Liubov Dobrzhanskaia

Born Dec. 24, 1908, in Kiev. Soviet Russian actress, People’s Artist of the USSR (1965).

After Dobrzhanskaia’s graduation from the studio of the Kiev Russian Theater of Drama in 1924, she joined the theater’s company. In 1934 she began working in the Central Theater of the Soviet Army. Her best roles Katherine (Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew), Shura Azarova (Gladkov’s A Long Time Ago), Elena Stigliano (De Filippo’s My Family), Emilia Marti (Capek’s The Macropoulos Secret), Vasiluce (Druce’s Casa Mare), and Mrs. Warren (Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession). Dobrzhanskaia’s work is distinguished by keen characterizations, versatility, elegance, and vitality. Her portrayals of uncommon, freedom-loving women are especially effective. She is also effective in portraying the grotesque, for example, she successfully created the role of the crotchety, stupid, self-satisfied, hypocritical tyrant Karolina in Chernyshevskii’s The ExpertTroublemaker. In 1964, Dobrzhanskaia played the role of Tolgonai in Ch. Aitmotov’s The Maternal Field at the Moscow K. S. Stanislavsky Drama Theater. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR in 1950, she was also awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.