Lilia Gritsenko

Lilia Olympievna Gritsenko (December 11 (24), 1917, Gorlovka, Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic - January 9, 1989, Moscow) - Soviet theater and film actress, opera singer. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1957). Lilia Olimpievna Gritsenko was born on December 11 (24), 1917 in Gorlovka, Donetsk Region (Ukraine), in the family of a railwayman. She was the second child in the family, five years earlier her brother Nikolay was born, later a famous actor, People's Artist of the USSR. In 1925, the family moved to Yasinovataya station, and in 1930 - to Makeevka. In Makeyevka, Lilia Gritsenko was engaged in amateur performances, making great strides in the vocal field. In 1935 she took part in the All-Union amateur art competition, first in Stalino (now Donetsk), and then in Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnepr), where she won first place. After that, she was invited to Moscow to the opera studio at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, where she studied in the class of EK Katulskaya. In 1937, Lilia moved to the Stanislavsky Opera and Drama Studio (class A. V. Nezhdanova), which she graduated in 1941. In the same year, she played her first major dramatic role - Nina Arbenina in the play "Masquerade" based on the play by M. Yu. Lermontov. The performance was staged by a young director Boris Ravensky, who soon became her husband. After graduation she joined the studio troupe (since 1948 - the theater, now the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre), where she served until 1957. She was the leading actress of the theater, playing the main roles in many performances, especially in the productions of B. I. Ravensky and M. M. Yanshin. In the years 1958-1960 was in the state All-Union tour and concert association. In 1960, she became an actress at the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theater, where she worked until retirement. The debut in the cinema took place in 1944, when Lilia Gritsenko performed the role of Oksana in the film adaptation of Tchaikovsky's The Cherevichka. Then, in 1950, she received the lead role in the Alexander Dovzhenko film “Farewell to America!”, Where she starred with her brother. But in the middle of the filming process, work on the film was discontinued, and he never came out on the screens. Natalia Sergeevna became the star role of Lilia Gritsenko in Mikhail Kalatozov’s comedy “True Friends”. Total starred in more than 40 films, participated in the sound of cartoons and radio programs. Lilia Gritsenko performed a lot as a professional singer (lyric soprano) with programs of Russian classics, romances and works of modern authors. She has considerable merit in the revival on the stage of an old romance. In September 1988, she retired from the theater. She died on January 9, 1989, was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery next to her brother Nikolai Gritsenko.