News

News

Mikhail Gluzsky: “I am Proud of the Role of Esaul Kalmykov”

On November 21, 2018, it is the 100th anniversary of Mikhail Andreyevich Gluzsky, an actor, the USSR People’s Actor, who played the role of esaul Kalmykov in the film “The Quiet Don” (film director S.Gerasimov).

Mikhail Andreyevich played over two hundred roles, and all they were bright and memorable. His esaul Kalmykov in the film “The Quiet Don” by Sergey Gerasimov broke a stereotype of the White officer. The actor said about his role: “I am very proud of this role. Esaul Kalmykov was interesting for me not as the enemy of the Soviet Power, but as a person faithful to his ideals, to his subjective truth. This is a very solid personality, and, in this regard, it was not difficult to play this role”. In one of his interviews the actor confessed that his performing in “The Quiet Don” was something greater for him than just acting experience. It was the role of esaul Kalmykov that started the so-called “military period” in the working biography of Gluzsky – during almost all the 1960s, he starred exclusively in the films on a military theme.

The roles played by Mikhail Gluzsky made him one of the most popular and favourite actors of his generation.

Mikhail Gluzsky was born in 1918, in Kiev. In 1940, he graduated from the Film Actor School at the “Mosfilm” cinema studio. During the Great Patriotic War he served in the Central Theatre of the Soviet Army, performed in concert brigades for the soldiers on military fronts. During 1949–1950, he was an actor in the Drama Theatre of the Group of Soviet Troops in Germany. Almost half a century he worked at the “Mosfilm” Theatre Studio of the Film Actor, in the Theatre “Sovremennik”, in the M.Yermolova Drama Theatre in Moscow and in the theatre “School of Modern Drama”.

M.A.Gluzsky was a professor of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, during 1987–1998, he supervised two workshops at the acting department, released two courses. He did a big social work: Secretary of the USSR Union of Cinematographers, leader of the Film Veterans Commission in the USSR Union of Cinematographers, Head of the Moscow City Commission on the Cultural Patronage of the USSR Armed Forces, of the Cinema Veterans Commission and of the Military Patronage Commission of Moscow.

Mikhail Gluzsky had a big number of awards, prizes and premiums. He was a Cavalier of the Labour Red Banner Orders and of the order “For Merit for the

Country of the 3d degree, the winner of the RSFSR State Prize. He was awarded Dovzhenko Medal “For the Best Military Patriotic Film”, two “Nika” awards, “Kumir” prize for his great contribution in the cinema art, “Sozvezdiye” prize for the outstanding contribution in the profession, a prize of cinematographers “A Living Legend of the Russian Cinema”.

In 1985, M.A.Gluzsky visited Vyoshenskaya for the opening ceremony of the Literary Museum, the first site of the National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve. The actor met with the residents and guests of Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya in the Palace of Culture. Such events are long remembered by their participants.

On June 15, 2001, the actor died. But the memory of the talented actor is alive in the hearts of millions of viewers.

Larisa Bukina