivanovna in the play “R.R.R.” based on Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”.
And in the film there were about two dozen other roles. But either these were episodes, or roles in short films, or in now-forgotten films. However, a few years ago, Andrei Smirnov gave her a luxurious role of a former noblewoman and a former prisoner in the film “The Frenchman”, and her duet with Natalia Tenyakova turned out to be really amazing.
Nina Drobysheva was married twice to her colleagues: actors Vitaly Konyaev and Vyacheslav Butenko. He is survived by two daughters. His death at the age of 85 was announced on July 27 by the Mossovet Theater. The immediate cause of death, as well as Nina Ivanovna’s farewell date, has yet to be reported.
