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In 2019, Alexander Shirvindt, a popularly beloved actor, director and TV presenter, celebrated his anniversary. “When I turned 85, I thought that this is quite a serious figure to formulate myself,” he writes in the preface to his memoir “Ahead of the Obituary.” Divided into two parts, this is a book of memoirs: from early childhood to the present day - about family and loved ones, about serving in the theater, about filming a movie. And, of course, about beloved friends. Alexander Shirvindt shares his thoughts with an unsurpassed sense of humor and with tenderness and warmth recalls Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Eldar Ryazanov, Arkady Arkanov and Bulat Okudzhava, Andrei Mironov and Alexander Abdulov, Valentin Gaft, Oleg Tabakov, Mark Zakharov, Yevgeny Primakov and many others. “Previously, throwing myself into graphomania, I thought: there is no need to aim at monumental memoirs with the most modest sections “I am about myself” and “They are about me, and I am about them.” Now I thought, why not? Let one more little book collapse in the deposits of literary storerooms. "Perpetuate" is a clumsy and nasty word, though accurate in meaning. It is impossible to perpetuate everyone who is dear to me and whom I do not forget, but I want to. And I came up with for myself the principle of choosing the characters of my destiny. I went to the bookshelves and, under the surprised looks of my family, laid all the literature on the floor, except for Shakespeare, Gogol, Beaumarchais and other authors, meetings with whom I did not remember. As a result, he selected only books with dedicatory autographs of friends. I wanted to say something very gentle, honest and witty in response, but these things are incompatible, so you have to be sincere. 18+