Tatiana Samoilova - biography

Tatiana Yevgenyevna Samoilova (Russian: Татья́на Евге́ньевна Само́йлова; b. 4 May 1934) is a Soviet and Russian film actress who starred in The Cranes Are Flying (1957), The Unsent Letter (1959) and Anna Karenina (1967).

Evgeny Samoilov's only daughter, she was born in Leningrad, but her father moved to Moscow to work with Vsevolod Meyerhold later that year. Samoilova was propelled to stardom in 1957, when she played the lead role of Veronika in The Cranes Are Flying. The film was a tremendous success, winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes and a special prize for Samoilova. She received many offers to continue her career in the West, but declined in the face of mounting pressure from the establishment of the day.

In the 1960s, Samoilova had several movie roles, including Anna Karenina in the 1968 Soviet version of Tolstoy's novel. She appeared in the movie alongside her former husband Vasily Lanovoy (as Count Vronsky) and Maya Plisetskaya (as Karenina's friend Betsy). In 1993, she was named a People's Artist of Russia.