Archil Gomiashvili
ARCHIL GOMIASHVILI – THE ETERNAL HERO
Archil Gomiashvili was born on March 23, 1926, in the city of Chiatura, Georgia. From 1940 to 1942, he studied at the Tbilisi Art Technical School affiliated with the Academy of Arts. His passion for theater led Gomiashvili to the Moscow Art Theatre School-Studio (MXAT), where he studied for several years. After a scandal involving a fight on November 7, 1948, at the restaurant of the “National” Hotel with a young man courting the popular actress Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, the aspiring actor narrowly avoided trial, left Moscow, and returned to Georgia. In Tbilisi, he was accepted into the troupe of the Marjanishvili Academic Theatre. For two years, he performed in crowd scenes and minor roles.
Film “12 Chairs” (1971) — the role of Ostap Bender.
He constantly struggled financially and had to take on additional work. In 1953, the actor joined the Communist Party, and in 1958 he moved to Poti, where he first worked at the G. Eristavi Theatre and later at the A. Griboyedov Russian Theatre. At the same time, he appeared in films; there were plenty of roles, but they did not bring Archil fame.
At that time, the actor was almost 40 years old. He managed to marry and became the father of two sons. (Editor’s note: his wife, Liana Georgievna, was an actress; his son Zurab became an engineer, and his son Mikhail became an actor who worked with his father at “Golden Ostap”.)
Archil Gomiashvili’s first film role was Mantasherov in the 1957 historical-revolutionary adventure film “Personally Known”. It was the first movie in a film trilogy (“Personally Known”, “Extraordinary Assignment”, and “Kamo’s Last Exploit”) about the Bolshevik revolutionary S. A. Ter-Petrosyan, known as Kamo.
In 1961, the actor played the role of Eroshka in the melodrama “The Cossacks”, based on Leo Tolstoy’s novella of the same name. In 1965, he began filming both the second part of the Kamo trilogy and the musical comedy “Times Have Changed”, based on the play of the same name by A. Tsagareli. The actor greatly valued his role in this comedy, considering it one of his finest performances. He also highly appreciated the opportunity to work on set with director Mikhail Chiaureli.
Film “Mimino” (1977) — the role of Nukzar Papishvili.
He became famous throughout the Soviet Union in 1971 when he played the role of Ostap Bender in Leonid Gaidai’s comedy adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ilf and Petrov.
After seeing the actor’s screen tests, officials at Goskino were outraged: “Why is Bender a Georgian?”
“But his father was a Turkish subject. Why couldn’t his mother be Georgian?” Gaidai replied.
In the end, Gomiashvili was approved for the role. Interestingly, during the filming he was 44 years old, while according to the novel his character, Bender, was 28. But neither the actor nor the director was bothered by this.
“Well, even now I don’t look 75, do I?” the actor used to say toward the end of his life. “And back then I was bursting with energy! I felt young, especially since shortly before The Twelve Chairs I had married a girl 24 years younger than me.”
(His wife, Tatyana Fyodorovna, was a ballerina; their daughter Nina (born 1972) became an actress and gallery owner, while their daughter Ekaterina (born 1978) became a designer.)
Film “State Border: The Year Forty-One” (1986) — the role of Stalin.
After the film was released, Gomiashvili became not just famous, but a true movie star. He entered the top ten actors of Soviet cinema and was invited to a reception at the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Along with words of appreciation, he was also granted a luxurious apartment in Moscow. It was the former apartment of Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, located in the famous “House on the Embankment.”
Archil Gomiashvili also auditioned for other major roles in famous films. But despite his many romances with well-known women, despite purchasing one of the first Mercedes cars in Moscow (according to Gomiashvili, at that time he was the only owner of such a car; later the son of Shchyolokov, chess champion Anatoly Karpov, and somewhat later Vladimir Vysotsky also acquired one), and despite his reputation as one of the capital’s leading playboys, nothing worked out with the new roles — as if fate itself deliberately denied him star parts.
In 1973, Archil Gomiashvili became an actor at the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theatre, and from 1980 to 1988 he worked at the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre.
At the age of 62, when many people are already retired, Archil Gomiashvili declared: “To hell with all this pretending. I’ve played my part — both in cinema and in life,” and left the capital’s theater to start his own business. The spirit of the once-played Ostap Bender seemed to hover invisibly over the gray hair of the famous actor.
In his final years, Archil Mikhailovich suffered from serious health problems. In 2004, during surgery in the United States, doctors removed more than 40 lymph nodes from his lungs. Yet upon returning, with his characteristic sense of humor, he enthusiastically recounted: “After 16 hours they kicked me out of intensive care, and two days later — out of the hospital! I’ve practically forgotten that anything even happened, honestly!”
He willingly gave interviews and continued making plans. He came very close to living to see his 80th birthday. He loved life deeply. Once, Gomiashvili recalled:
“When I was 16 years old, I was traveling on a train and during the night I had a dream: I saw my destiny, everything that would happen to me — in detail and with complete clarity. All my life I followed that program. I knew: in one year I would achieve this, in two years — something else. But knowing what was coming, I accelerated events. I gave myself completely: I loved passionately, I was tireless, I never stopped…”