Nikolai Karachentsov

His father, Pyotr Yakovlevich Karachentsov (1907–1998), worked for many years in the magazine Ogoniok as a graphic artist, he received the title of Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR in 1967.

Nikolai's mother, Yanina Brunak (1913–1992), was a choreographer.

She directed plays in major musical theaters, took part in staging performances at the Bolshoi Theatre, Kazan Musical Theater, Ulaanbaatar Music Theater in Mongolia, administered a ballet school and organized the First National Ensemble of Vietnam, worked in Syria and London.

Karachentsov's parents separated, so when Yanina Evgenyevna would leave Moscow for work, Kolya studied and lived in a boarding school.

In school days, he spent all summer vacations in the recreation center of the All-Russian Theater Society in the village of Shylykovo, Kostroma Oblast.

In his childhood, Karachentsov was actively engaged in swimming and by the age of 13 he became the champion of the USSR's central sport school in diving.

He left his swimming lessons when, together with his mother, he moved to Ulaanbaatar for two years.

While studying in high school, Nikolai Karachentsov joined the "Active" group, created at the Central Children's Theater.

The duties of "activists" included duty in the building of the theater and monitoring of the observance of order by schoolchildren.

And at the same time, the attendants had the opportunity to see the performances.

Soon, at the Center for Children's Art an amateur studio for schoolchildren was opened.

Karachentsov was one of the first to apply.

The directors of the studio were Pechnikov and Minkovskaya.

In the Club of Arts at the theater Karachentsov attended a course of lectures for schoolchildren.

The lecturers were famous directors and actors.

Nikolai Karachentsov's first role was in the play Figaro.

By this time, he already planned to become an actor.

Nikolai Petrovich Karachentsov (Николай Петрович Караченцов, 27 October 1944 – 26 October 2018) was a Soviet and Russian film and stage actor of Lenkom Theatre.

Nikolai Karachentsov was born in Moscow on 27 October 1944.

In 1963, Karachentsov entered the Moscow Art Theatre School (course of Viktor Monyukov), which he graduated with honors in 1967.

His role in the student performances Snowstorm and Ivan Vasilyevich received a high professional assessment.

Usually school graduates were automatically "distributed" to the Moscow Art Theater, but in 1967 at the Lenkom Theatre, in connection with the departure from the post of the main director Anatoly Efros, there was a catastrophic situation of shortage of actors, and Karachentsov among the top ten students joined this theater.

Among Karachentsov's first performances were the plays staged by Efros: 104 Pages About Love, My Poor Marat, The Movie is Being Shot, Fear and Despair in the Third Empire and Farewell to Arms!.

Karachentsov's popularity peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s among the Soviet youth after he had starred in rock operas.

Through Karachentsov's performance, the character of Till – a buffoon, bully and rebel – became a cult figure of the 1970s Soviet youth.

After Karachentsov's successful first experience in the play Autograd 21 (1973), Lenkom's director Mark Zakharov invited him for the main role of Till Eulenspiegel in his next play Till (1974).

The play, based on the novel by Charles de Coster, was written by playwright Grigori Gorin, and the composer Gennady Gladkov composed the music for the production.

The rock opera of the composer Alexey Rybnikov Stardom and Death of Joaquin Murieta (based on the poetic drama of Pablo Neruda), staged by Mark Zakharov in 1976, was also well received.

In it, Karachentsov played two roles at once: the ranger and Death.

The premiere was held on July 9, 1981 (music by Alexey Rybnikov, libretto by Andrei Voznesensky).

Karachentsov took vocal lessons from the famous musician Pavel Smeyan, who played in Juno and Avos the role of the Principal Writer.

In 1983, the show was recorded for television and the same year the famous French couturier Pierre Cardin introduced the Juno and Avos to the French audience at the Espace Cardin Theater in Paris, followed by a triumphant tour around the world: the performance was shown in the US, Germany, Netherlands and other countries.

Karachentsov became one of the leading actors of Lenkom.

Other popular productions with his participation were Optimistic Tragedy, Dictatorship of Conscience, School for Emigrants, Sorry, Czech Photo.

In 1989 he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR.

From the theater's repertoire Till was filmed only in 1992.

This production was part of the theater's program until 1993.

The most famous theatrical work of Karachentsov is the role of Count Rezanov in the rock opera Juno and Avos, a play that became a calling card of Lenkom.

In 2003 he received the State Prize of the Russian Federation.

He was also awarded the Order of Honour and Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class.