Lyudmila Maksakova

Lyudmila Vasilyevna Maksakova (; born 26 September 1940) is a Soviet Russian stage and film actress who appeared in 24 films between 1965 and 1998. Honoured with the People's Artist of Russia title in 1980, she is also a laureate of the USSR State Prize (1995) and the Stanislavsky Prize (1996). Her mother was the renowned mezzo-soprano Maria Maksakova Sr.; her daughter Maria is an opera singer and Russian TV Kultura presenter. Biography Lyudmila Maksakova was born in Moscow to the Soviet opera star Maria Petrovna Maksakova and Aleksander Volkov, a theatre entrepreneur. In 1942 the latter defected to the West and later became a United States citizen. For decades Lyudmila remained unaware of her father's identity. By keeping it secret, Maria Petrovna was protecting her daughter from trouble at the times when any relation to a 'traitor' could lead to prosecution. According to another version, though, Lyudmila's father might have been the NKVD general Vasily Novikov, who granted Lyudmila Vasilyevna her patronymic, and there were even rumours pointing at Stalin himself, who was known to have favoured the famous Bolshoi singer. Career After the simultaneous graduation from a secondary school, and the Moscow Central music school where she studied cello, Lyudmila opted against pursuing a musical career and enrolled at the Shchukin Theatre Institute to join the actor Vladimir Etush's class. In 1961 she joined the Vakhtangov Theater where she debuted as Masha in The Cookie's Marriage (after Anatoly Sofronov's comedy). Her breakthrough came two years later when she played the Tatar Princess Adelma in the much acclaimed Vakhtangov production of Princess Turandot, revived by director Ruben Simonov. Among her other lauded performances were those of Lolya (Dion), Knipper-Chekhova (My Whimsical Happiness), Nicol (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme), Maria (The Cavalry Army, after Babel) and Mamayeva (Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man). In 1964 Maksakova debuted in film, as Nina in Grigory Chukhray's There Was an Old Couple. Over the next decade she appeared in more than fifteen films, including the revolutionary history drama Tatiana's Day (1967), the psychological melodrama Not Guilty (1969), the tragic melodrama The Bad Good Man (1973) and the psychological drama Autumn (1974).