The presenter of the radio station “Moscow Speaks”, the famous writer of film translations and writer Leonid Volodarsky died at the age of 74. reported radio station referring to the host’s relatives.
According to Volodarsky’s wife, he passed away in Moscow after a long illness. Telegram channel Baza writes that Volodarsky suffers from pneumonia.
“On August 5, he felt unwell, his relatives called an ambulance for him … First Volodarsky was assigned to a normal ward, but on August 6, the condition of the beloved interpreter deteriorated and he was transferred to intensive care. later died,” Baza wrote.
Mash reported that Volodarsky died of heart failure. His Telegram channel writes that after he was hospitalized on August 5, he had difficulty breathing due to an illness in his heart and blood vessels.
Volodarsky’s translations
Volodarsky was born on May 20, 1950 in Moscow. Maurice Thorez worked as a translator at the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages. He knew English, French, Spanish and Italian.
He started translating and dubbing foreign films in 1968. With the advent of VHS tapes with movies on the market, “pirates” began to turn to him for service.
The peculiarity of Volodarsky’s work was that he translated films simultaneously and at the first time.
He has voiced in The Godfather (1972), The Terminator (1984), Die Hard (1988), Star Wars (1999), The Sopranos (1999), X-Men (2000), “Django Unchained” (2012). The translator is known for a specific “nose” pronunciation. According to Volodarsky, “he did not have a latch on his nose,” he simply broke his nose in his youth, and questions about the latch angered him.
In his 30 years alone, he performed more than 5 thousand films by his own calculations.
“I never counted. There was a friend and a translator, unfortunately he is no longer with us, he wrote. And he once said that I had a little less than five and a half thousand. I think they’re all six today. Seven percent were masterpieces, the same percentage were just good movies, and the rest was complete nonsense,” he admitted.
In the late 1990s, the translator collaborated with the NTV channel to translate films and series for studios. Thanks to Volodarsky, the Russians received translations of books by Stephen King and Jerome Selinger.
Volodarsky took a break from his voice-over activities at the end of the 2000s, but remembered himself again in March 2022. Then he said that against the background of the refusal of American film studios to distribute their films in Russia due to the situation in Ukraine, he agreed to voice the premieres in Hollywood.
“It’s okay, pay the money and I’ll remit. I’m ready to meet halfway, but it’s not free. I believe video hackers won’t come out unless they’re curious. You can’t make any money out of this business,” he said.
Volodarsky has been working at the Moskva Speaks radio station since 2014 and hosts a weekly program on Soviet history. Over the years, he hosted Radio Mayak and Gümüş Yağmur programs.
legendary man
The editor-in-chief of the radio station Roman Babayan expressed his condolences to Volodarsky’s family and friends, calling the translator a legendary person and a wonderful professional.
The translator of the VHS era, voice actor Andrey Gavrilov, said that the news of Volodarsky’s death “shocked” him.
“When a person leaves, it is always very bad. It is twice as bad when a person you have known for many years leaves, ”said Gavrilov.
Farewell to Leonid Volodarsky will take place on August 11 at 11:00 Moscow time at the Central Clinical Hospital No.