Kuzmina, Elena Aleksandrovna

Born Feb. 4 (17), 1909, in Tbilisi. Soviet motion-picture actress; People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1950).

Kuz’mina graduated in 1930 from the Factory of the Slapstick Actor, a Leningrad cinema school later reorganized into the Institute of Stage Arts. She made her film debut as the Communard Louise in The New Babylon (1929). She next appeared as the schoolteacher in Alone (1931). A good character actress, Kuz’mina often created subtle psychological portraits.

Her best roles were in motion pictures directed by M. I. Romm—for example, Anna in The Dream (1943), Tania in Prisoner No. 217 (1945), Jessy in The Russian Question (1948), and the Soviet intelligence officer Maria-Marta in Secret Mission (1950). She played lyrical and comedy roles in the films of other directors: Man’ka in Outskirts (1933), Masha in By the Bluest of Seas (1936), and Mariia Konstantinovna in an adaptation of Chekhov’s The Duel (1961). She was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1946, 1948, and 1951.