Volka from the movie "Old Man Hottabych" is already 77 years old: the fate of Alexei Litvinov

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-12 17:37

"The Old Man Hottabych" is a Soviet film, 65 years have passed since its release. The motion picture is still watched and loved. Almost all the actors who played in the comedy have continued their careers. But the performer of the role of the boy Volka did not manage to prove himself later.

Alexey Litvinov was born in 1944 in the Voronezh region, where he and his mother were evacuated. After the end of the war, the family returned to their native Leningrad. Alexei led the life of an ordinary child of that time: he went to school, and was also a member of a children's pioneer organization.

Once, when Litvinov was in the fifth grade, they announced a casting for the role of the boy Volka in the adventure film "Old Man Hottabych". Representatives of Lenfilm came to Alexei's school and invited several students to audition.

As the film's director Gennady Kazansky recalled, more than 100 boys were selected during the casting. Only a dozen were invited to the photo tests, including Litvinov. The schoolboy tried his best to please the film crew: he recited poetry, portrayed something in front of the director. Despite the efforts, he did not get the role, since the choice fell on another boy.

Litvinov, of course, took it hard: he came home and cried all day. But fate was favorable to the young actor. A month later they called him back, they said that the selected boy could not work for the camera. So 12-year-old Alyosha Litvinov became the leading actor in the film "Old Man Hottabych". In order to reincarnate as a blond Volka, the boy had to dye his hair with hydrogen peroxide.

The mother was terribly happy for her son. The family lived from hand to mouth, and here such luck - Alexei was paid a whole thousand rubles a month.

The motion picture found an unprecedented success. Many of the actors who took part in the filming then built a career for themselves. Their chills included Nikolai Volkov, Gennady Khudyakov, Zinaida Sharko.

But Alexei Litvin was not lucky. Yes, he was offered roles, but the films in which the actor later starred were never released. Gradually, Litvinov lost the desire to act in films. He graduated from the Electromechanical College, worked in the Leningrad Metro, and then went to work in Murmansk. After the collapse of the USSR, Litvinov returned to Leningrad, worked at a construction site.

The actor was married twice. Litvinov's first wife died, leaving him a widower. He raised his daughter alone. Having sipped grief, Alexei nevertheless married again, now he lives with his chosen one 50 kilometers from St. Petersburg.