She was born on 17 December 1899. She is called the most mysterious figure in the history of the Vakhtangov Theater. Closed, simple, illiterate, but at the same time unusually gifted, she left the stage, or rather, she withdrew in the heyday of creative forces. Varvara Alexandrovna did not accept the new leadership of her native theater and did not fight. Popova had no honorary titles. “Vakhtangov’s favorite student is above any honors and awards,” the actress said. She studied in the studio of
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She was born on 17 December 1899.
She is called the most mysterious figure in the history of the Vakhtangov Theater. Closed, simple, illiterate, but at the same time unusually gifted, she left the stage, or rather, she withdrew in the heyday of creative forces. Varvara Alexandrovna did not accept the new leadership of her native theater and did not fight.
Popova had no honorary titles. “Vakhtangov’s favorite student is above any honors and awards,” the actress said. She studied in the studio of the great actor and teacher together with those who later determined the style and direction of development of the Russian theater, who truly became the face of the domestic stage - this is B. Zakhava, R. Simonov, Ts. Mansurov, E. Alekseeva, and I. Tolchanov. With all of them, Varvara Popova was on the "you", but never boasted about it and never entered into any conflicts. The only thing that Varvara Alexandrovna allowed herself was to stand up for her beloved partner and like-minded man Boris Zahava, when intrigues began against him in the theater. This incident became fatal in her biography.
Varvar Popova started talking about in the late 20s, when she brilliantly played Louise in Friedrich Schiller’s play “Cunning and Love”. But more Popov did not play anything noticeable in the theater. She didn't know how to intrigue, fight and profit. Many called her a loser. In the personal file of Varvara Alexandrovna it is written: "It is in conditions not very favorable for growth, but still makes progress."
Since 1956, Varvara has never crossed the threshold of the Vakhtangov Theatre. But soon Popova began a new life – she again came to the cinema. Again, because she already had a solid experience in film. In the 20s, she starred in such masters of the screen as Y. Protazanov and L. Obolensky. In 1959, she was returned to the cinema by I. Pyriev - invited to the role of Grandma in the film "White Nights".
Popova shot a lot of A. Saltykov, calling the old actress his mascot. For the first time they met on the set of “Chairman”, where Varvara Alexandrovna played a certain Samokhin – a village old woman who all the time “booms” the young chairman of the collective farm Yegor Trubnikov. However, the most famous actress brought work with Alexander Rowe. In "Frost" she played a blind old woman, which Ivan with a bear head carried through the forest to her house, and in the fairy tale "Barbara-beauty, long braid" Popova was a babysitter Stepanida.
Just as in the case of the theater, Varvara Popova suddenly disappeared from the screens. Her bright appearance has remained captured in few films. In 1975, Popova appeared in front of the audience for the last time – in the television film by Konstantin Bromberg “I Have a Lion”. The museum of the Vakhtangov Theatre indicates that Varvara Alexandrovna died in 1989, when she was almost 90 years old. How she lived all these years, what she did, with whom she communicated is unknown. It remained a mystery until the end.
She passed away on October 31, 1989.
(Sergei Kapkov, Characteristic actors of Russian cinema).