Svetlana Orlova (actress)

Orlova was born in Kaliningrad on 8 April 1956.[1][2][3] Her parents moved to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic when Svetlana was five, and she grew up in a low-income family in Alma-Ata, where her maternal grandfather was a city prosecutor.[3] Her mother, Valentina, was a factory worker, while her father, Fyodor, served time in prison for theft. The family life was violent.[2][4] Orlova performed at a dance club at the local house of culture, where her talent was noticed during a visit by the commission of the Bolshoi Theatre's choreographic school. Orlova, then nine years old, was invited to study at the school in Moscow.[4] She learnt ballet with the Bolshoi, and while walking in Moscow on a day off, was approached to appear in a film. This was Boris Buneev's Little Farm on the Steppe.[2][4]

Orlova combined her studies at the Bolshoi, from which she graduated in 1974, with appearances in several other roles, before being cast in Finist, the brave Falcon.[1] Written, cast, and originally to have been directed by Alexander Rou, his death before filming began led to it being taken over by Gennady Vasilyev.[4] Cast in the leading female role as Alyonushki, Orlova worked with many established Soviet actors, including Georgy Vitsin, Mikhail Kononov, Mikhail Pugovkin and Lyudmila Khityaeva, and with Boris Grachevsky, a future film director, screenwriter, and actor.[4] Orlova met her future husband, Yuri, while working on the film. Yuri, a doctor, was working with the film crew on The Taste of Halva, being filmed in the film studio beside Orlova's.[4]

Yuri arranged a place for his wife in the dance ensemble "Variety Patterns" between 1975 and 1976, later becoming her film agent after she gave up her dance career for acting.[1][5] During this time Orlova was asked to model for Vneshtorg, with her picture in fashion magazines and used to advertise Soviet goods internationally.[4] Initially working under contract from 1976 until 1979, she joined the Gorky Film Studio in 1979.[1]

Orlova appeared in over forty roles during the 1970 and 1980s.[5] After starring in films such as Granddaughter of Ice, The Princess on a Pea, and Finist, the brave Falcon, Orlova was dubbed the "first beauty of Soviet cinema fairy tales".[4] Her husband worked at a hospital and taught at the medical institute. He died suddenly of heart failure in 1987, at the age of 35, and two months before the birth of the couple's first child, a son named Filip.[5] Orlova now found herself a single mother, supporting her son and her late husband's elderly parents.[4] She appeared in fewer films during the last Soviet years, and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, with 1988's Tree Sticks! being one example.[5]

She trained as an aerobics coach to support her filmwork, opening a class for sports aerobics in Moscow. She has not remarried.[2][4] She makes occasional appearances on television, including a documentary film about Georgy Millyar, and a program to mark the fortieth anniversary of the release of Finist, the brave Falcon.[5] She continues to teach choreography at a private school, and appears in roles in the New Year's performances on Sparrow Hills.[5]