Liubov Petrovna Orlova

Born Jan. 29 (Feb. 11), 1902, in Zvenigorod, in what is now Moscow Oblast; died Jan. 26, 1975, in Moscow. Soviet Russian actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1950).

Orlova studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1919 to 1922 and in the choreographic section of the Moscow Theatrical Technicum from 1922 to 1925. Between 1926 and 1933 she was associated with the V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater, starring in such operettas as Offenbach’s La Périchole and Planquette’s Les Cloches de Corneville.

Orlova made important contributions to the development of Soviet musical comedy films. She acted in a number of musical films directed by G. V. Aleksandrov: Aniuta in Jolly Fellows (1934), Marion Dixon in Circus (1936), Dunia in Volga-Volga (1938), Tania in Bright Path (1940), and Professor Nikitina and the actress Shatrova in Spring (1947). She played the roles of Janet Sherwood in the film Meeting on the Elbe (1949) and Varvara Komarova in the film Russian Souvenir (1960).

From 1955, Orlova was associated with the Mossovet Theater, where her roles included Jessie in Simonov’s The Russian Question and Mrs. Patrick Campbell in Kilty’s Dear Liar. A recipient of State Prizes of the USSR in 1941 and 1950, she was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.