Kote Makharadze is a magician with a microphone in his hands

If Kote Makharadze was in the commentator's booth, then everything that happened on the football field was like an incredible force to Shakespeare's passions. Each of his broadcasts was unforgettable. Every word was heard by the listeners as something secret. And each of his phrases was remembered by fans and became a delicious "treat", equal in its taste to the phrases of the heroes of Gaidayev and Ryazanov's films. So who is he - Kote Makharadze? Actor, sports commentator, husband of one of the most beautiful women in Georgia - Sofiko Chiaureli!

Childhood and family

The best commentator on the whole territory of the Soviet Union was born in 1926, on November 17. His parents were very modest Georgian intellectuals. Father, officer of the army of the emperor Ivan Konstantinovich Makharadze, worked all his life as an economist. Mom, Varvara Antonovna Makharadze-Vekua, worked as a library manager in the gymnasium of Tbilisi. Ivan Konstantinovich passed away in the spring of 1956. His wife survived him for fourteen years.

Kote Makharadze was still very young, only seven years old when he began to study at the Tbilisi Choreography Studio, which he graduated with honors just before the war in 1941. It was within these walls that for the first time in his life he collided so closely and began to greedily absorb the art of the greatest masters of music, dance and scenography.

Hundred roles in a quarter of a century

Comes in 1944 year. The school is finished with the same distinction. Now young Kote with his talent and perseverance conquers the Tbilisi Institute of Theater Arts. Sh. Rustaveli. Four years later, when he received the invaluable knowledge of the school of famous masters of the scene of the People's Artists of the USSR, he was admitted to the Academic Theater named after. Sh. Rustaveli. Within the walls of this theater, Kote Makharadze, whose biography became interested in the fans of his talent, in less than a quarter of a century (for 23 years) invested a part of his soul in a hundred different interesting roles.

Theater and Sports

By the beginning of the seventies of the 20th century Kote Ivanovich moved to the Academic Theater. K. Marjanishvili. In this theater, he almost doubles the number of his roles, played with unchanged ecstasy and solemnity. Two times his work was recognized as the best on this stage. The star of the Georgian theater receives the title of laureate of the award. Mardzhanishvili and Akhmeteli. He is awarded with the highest civilian awards of Georgia, conferring the title of honorary citizens.

Love for a beautiful woman

Kote Makharadze Was already over forty, when he found the greatest love of his life. It was like a slight breeze blowing through which he realized that it was this woman who would make him happy. They could easily understand each other, not having finished the phrase to the end. Each of them knew exactly what the other was thinking, just by looking at him. They could ideally complement each other, penetrating into the interests of everyone and offering something new. Sofiko Chiaureli and Kote Makharadze met, being not young people, but in front of them they had many years of cloudless happiness, not clouded by any vicissitudes.

Yes, the beautiful Sophiko at that time had a husband - the famous director George Shengelaya. Yes, and Kote was not free, he grew up with two children. But love, suddenly flushed and blazing as a huge hot and undamped bonfire, decided to change everything in the life and fate of these two pairs. There was a loud scandal. But the result was that they both walked away from already past families and began their new life with a white sheet. They were together, as a whole, until the day Kote Ivanovich left the life.

"There were opportunities for him!"

As a sports commentator, this indefatigable Georgians began working in 1957. First on the domestic (Georgian), and then the All-Union radio and television. Over the course of four decades of his career, he was able to conduct reports in two languages - Russian and native - from several Olympics. Since 1966, he worked in all World Cups (especially I want to note the legendary match of 1981, at which the Dynamo managed to win the Cup of European Cup holders). And one can not but pay attention to that incredible fact in the biography of the legendary commentator, who agrees that the number of TV reports that Makharadze conducted in 20 sports exceeds two and a half thousand!

Any of his reports instantly became a small, but very talented play, which invariably ends with an ovation of invisible spectators. It even happened that the action that took place on the field was not so interested in the fans, as did the boring comments of Kote Makharadze. The pearls that came out of his mouth were forever left in the treasury of the football world: both about the full Papadopoulos of the Greek rivals, and about the beautiful postures of the side arbiter, and many others.

And how can this not seem strange (after all, Soviet times were quite strict) and surprising doubly and even triple that he was allowed to work? It is unlikely that this would have gone off the hands of someone else, because the pearls from Kote could easily become the end of a career. But he did not care. He was a legendary person. And, like Nikolai Ozerov, was considered the standard of the Soviet manner of reporting.

His last report

On October 12, 2002, the game of the national teams of Georgia and Russia began in Tbilisi. The match promised to be not just interesting. It was supposed to be a breakthrough in the football community. But suddenly in the middle of the game the lights turned off. The game stopped, not reaching a logical conclusion.

Perhaps, someone did not pay much attention to this fact, but not Kote Makharadze. The commentator took it as a personal tragedy. He was going through so much that the evening of the same day he had a stroke. After him, the talented Georgian could not recover. His heart stopped on the afternoon of December 19, 2002.

Yes, undoubtedly, he was one of the most favorite sports commentators of the Soviet Union. And, of course, a wonderful person, a talented actor. He was loved and respected by millions of fans, and he himself with great respect and warmth treated his audience and listeners. Each match, which he commented on with his inimitable Georgian temperament, instantly turned into an emotional action. That's why he is still loved and remembered ...