Mikhail Kozakov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kozakov was a Soviet, Russian and Israeli film and theatre director and actor.
Biography
Early life
Mikhail Kozakov was born on 14 October 1934 in Leningrad, the youngest of three brothers. His father Mikhail Emmanuilovich Kozakov was a Soviet writer and playwright of Jewish origin originally from the Poltava Governorate who served as a commissar in Lubny during the Russian Civil War, then worked as a journalist in Leningrad. He was among the authors who collaborated on The I.V. Stalin White Sea – Baltic Sea Canal.Kozakov's mother Zoya Alexandrovna Nikitina was of mixed Serbian-Greek descent. Her family moved from Odessa to St. Petersburg. She finished the Karl May School and worked as an editor in publishing houses, the Leningrad Literature Fund and various magazines. This was her fourth marriage. She was arrested twice: first in 1937 following the arrest of her brother who served in the Imperial Russian Army during the civil war, then — in 1948 because of financial violations in Litfund. She was friends with many acclaimed writers who visited Kozakovs' apartment on the Griboyedov Canal, including Evgeny Schwartz, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Anatoly Marienhof, Boris Eikhenbaum and Anna Akhmatova.
During the war Kozakov was evacuated to the Molotov Oblast along with other Leningrad children where he lived from 1941 to 1944. He then returned to the city and continued the secondary education. His brother Vladimir volunteered for the frontline and was killed in 1945. His second brother Boris was accidentally shot in 1946 in his flat by his classmate.
Theatre
In 1956, Mikhail Kozakov graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre School. In the summer of this year the picture by Mikhail Romm Murder on Dante Street was released, in which Kozakov acted, and in the autumn of that year he received the role of Hamlet in the performance at the Mayakovsky Theatre.From 1956 to 1959 Kozakov was an actor of the Mayakovsky Theatre.
From 1959 to 1970 he was an actor of the Sovremennik Theatre.
In the 1960s, Kozakov played several vivid roles, such as Cyrano de Bergerac in the play of the Sovremennik Theater; chamberlain from Schwarz's fairy tale "The Naked King" - a performance that in 1960 brought the theater a triumph, and then turned into a legend; Kistochkin in the comedy Aksenova "Always on sale".
On the stage of Sovremennik, Kozakov performed several more roles in the productions of Galina Volchek: Aduyev the elder in Ordinary History I. Goncharov ; Jerry Raiin in "Two on the swing" by W. Ibsen; The actor in M. Gorky's play "The Lower Depths"; Nicholas I in the "Decembrists" by L. Zorin ; Master Zhivko in the "Masters" R. Stoyanov, etc.
In 1970, the actor left the Sovremennik. A year after he left the theater and its founder - Oleg Efremov. Following Efremov, Kozakov came to the Moscow Art Theater. There they were played by Lord Goring in "Ideal husband" Wilde, Gusev in the play "Valentine and Valentina" Roshchina.
In the Moscow Art Theater, Kozakov began to play Leonid Zorin's play The Copper Grandmother, where Rolan Bykov rehearsed Pushkin's role. The play was closed, and Kozakov went to the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya to Dunayev and Efros. Here the actor performed several more roles: Don Juan ; Kochkarev ; Rakitina.
There, in Malaya Bronnaya, Kozakov staged two performances: Zorin's comedy The Pokrovsky Gate and O'Neill's play The Soul of the Poet.
In 1986, Kozakov left the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya in Lenk. In 1986, he played the role of Polonius in Panfilov's Hamlet at the Lenkom Theatre, later, in the late 1990s, Shadow of the Father in the same Hamlet by German director Peter Stein.
Film
In 1978, Kozakov made his debut as a film director, with the two-part television film Nameless Star, based on the play of Mikhail Sebastian. Afterwards there were films The Pokrovsky Gate, If We Believe Lopotukhin..., Trustees by A.N. Ostrovsky, Masquerade by M. Lermontov and others.During the years of perestroika, Kozakov left Russia. However, after working in the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv, Israel, as an actor and director, Mikhail Kozakov chose to return to Russia. In Moscow, he created his own theater called "Russian Entreprise Mikhail Kozakov."
Since 2003, Kozakov was actor of the Mossovet Theatre.
The actor read poetry on stage, radio, television, and recorded discs.
In 1999, the actor, together with saxophonist Igor Butman, staged a play-concert on Brodsky's verses "Concert for voice and saxophone".
In 1997, Mikhail Kozakov's "Acting Book" was published, in which he tells about his life, about different times and people of art in them.
Death and personal life
In 2010 Kozakov was diagnosed with lung cancer. He went through unsuccessful treatment in Israel and died on 22 April 2011 in a clinic near Tel Aviv. He was buried at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Moscow near his father, in accordance with his will.Kozakov was officially married five times. He left his last wife Nadezhda Sedova in 2010 with a scandal, claiming that she had stolen his flat and that she was the cause of his illness, and fled to his fourth wife Anna Yampolskaya who lived in Israel along with their children Michael and Zoia. He had a daughter Katerina and a son Kirill, also a prominent Russian actor, from his first marriage to Greta Taar, as well as a daughter Manana from his second marriage to Medea Berelashvili. A son of his - Michael - is now the bassist for the band Good Kid.
Honors
Kozakov - People's Artist of Russia, laureate of the State Prizes of the USSR and the RSFSR, art director of the theater "Russian Entreprise of Mikhail Kozakov"Selected filmography
Source:Actor
Murder on Dante Street — Charles ThibaultHard Happiness — Nikolai Nagorny- The Sisters (1957 film) —Valerian Onoli
- The Golden ''Echelon — CheremisovFar from the Motherland — Hauptmann SaugelEugenia Grandet — Charles GrandetLast Salvos — GorbachevBaltic Skies — Baiseitov, pilotCrazy Court — MichelNine Days in One Year — Valery IvanovichAmphibian Man — Pedro Zurita
- The Bridge Is Built — MammadovA Pistol Shot — SilvioDay of Sun and Rain — actor as Mishka Japonchik The Red and The White — NestorThe Tale of the Chekist — BelovTwo Days of Miracles — professor-examiner of the Institute of Good WizardsGoya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment — GilmardeAll the King's Men — Jack BurdenGrandmaster — VolodyaChildhood. Adolescence. Youth — Pyotr AlexandrovichActing — Alexander SternThe Dombey and the Son — Sol GilesIvan and Marya — CashierLev Gurych Sinichkin — ZefirovThe Straw Hat — Viscount de RosalbaCar, Violin and Blot the Dog — musician playing violin and bass guitar and shashlik vendorHello, I'm Your Aunt! — Colonel Sir Francis ChesneyYaroslav Dombrovsky — Andrey VasilievThe Theater of an Unknown Actor — Genrikh GenrikhovichThe Road to Calvary — BessonovNameless Star — GrigThe Life of Beethoven — Gioachino RossiniComedy of Errors — AnoifallA Handsome Man — LupachevDeficit on Mazaev — Kira's loverThe State Border. Peaceful Summer of the 21st Year — Felix DzerzhinskySindicat-2 — Felix DzerzhinskyDecember, 20th — Felix DzerzhinskyAnd I'm With you Again — Pyotr Yakovlevich ChaadaevComrade Innokenty — Sergei Vasilievich ZubatovThe Sixth — Illary Danilovich DanilevskyWho Is Knocking on the Door? — Actor playing Cyrano de BergeracThe Pokrovsky Gate — Konstantin Romin 25 years later
- Demidovs — BironUnicum — Iosif Timurovich Petrov, hypnotistThe hero of Her Novel — Erast TsykadaAn Incredible Bet, or a True Incident That Ended Successfully a Hundred Years Ago — Dudnikov, summer residentScenes From the Tragedy “Faust" — FaustScenes From the Drama "Masquerade" — ArbeninMister Designer — GrillioAnd it Happened in Vichy — doctorFools Die on Fridays — Geliy IvanovichThe Shadow, or Maybe It Will All Come Round — Caesar BorgiaGisele's Mania — Akim VolynskyThe Fatal Eggs — WolandTribute — Scottie TempletonFour Hands Dinner — Georg Friedrich Handel
- 24 Hours (2000 film) — CostaAvalanche — Lev BorisovGame in Modern — FriezeThieves and Prostitutes. The Prize is Space Flight — photographerThe Death of Tairov — Alexander Yakovlevich TairovWonderful Valley — grandfather SaidWe Are Playing Shakespeare — NarratorNarrow Bridge — YakushevHello, We are Your Roof! — SolomonThe Shift — Kharitonov, AcademicianCreation of Love — Nahum TrakhtCarrot-Love — Dr. KoganCarrot-Love 2 — Dr. KoganOrange Juice (film) — Leonid, Dasha's fatherZoya — Vladimir RapoportThe Guardians of the Network — Sergey Ivanovich KalgarovBoris Godunov — PimenFairytale.Is — Stanislav Dalievich Salvadorov, director of the schoolLast Meeting — Yuri Vladimirovich AndropovCarrot-Love 3 — Dr. Kogan''
Director
Nameless Star The Pokrovsky Gate If We Believe Lopotukhin...- Petersburg Fantasy
- Visit of a Lady The Shadow, or Maybe all will end Good Four Hands Dinner
- Joker
- Playing Shakespeare
- The Charm of Evil