The legendary translator of films of the 90s Leonid Volodarsky died

On August 7, Leonid Volodarsky, the “voice” from the first video cassettes, pirated films that appeared in the era of perestroika, passed away.

Everyone over 40 “by ear” knew Leonid Volodarsky very well, a translator with an unforgettable characteristic voice, who voiced films such as Terminator (Kyborg Killer), “Die Hard” and many others (6,000 in total).

The people called him “A nasal voice” or “Nose with a clothespin.” Although Volodarsky himself threatened more than once for such epithets to “personally beat the face” of journalists, giving his numerous interviews.

There were rumors that Leonid changed his voice on purpose so that the KGB, which was ubiquitous in those days, would not figure it out. In those days, the authorities severely punished “worshiping the West”, which was considered a manifestation of watching foreign videotapes.

Much later, Leonid Volodarsky himself admitted that he was called to the KGB more than once, to “cleanse the brains”, and, according to him, to a simple question asked by him: “So, can I do translations”? Didn’t get any clear answer.

People in “gray suits” simply shrugged their shoulders – there was no law about this. And therefore, the translator says, he did not have to change his voice. Everyone already knew everything. And he is nasal because in his youth his nose was broken in a fight. And then they hurt him again – in a car accident.

According to the Russian media, At the age of 73, after a long illness, the host of the radio station “Moscow Speaks” and the famous author of translations of films from the era of the 90s, Leonid Volodarsky, died. The funeral will take place in Moscow on August 11.

Reference

Leonid Volodarsky was born on May 20, 1950 in Moscow. He graduated from the Maurice Thorez Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages ​​and was fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian. After that, he worked at the Institute for African Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, then at the Institute of the International Labor Movement of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In recent years, he has been teaching.

Volodarsky gained fame thanks to the translation of cinema. In the 1980s, with the advent of the market VHS video cassettes video pirates and businessmen began to turn to his services. For the translation of films, as Mr. Volodarsky did not hide, they paid quite well. And in general, as a result, “everyone was happy.”

Recall that in the 90s, in the Moscow market of cassettes and video equipment, the so-called “Gorbushka”, dealers earned tens of hundreds of dollars (only over the weekend). In one of his interviews, Mr. Volodarsky shared “complaints of merchants” that the weekend did not bring a successful income. And it was about the amount of 35 thousand dollars! Then you could buy an apartment for 25,000 …

In the translation of Volodarsky, we remember such films as: “Terminator”, “X-Men”, “Star Wars”, “Django Unchained” and many others.

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