Vera Kuznetsova

Vera Andreevna Kuznetsova was born on October 6, 1907, in Saratov, Russian Empire (now Saratov, Russia). In 1928 she made her stage debut, while being a student of Theatre Workers' Acting Studio in Leningrad. In 1933 Kuznetsova was one of the founders of the Lensoveta theatre in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). Her staged career spanned over 45 years. She played leading and supporting roles in plays of Maxim Gorky, Lev Tolstoy, and Anton Chekhov among other authors. Kuznetsova was best known for her portrayal of kind and generous Russian mothers and grandmothers in many stage and film productions. Her stage and film partners were such stars as Georgi Zhzhyonov, Nikolay Cherkasov, Aleksey Batalov, Boris Andreyev, Kirill Lavrov, Vitali Solomin, Pyotr Shelokhonov, Yefim Kopelyan, Igor Vladimirov, Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksey Petrenko, Mikhail Boyarskiy and other notable Russian actors. She worked with such film directors as Grigoriy Chukhray, Viktor Tregubovich, Iosif Kheifits, Nikita Mikhalkov, Leonid Gaidai, Vladimir Basov, Aleksandr Alov, Vladimir Naumov, Daniil Khrabrovitsky, Viktor Sadovsky, and others. From 1973-1994 she was a staff actress of the Lenfilm Studios in St. Petersburg, Russia. Vera Kuznetsova won the Best Actress Award at Cannes Film Festival in 1955 for 'Bolshaya Semya' (1954) by director Iosif Kheifits. She won a Special Mention Award at Cannes Film Festival in 1966, for 'There Was an Old Couple' (1965) by director Grigoriy Chukhray. She was designated the People's Artist of Russia and received other awards and decorations from the Soviet and Russian State. Vera Kuznetsova died on December 11, 1994, in St. Petersburg, Russia.