I posted this today on Facebook. The sad litany of deaths among Russia’s great cultural figures just continues unabated. It must be that time of season, but it feels especially cruel. Of course it is especially cruel, too, because Coronavirus has taken so many – Ilya Epelbaum, Roman Viktyuk, Sergei Barkhin, Irina Antonova, Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Vladimir Andreev… I don’t believe that Gaft died of Covid, he had been seriously ill long before the plague hit us. But his loss leaves still another gaping hole in the fabric of Russian culture and art.
Valentin Gaft: 1935-2020
By John Freedman
On Facebook
It continues to be a year of deep sorrow for and in Russian culture. Valentin Gaft, seemingly forever one of Russia’s most beloved, most distinctive actors, left us this morning. He has been sick for a very long time. I do not know the official reason for death. His life, however, was an open book of character, personality, wit, honesty, believability and 100 more of the qualities that raise an individual to greatness. He had been famous and popular for seemingly ever when I arrived in Moscow in 1988. And his presence just continued to grow. He did not perform in all that many shows at the Sovremennik Theater, his home theater, but every one of his roles seemed to be etched in stone. I had the great privilege of sitting in large company with him several times thanks to Eldar Ryazanov, who always invited Oksana Mysina and me to backstage parties after bashes at the Eldar Club. Amidst collections of stars that would turn the heads of many, Gaft shone especially. He would stand, drink in hand, and knock off one of his famed satirical sketches impromptu, usually making at least one person at the table blush – at best – and everyone else howl with laughter. Indeed, his epigrams, which have been published in numerous collections, are a major contribution to Russian theater lore and, dare I say it, Russian literature. They are almost always brilliant and hard-hitting. He was also a master of the quip – dozens, if not hundreds, are repeated daily in Russia. He could make you hurt, or rejoice, for life if he found something in your character or behavior to single out. One of his most famous – “One doesn’t fear dying. One fears that they might make a film after you die, and Bezrukov will play you” («Умереть не страшно. Страшно, что после смерти могут снять фильм и тебя сыграет Безруков»). [Sergei Bezrukov being a popular actor who, for many years, played almost nothing but dead famous people in films.] They could not fit Valentin Gaft into a single film. This man was so much bigger than life, and he walked through life with a trust and reverence that made him even greater. He was 85.
Here is one of Gaft’s poems (as opposed to his epigrams) that is going around now:
Life is as short as the reading of a play,
But if you believe, you live.
Theater is a sweet attempt
To go back and make a change.⠀
Stop the moment for a moment,
Then fade like a flower,
And be reborn, inspired.
Let’s play! God lets us do that!
(Жизнь коротка, как пьесы читка,
Но если веришь, будешь жить,
А театр — сладкая попытка
Вернуться, что-то изменить.⠀
Остановить на миг мгновенье,
Потом увянуть, как цветок,
И возродиться вдохновеньем.
Играем! Разрешает Бог!)
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