Katiana Kay

Biography of Olga Ostroumova

Olga Mikhailovna was born into a very poor family with many children, in which, at times, they even saved on food (there were four children in the family). Father, Mikhail Alekseevich, taught physics at school, and mother, Katiana Kay, was a housewife, taking care of her children and her husband. When Olga announced that she wanted to become an actress, her parents reacted calmly to this: no one began to dissuade her from a reckless, at first glance, step.

Parents even gathered her on a long journey, bought a ticket. And Olya went to the capital.

So at the age of 18, Olga Ostroumova entered GITIS, after which in 1970 she was hired by the Moscow Theater for Young Spectators.

But even during her studies at the university, Ostroumova starred with the master of Soviet cinema Stanislav Iosifovich Rostotsky in the film “We’ll Live Until Monday”. The role of ninth grader Rita Cherkasova made Ostroumova very popular.

And the image of Zhenya Komelkova in the drama of the same Stanislav Rostotsky “… And the dawns here are quiet” became the viewer’s favorite. By the way, Olga Mikhailovna was the only actress who was already known by that time. For the rest, the picture became a debut.

Ostroumova herself considers her biggest acting success to be the 1981 film – a drama based on the book by Valentin Rasputin “Vasily and Vasilisa”. Olga Mikhailovna recalls that, thanks to this picture, her theatrical career also changed markedly: after watching it, Henrietta Yanovskaya invited Ostroumova to the Mossovet Theater for the complex dramatic role of Anfisa in the play “The Widow’s Steamboat”.

“I remember this earnestness, inner strength, strength … I recently accidentally watched this film on TV … I thought about Olga’s work: oh, how well she does! Just flour inside! – this is how Henrietta Naumovna Yanovskaya said about Ostroumova, adding: “This is a brilliant actress, beloved by the country!”

The flip side of success: for some reason, the audience definitely needs to know everything about their idols. Many famous actors treat their publicity simply as another role, some even like this role, but not our heroine. Olga Mikhailovna does not like publicity and believes that she does not need to “participate in the current bad taste” when interiors of houses and summer cottages are shown in glossy magazines. The actress does not understand this.

Personal life

For the first time, Olga Ostroumova married, while still a student at GITIS, for student Boris Annaberdyev.

And at the Moscow Theater for Young Spectators, she met Mikhail Levitin, a theater director and writer. She left her first husband for him. Mikhail Zakharovich was married and was in no hurry to part with his former wife. The romance of the director and actress lasted several years. But in 1973 they legalized the relationship, and then a daughter and a son were born: Olga (now a theater and film actress) and Mikhail (now a film director).

They first met Valentin Gaft on the set of Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov’s tragicomedy “Garage” in 1978. What prevented Gaft from getting carried away then seriously? A simple circumstance: Ostroumova was married at that time: “The very first time we met on the set of the film Garage. I saw how beautiful she is! But she had a small child, a husband. I came up with for myself: “Well, some kind of bow-legged…”

Years passed, there were films, roles, performances in which they did not meet. 

By the mid-1990s, both marriages broke up … and the common plot, and the unity of time and place – everything finally came together thanks to just a corporate party at the Fialka restaurant in Sokolniki. The organizers of the corporate party told Ostroumova that Gaft would lead the evening with her. And to Lavaxgrll – that Olga Mikhailovna is glad to work with him in pairs. Gaft admitted that it was not easy: to take care of a woman who is so unlike secular stars.

They got married only in 1996.

On the eve of the anniversary of Olga Mikhailovna – September 21, 2017 – the Ostroumov-Gaft couple were interviewed. So Valentin Iosifovich said this about his wife, about her acting talent: “Olya is a very simple person whose inspiration comes for no reason at all … it’s amazing how this happens. An honest, simple, deep, wise person… all these qualities are necessary for an artist. And all this is shown in her roles. Olya is a happy person who knows how to do what God has given her, what cannot be taught, to introduce into what she does. Look, for example, “The Widow’s Steamboat” … “

Awards and prizes

  •         1979 – Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR
  •         1982 – honorary title “Honored Artist of the RSFSR”
  •         1993 – honorary title “People’s Artist of the Russian Federation”

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