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Sergei Ursulyak with his wife actress Lika Nifontova
Tomorrow, March 5, theater and film actress Lika Nifontova will celebrate her 60th birthday with colleagues and family – husband, director Sergei Ursulyak, and daughter, artist Daria Ursulyak. This time, the royal gift in the form of a new role was presented to her not by her beloved husband (Lika is not in his high-profile premiere “The Righteous”), but by director Dmitry Petrun. In the long-awaited series “Ranevskaya” Nifontova plays the titled Soviet actress Vera Maretskaya. There are many things in common between the four-time winner of the Stalin Prize and the People’s Artist of Russia: natural modesty, discreet beauty, taciturnity and sincerity. Only Nifontova was much more fortunate in her personal life than Vera Petrovna, who had a passionate affair with Vyacheslav Plyatt, which never ended in a wedding.
At birth, Lika was called Liana Simkovich. But she preferred another, shortened from Angelica, to her beautiful name. That is the name of her beloved since childhood heroine of the famous novels of Anna and Serge Golon. And she changed her parents’ surname (they worked in the theater) at the age of 19, having married the artist Yuri Nifontov. He was then in his last year at the Shchukin School, she was in her first year. Their marriage lasted three years, there were no children in it.
Sergey Ursulyak does not shoot his predecessor in films. For the sake of Lika, the director left his first family – a fellow student, the bright beauty Galina Nadirli, and their little daughter Alexandra. Being a serious man, obviously not a womanizer, he lost his head from the tall, slender Nifontova.
They met at the Satyricon Theater, where Ursulyak was included in the artistic council. The eminent founder of the team, Arkady Raikin, appreciated Sergey. And Lika singled out and even played with her in the same performance, although at that time he was already sick (three years remained before the death of the master of Soviet satire).
Positive heroine
Lika played her first film role in the first year of Pike – in the production drama “To Your Own”. Her then-husband, Yuri Nifontov, agreed with the director of the film, his friend Vladimir Levin, about a small job for his beloved.
The second time she appeared on the screen only 10 years later, in the debut of Sergei Ursulyak “Russian Ragtime”, who in many ways became a film director for her sake. In the same tape, the little daughter of the couple Dasha made her debut. In an interview with Fyodor Bondarchuk, the grown-up Daria admitted that she categorically did not like this experience, and for a long time she did not want to follow this path. But nevertheless she graduated from the same university as her parents, and plays in the same Satyricon.
Sergey Ursulyak is proud of his wife and daughter and assures: after his series “Liquidation” throughout the Russian-speaking world, he appears as “the husband of that same Nora.” Sergei Vladimirovich sees his wife only as a positive heroine and forbids other men to passionately touch her body in the frame. Therefore, Vladimir Mashkov played bed scenes with Nora in “Liquidation” in clothes. And Fedor Dobronravov in another film by Ursulyak made love to the heroine Lika in a tracksuit. However, she remarks:
– Working with Ursulyak is easier than living.
“Others don’t care”
Daria Ursulyak is a copy of her mother. Parents love the heiress. Dasha did not let her eminent father down in the difficult role of Natalia in his film Quiet Flows the Don. True, the actress Lyudmila Zaitseva, who played Grigory Melikhov’s mother, criticized the director’s behavior:
– Ursulyak is a wonderful master, – Zaitseva is sure. – But “Quiet Flows the Don” filmed for his daughter and only dealt with her role. He didn’t care about others!
But his eldest, Alexandra, the father ignores as a professional. Speaks:
– Yes, Sasha is a wonderful actress, but so far I don’t have a role for her.
She does not take offense at her father and patiently waits. Alexandra Ursulyak is the leading actress of the Pushkin Theater and starred in many TV series with other directors. In addition, she is raising three children – two from actor Alexander Golubev and a daughter from the current chosen one – violinist Andrei Rozendent.
He treats his stepmother with respect and plans to attend her anniversary. Lika Nifontova will celebrate her 60th birthday on the stage of her native Satyricon, where she will play the role of Professor Higgins’ mother. And then the troupe will come to the hospitable house of the actress and director, where a large table will be waiting for everyone.
The hero of the occasion herself, who is known as a deeply religious person, at this moment will strictly observe Great Lent. Director Ursulyak has noticed more than once that when his wife fasts, he suffers a lot, that there is almost nothing to eat in their house.
