Ekaterina Vasilievna Zelenaya had an incredible sense of humor. Even the death of this popular favorite artist fell on April 1, 1991 – as if to smooth the pain of loss, to accept her with a smile – light and sad. What to do if all the dates are out, and there is a blooming spring in the yard? Rina Green and lived so – on one breath, not allowing yourself to indulge in drama, and the reasons for her long century, there was at least plenty.
Rina-Ekaterina was born in Tashkent. The day is known exactly - November 7, but the year, according to various sources, "arbitrary" - from 1900 to 1902. Relatives chose the "golden mean" - 1901, this date is stamped on the monument to the actress (Vvedensky cemetery). Childhood, full of Eastern "exotic", passed in the union of loneliness - the brother and sisters of the future actress were completely different in character, and parents, with a significant difference in age, observed in relation to each other feelings of duty, but not love.
The fate of Catherine was different. After her father, Vasily Ivanovich Zeleny, was transferred from Tashkent to Moscow, and Rina (many years later) became a famous actress, it was love that connected her husbands (both the first and second). But it happened later, and in the first time of Moscow life, playful as a boy, Catherine amazed with her tricks a respectable gymnasium von Dervis, in Gorokhov lane, wore modest coats and hats and jumped into trams on the go.
Once this energetic person caught the eye of the announcement of admission to the theater school. Those wishing to learn acting skills were listened to by celebrities - Singers and Shatrov. Both laughed to tears when the city lady who appeared before them famously read Nikitin’s poems, the monologue of the ditcher who walked. Of course, Rina was accepted, and in 1919 she graduated from the Moscow Theatre School. Then the civil war began.
The family Zelenoy was in Odessa. She played many roles in the old cellar, where the "KROT" ("Confreria Knights of the Acute Theater"), led by Victor Tipot, the future director of the famous "Wedding in Malinovka". At that time, Catherine Green became Rina - her long name did not look on posters. Later, the actress returned to Moscow to get a job in the theater “Nerydai”, where the rich Nepmans and other wealthy audience spent the nights. In the life of Rina there were wonderful partners and friends.
Erast Garin Olga Pyzhova... After that, there was the Bat Theater, the Satire Theater, where the actress, with her amazing comedy talent, was enthusiastically received by the audience and demanded countless outings for encore.
In the autumn of 1945, Rina Zelenaya, then an artist of the Miniature Theatre, visited Berlin and left her signature on the column of the defeated Reichstag. Before that, there were speeches at the front, Rina Vasilievna’s recordings (on records) were very dear to soldiers and officers. At that time, Zelenaya was known not only by the Moscow theater audience - by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, five films with her participation were released:
The Journey to Life (1931), Love and Hate (1935)
Foundling (1939), in which Rina was both an actress and a screenwriter,
"Bright Path" (1940), The Old Court (1941). Behind him remained the marriage to the famous Moscow lawyer Vladimir Blumelfeld, and ahead - many years of happiness with her second husband, the talented architect Konstantin Tikhonovich Topuridze. Both spouses worked day and night, both flaming with creativity, new ideas, admiring each other, enjoying meetings after short separations.
With Konstantin Tikhonovich, Rina Zelenaya lived forty fruitful years, in which everything was from theatrical and film roles to the voiceover of cartoons. For children Ekaterina worked with great pleasure: despite the fact that she was not lucky enough to become a mother, she was a favorite of children and found a common language with them. Already in old age, the actress happily played the turtle Tortilla in
The Adventures of Buratino And she sang the romance of her character, which was often broadcast on the radio. For Rina Zelena, there were no “small” or faceless roles at all: she refined, changed, improvised, and therefore, whoever she played (governor, secretary, singer, aunt on the bus), the characters turned out bright, expressive, funny. The phrases of the heroines Zelena became "hlagers": "The old woman came to ask for water, grabbed - but there is no piano!" ("Found"), "You don't wear lips like that now!"
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"Spring" ), “There is an unexploded bomb under my bed. No, no, she's not bothering me at all. I just wanted to know if it could be washed with soap.
"Meeting on the Elbe" ), “I will not move until I die! I won't die anytime soon!
Foreigner ).
The last film role for Ekaterina Vasilyevna was restrained-ironic Mrs. Hudson in a series of films about Sherlock Holmes. The actress far outlived her husband (Konstantin Tikhonovich died in 1977), and in her 85th year joked: "Call me now Ruin Green." She did not like old age, longevity weighed on her, but the brilliant irony remained with Ekaterina Vasilievna until the end. Once, stumbling on the track during a walk, the actress, unable to get up, waited for passers-by and said: “Please note: here lies Rina Green.” She fell! To rise to full height, as before, was no longer given.
Farewell to Ekaterina Vasilievna in the midst of the spring of 1991, the last for the Soviet Union, the People's Artist of which (officially) she did not become: on the day of the death of the actress, the documents decided not to go. But the films with the participation of Zelena again and again go on television channels, invariably gathering the very people whom she served with her art, and this lively recognition is perhaps more significant than any formal awards. /