Lyusena Ovchinnikova(1931-1999)

Lyusena Ivanovna Ovchinnikova is Soviet and Russian theater and film actress. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1973). Since childhood, Lyusena dreamed of becoming an actress. When asked: "What do you want to become?", She always answered: "An actress, like Lyubov Orlova", but being very shy, she did not even attend a drama school. Despite this, at the age of seventeen, immediately after school, Lyusena was literally in one dress, without money and a passport fled from Ashgabat to Minsk, where her aunt lived, to try to enter the Minsk Theater Institute. She was late - by the time she arrived, exams had already passed and classes began. Not enrolling in a university, Lyusena did not return home, but went to work as a saleswoman's apprentice in the perfume department of a Minsk department store. The following year, the girl went to Moscow to enter the theater institute. In 1955 she graduated from the acting department of the A.V. Lunacharskiy State Institute of Theater Arts (course of the People's Artist of the RSFSR Grigori Konsky). From 1955 to 1976 - actress of the Moscow Academic Theater named after Vladimir Mayakovsky. From 1976 to 1983 she worked at the Moscow Literary and Drama Theater of the All-Russian Theater Society. In 1985-1986 - actress of the Ashgabat Russian Drama Theater. In the 1990s, Ovchinnikova served at the State Film Actor Theater in Moscow. The debut of Lyusena Ovchinnikova in the movie was the organically played role of the village girl Nyurka Makarova in the film La maison natale (1959) directed by Lev Kulidzhanov. All-Union popularity brought the actress the role of Katya in the film Les filles (1962) directed by Yuriy Chulyukin. After the role in that film, the directors began to actively invite the actress to supporting roles and episodic roles: Neuf jours d'une année (1962), Utrenniye poyezda (1963), Vernost (1965), Zhurnalist (1967) and others. In 1970, Lyusena Ovchinnikova played her first and only major role in the movie - the role of Zina Golubeva in the film directed by Vitaliy Melnikov Mama vyshla zamuzh (1970). In addition, the actress starred in the Soviet satirical newsreels Eralash (1974) and Fitil (kinozhurnal) (1962), voiced cartoons.