Yevgeny Matveyev

Yevgeny Semyonovich Matveyev (, ; 8 March 1922 – 1 June 2003) was a Soviet and Russian actor and film director who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1974.

Early years Yevgeny Matveyev was born in the village of Novoukrainka in the Mykolaiv Governorate of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kherson Oblast, Ukraine) to Semyon Kalinovich Matveyev, a Russian Red Army serviceman, who was stationed in the region at the end of the Russian Civil War, and Nadezhda Fyodorovna Kovalenko, a Ukrainian peasant woman, on 8 March 1922. His father left Nadezhda shortly after he was born.

He attended school in the nearby town of Tsyurupinsk, where he saw his first play and left school after the ninth grade to pursue a career in acting.

He made his first step on the professional stage at the Kherson Theater, in 1939. One of his first small stage roles was a part of a musician in Bestalanna. Russian actor Nikolay Cherkasov noticed the young talent and advised Matveyev to continue his acting career, by moving to Kyiv to study with Alexander Dovzhenko. Doing so, Matveyev studied under Dovzhenko at the acting school of the Kiev Film Studio in 1940 and 1941.

Matveyev joined the Red Army after the German invasion in 1941, and went to military school in Tyumen. After graduation, Lieutenant Matveyev was mobilized into the Red Army and fought in World War II. After the end of the war, Matveyev worked for a year at the military school in Tyumen, as a director of the school's amateur theater art group, where he met his future wife, Lidiya Matveyeva. They married in April 1947. he quit performing on the stage and instead became a film director.

His debut as a director was the 1967 film, The Gypsy, an adaptation of Anatoly Kalinin's novel. He also starred as Budulay, acting alongside Lyudmila Khityaeva in that film. Matveyev's first picture was greeted with differing opinions in the Soviet Union; though a survey by the magazine Soviet Screen named him one of the best actors of 1967, there were a lot of critical remarks. From 1968 onward, Matveyev completely left theatre and continued his career in the film industry, as a director and an actor. He directed a historic-revolutionary film, Romance by Mail, and a melodrama, Deadly Enemy, and played the leading parts in both films; neither picture achieved great success, however. Among the many films Matveyev starred in during that period, perhaps Aleksei Saltykov's The Siberian Woman , which garnered him a Best Actor award, and his part in Taming of the Fire, that of a factory director, show him at his best.

In the middle of the 1970s, Yevgeny Matveyev stepped in as a director again. He filmed Earthly Love and Destiny. These pictures have a big success and audience sympathy even these social stories have been polished, which was a necessity of Soviet Era. Matveyev starred as a chairman of collective farm Zakhar Deryugin and Olga Ostroumova was his partner at this time.

Another notable role in the 1970s was a part in Soldiers of Freedom, where he played Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This event affected his career dramatically: he became a secretary of the Cinematographers’ Union of the USSR, and all his films received a "green light". But it affected Matveyev's life very quickly; in the middle of the 1980s, perestroika came, and, with it, came official censure: In 1986, at the Fifth Congress of the Cinematographers' Union, Evgeniy Matveyev was dismissed from his post as secretary, and was punished for his "polished pictures" and his role as Brezhnev.

Undaunted, at the end of the 1980s, Matveyev returned to cinematography, filming a tragic melodrama Vessel of Patience where he played a leading part, again with Olga Ostroumova as his partner. Vessel of Patience was honored with a Spectator Sympathies Prize at the Constellation / Sozvezdie film festival, but the picture remains relatively unknown. Later on, Matveyev took on roles in pictures about criminals, such as The Vacancy of Killer's Place and Clan. In the latter, he re-created Brezhnev once more, but this time in a different context and from a different point of view.

Later years In 1995, Matveyev directed To Love the Russian Way, soon followed by To Love the Russian Way 2, filmed in 1997 with money sent by his fans from all over Russia. His final work of as director and actor was To Love the Russian Way 3, released in 1999.

He died in Moscow from lung cancer on 1 June 2003, and was interred at Novodevichy Cemetery. Order of the October Revolution (1986) Order "For Merit to the Fatherland": 2nd class (8 March 2002) for outstanding contributions to the development of national cinema 3rd class (6 October 1997) for outstanding contribution to the development of national cinematography Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1958) People's Artist of the RSFSR (1964) People's Artist of the USSR (1974) USSR State Prize (1978) for creating feature films Earthy Love and Destiny Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR (1974) for creating an image of contemporary films in recent years Winner of the All-Union Film Festival in the First Prize of the historical-revolutionary films for 1970 Winner of the All-Union Film Festival in the Festival Special Prize (1978) Winner of the All-Union Film Festival in the Festival Special Prize (1985) Honorary Citizen of the Sverdlovsk Oblast

Filmography

Actor

To Love the Russian Way 3 (1999) as governor Valerian Petrovich Mukhin To Love the Russian Way 2 (1996) as Valerian Petrovich Mukhin Good Night (1992) as Pavel Pavlovich The Vacancy of Killer's Place (1990) as Knysh To Love the Russian Way (1995) as Valerian Petrovich Mukhin Fathers (1988) as father-in-law The Time of Sons (1986) as Semyon Petrovich Kordin Testament (1986) as Ivan Krylov Anna and Anton (1985) as Anton Der Sieg (1984) as Karpov Front in the Rear of the Enemy (1981) as Semirenko Particularly Important Task (1979) as Kirillov Pugachev (1978) as Yemelyan Pugachev Soldiers of Freedom (1977) as Leonid Brezhnev Front Beyond the Front Line (1977) as Semirenko Destiny (1977) as Zakhar Deriugin Earthly Love (1974) as Zakhar Deriugin High Title (1973) as Shapavalov Taming of the Fire (1972) as factory director Romance by Mail (1969) as Ivan Kovshov Crash (1968) as Pavlovsky The Gypsy (1966) as Budulai Fury (1966) as Vasily Gulyavin Mother and Stepmother (1964) as Nikolai Vasilyevich Kruglyakov Blood Ties (1963) as Fedotov Resurrection (1960) as Prince Nekhludov Virgin Soil Upturned (1959) as Nagulnov The Variegateds Case (1958) as Lobanov The Sisters (1958) as Ivan Sorokin The House I Live In (1957) as Konstantin Davydov Iskateli (1956) as Andrey Nikolaevich Lobanov Good Morning (1955) as Sudybinin The Road (1955) as Grisha

Director To love Russian Way 3 (1999) To love Russian Way 2 (1996) To love Russian Way (1989) Vessel of Patience (1989) The Time of Sons (1986) Victory (1985) Crazy Money (1981) Particularly Important Task (1979) Detiny (1977) Earthly Love (1974) Deadly Enemy (1971) Romance by Mail (1969) The Gypsy (1966)

Screenwriter Victory (1985) Crazy Money (1981) Destiny (1977) Earthly Love (1974) The Gypsy (1966)