Soviet and Russian theater and film actor, president of the Moscow Academic Theater of Satire, People's Artist of the RSFSR Alexander Anatolyevich Shirvindt was born on July 19, 1934 in Moscow.
In 1956, Alexander Shirvindt graduated from the Boris Shchukin Theater School (course of Vera Lvova).< br />After graduating from college, he was accepted into the troupe of the Leninsky Komsomol Theater (now Lenkom). He made his debut on the theater stage in the role of a White officer in the play based on Vsevolod Vishnevsky's play «The First Horse». Then there were works in the plays “Comrade Romantics” by Mark Sobol, “Goodbye, boys!” Boris Balter, «Wheel of Happiness» by the Tur Brothers, «You are 22, old people!» Edward Radzinsky and others
The success of the young actor was brought by roles in plays staged by Anatoly Efros, who headed the theater in 1964. These are Trigorin in “The Seagull” by Anton Chekhov, Louis in “Molière” by Mikhail Bulgakov, Guderian in “To Each His Own” by Samuil Aleshin, Felix in “104 Pages about Love” and film director Nechaev in “A Movie is Being Made” by Edward Radzinsky. In total, Alexander Shirvindt played more than 30 roles on the stage of the Lenin Komsomol Theater.
In 1968, following Anatoly Efros, Shirvindt moved to the Moscow Drama Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, where he served for two years. At the Malaya Bronnaya Theater he played in the plays “Happy Days of an Unlucky Man” by Alexei Arbuzov, “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, etc.
Since 1970, Alexander Shirvindt has worked at the Moscow Satire Theater.
From December 2000 to November 2021, he held the position of artistic director of the theater, and from November 16, 2021, the post of president of the Moscow Academic Theater of Satire.
Alexander Shirvindt’s first role in the theater was Count Almaviva in the famous production of Valentin Pluchek’s “Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro” by Beaumarchais (1970).
Other performances include “An Ordinary Miracle” by Evgeny Schwartz (1971), “The Inspector General” by Nikolai Gogol (1972), “The Bedbug” by Vladimir Mayakovsky (1973), “Woe from Wit” by Alexander Griboyedov (1976), “The Threepenny Opera” by Bertolt Brecht ( 1982), «Happy — Unschastlivtsev» by Grigory Gorin (1997), «Greetings from Tsyurupa» by Fazil Iskander (1999), «Andryusha» by Arkady Arkanov and Alexander Shirvindt (2001), «Ornifle» by Jean Anouilh (2001), «Molière» ( “The Cabal of the Saints”) by Mikhail Bulgakov (2009), “Between Light and Shadow” by Tennessee Williams (2010), “Sad but Funny” (2014) and others. In recent years, he played in Rodion Ovchinnikov’s phantasmagoria “Where are we?∞!…” (2018).
From the first days of work at the Satire Theater, Alexander Shirvindt began directing. In 1970, together with Mark Zakharov, he staged the play “Awake and Sing!” based on the play by Miklos Dyarfas. Later, he often acted as not only a director, but also an author or co-author of a dramatization/script.
In total, during his time at the theater, Alexander Shirvindt staged more than 20 performances, including “We are 50!” (co-authored with Grigory Gorin, joint production with Margarita Mikaelyan, 1974), “Little Comedies of a Big House” (together with Andrei Mironov, 1973), “Unorosl” (1978), “Her Excellency” (1979), “Concert for the Theater with orchestra» (co-authored with Grigory Gorin, 1982), «Be silent, sad, silent…» (1985), «Passion of the Black Sea» (1988), «Andryusha» (co-authored with Arkady Arkanov, 2001), «Too Married Taxi Driver «(2003), «Schweik, or Hymn to Idiocy» (2004), «Women Without Borders» (2007), «Fools» (2013), «Suitcase» (2015), etc.
Alexander Anatolyevich made his film debut in 1956, playing the role of Vadim Ukhov in the film “She Loves You” by Semyon Derevyansky and Rafail Suslovich. Later he starred in the films «Come Tomorrow…» (1962), «Major Whirlwind» (1967), «Once More About Love» (1968), «Old Robbers» (1971), «The Irony of Fate, or C light steam!» (1975), “12 Chairs” (1976), “Sky Swallows” (1976), “Three in a Boat” (1979), “Vacation at Your Own Expense” (1981), “Station for Two” (1982 ), “The Most Charming and Attractive” (1985), “Forgotten Melody for Flute” (1987), “Womanizer” (1990), “The Irony of Fate. Continuation» (2007), «Motley Twilight» (2009) and others. The actor's filmography includes more than 60 film works.
The stage occupies a special place in Shirvindt's work. As an author and director, he worked with Tarapunka and Shtepsel (Efim Berezin and Yuri Timoshenko), Lev Mirov and Mark Novitsky, Leonid Utesov, and later with Lev Shimelov, Leila Ashrafova, Vladimir Vinokur, Ilya Oleinikov. Alexander Shirvindt came up with the popular duet “Veronica Mavrikievna and Avdotya Nikitichna” (Vadim Tonkov and Boris Vladimirov), wrote pop monologues for actors Vera Maretskaya, Mikhail Pugovkin, Vsevolod Sanaev and many others.
Alexander Shirvindt hosted series of programs on television “Seven” us and jazz», «Terem-Teremok»; «Theatrical meetings» etc.
Shirvindt taught at the Theater School (Institute) named after Boris Shchukin. His students were Andrei Mironov, Alla Demidova, Natalya Gundareva, Svetlana Ryabova, Alexander Porokhovshchikov, Leonid Trushkin, Amalia Mordvinova, Maria Golubkina, Leonid Yarmolnik and many others.
He was the author of several books. In 1994, the book “The Past Without Thoughts” was published, written by Shirvindt in collaboration with the famous art critic Boris Poyurovsky, in 2006 — “SCHIRWINDT, erased from the face of the earth. Book of Memories”, in 2013 — “Passage Yards of Biography”, in 2014 — “Sclerosis , scattered through life», in 2017 — «In the intervals between».
Alexander Shirvindt — People's Artist of the RSFSR (1989), full holder of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland (2004, 2009, 2014, 2019).
Was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples (1994).
Was a laureate of the Crystal Turandot awards (2009), Theater Star (2009), and the national Figaro award named after Andrei Mironov (2015). mask» (2018), etc.
On March 15, 2024, it became known that Alexander Shirvindt died at the age of 90.
The material was prepared on the basis of information and open sources