You can’t envy the fate of the actress.
The talent of the outstanding Soviet director Leonid Gaidai made it possible to turn even the performers of the most insignificant roles in his films into real stars. This is proved by the example of the actress Maria Kravchunovskaya.
It was she who played the watchman, that very God’s dandelion in the comedy “Operation” Y “and other adventures of Shurik.” Although this role of Marya Ivanovna was episodic, however, she made the actress one of the main all-Union screen grandmothers of that time.
At the time of filming the film, Kravchunovskaya was already 67 years old. By that time, she had long been playing at the Moscow Art Theater and the Stanislavsky Theater. Kravchunovskaya from her youth dreamed of an acting profession, and these career plans prevented her from eventually building a personal life. Colleagues remembered her as a very lonely woman.
Kravchunovskaya was married once to pianist Mark Meichik, but the marriage was very short-lived. The actress did not have children. Over the years, loneliness began to burden her more and more, and there were much fewer job offers.
Kravchunovskaya spent the last years of her life in a special institution for the elderly – in the House of Stage Veterans. She moved there from her empty apartment, and died there in 1978, forgotten by everyone.
