Sergey Safonovich Gurzo was born and raised in a patriarchal Moscow family, where, besides him, there were two more children. They lived together in a communal apartment, in an old house on Kuznetsky, learning the laws of friendship and mutual assistance not from textbooks. Sergey volunteered to the front when the Great Patriotic War began. Severe wound in Poland almost cost him his life: to restore health and strength had almost a year, and during this time Sergey Gurzo firmly understood what he would do next: he decided to enter the VGIK.
Sergey met his fate, Nadezhda Vasilievna Samsonov, in the same university, where he entered, as he dreamed, on the first attempt. In 1946, after a beautiful romance, they married. And soon came out on screens.
film "Young Guard" In which Gurzo played the role of Sergei Tyulenin. His hero, desperately brave, daring, the one who set fire to the stock exchange and hung a red flag on November 7 on the city government, the one who, despite the monstrous tortures, stood to the end, became a hero of the people. In the "Young Guard" boys played in the yards, and Gurzo himself fell national glory.
For the role of Sergei Tyulenin, the young actor received his first Stalin Prize. The second went to him for his work on the image of Vasya Govorukhin, the character of the painting “Bold People”. But Gurzo's stellar illness was over: he was just as open and generous. He gave one of his prizes to his mother, and transferred the other to an orphanage. Sergey Safonovich was worthy of those who played.
The envy of his colleagues, which Gurzo initially ignored, gradually took its toll. The script of the film “The Case Was in Penkov”, the writer S. Antonov created especially for Sergei Safonovich: Matvey Morozov was to play it, with his crushing fame and indisputable skill. But it so happened that as a result of the conspiracy, the role was given to Vyacheslav Tikhonov. This was the last straw that filled the cup of patience: Gurzo began to drink, he was increasingly suspended from work, and no one, not even yesterday’s benevolent officials, wanted to intervene and help.
A person with an acute sense of justice, a front-line soldier, a talented actor was not easy to cope with depression. He was falling into the abyss. When his wife lost patience, she discharged Sergei Safonovich from the room in which he lived with his family. Leaving his wife and two children (Natalia and Sergey later also became actors), Gurzo left for Leningrad and tried to find himself there. In the 60th year, he brilliantly played a former thief Shurka in the film "Everything begins from the road", and a year later, as a director, he created the film "Diplomat" based on Chekhov's story.
When Sergey Safonovich was buried in the Northern Cemetery of Leningrad in September 1974, a sea of people came to say goodbye to him. He was not forgotten, he was accompanied with love. Gurzo burned in the flames of his talent and burning hopes, which were not destined to come true. And what I wanted to say lastly remained in the collection of poems "The closest" - his only book.
Two dates are carved on the monument to the great actor: 23.09.1926 - 19.09.1974. Sergey Safonovich did not live to see his 48th birthday for four days. /