Savely Kramarov
| Savely Kramarov | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
13 October 1934 Moscow, Russian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Died | 6 June 1995 (aged 60) San Francisco, California, United States |
Savely Viktorovich Kramarov (Russian: Саве́лий Ви́кторович Кра́маров; 13 October 1934 – 6 June 1995), known almost universally in his native Russia, was one of the most popular comic actors of Soviet cinema in the 1960s and ‘70s. He acted in at least 42 Soviet films, and had parts in several more in his adopted USA.
Saveli Kramarov was born 13 October 1934 to Jewish parents: father Viktor Savelyevich Kramarov (Виктор Савельевич Крамаров), a prominent Moscow attorney, and mother Benedikta Solomonovna "Basya" Kramarova (neé Volchek) (Бенедиктa Соломоновнa "Бася" Крамарова (Волчек)). When young Savely was only three years old, the elder Kramarov represented some defendants in a widely publicized Soviet secret police case. Within a year Saveli’s father was himself the victim of a "Stalinist purge"—his crime, representing his clients too vigorously. Arrested and tortured to confess, Saveli’s father was sentenced to a term of eight years in the Soviet Gulag. Savely’s mother was forced to divorce his convict father, and mother and son lived for a time in a communal apartment. Before Victor Kramarov’s prison term was up, young Savely’s mother died, leaving him effectively an orphan. By a stroke of luck, she had managed to register him as Russian, not Jewish, on his domestic Soviet passport. Saveli was once allowed to see his father prior to the elder Kramarov’s exile in Biisk; during this meeting, his father, practically a stranger to him, told Saveli of his Jewish faith that had sustained him in prison. In the 1950s, the once prominent attorney died in exile. Saveli spent the remainder of his childhood in poverty, living with relatives, mainly his maternal uncles. During this time, Saveli was diagnosed with tuberculosis; a Jewish physician helped him back to health.
Seeking to follow in his father’s footsteps with a career in law, Kramarov quickly found that door closed for the son of an enemy of the people. Instead Kramarov accepted an offer to technical school for forestry science. It was around this time Kramarov started acting. Kramarov did not attend formal acting school, at the State Theatre Art Institute, until 1972, well after achieving film stardom. At the same time as his late schooling for acting, he took up yoga, which attracted negative attention from the Soviet authorities.
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