Yelena Safonova | |
|---|---|
| Born | Yelena Vsevolodovna Safonova (1956-06-14)14 June 1956 (age 69) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1974-Present |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | People's Artist of Russia |
Yelena Vsevolodovna Safonova (Russian:Еле́на Все́володовна Сафо́нова; born 14 June 1956 inLeningrad) is a formerSoviet and aRussian actress.[1][2] She is an Honored Artist of Russia (2011). She was made famous by the 1985 melodramaWinter Cherry and its two sequels. In 1988, she was awarded theDavid di Donatello Italian film award for her starring turn inNikita Mikhalkov's filmDark Eyes.
Yelena Safonova was born on 14 June 1956 in Leningrad, the daughter of the famous Soviet actorVsevolod Safonov and the film director Valeriya Ivanovna Rublyova who worked atMosfilm.[3]
In the mid-1960s, the family moved to Moscow, where Yelena attended a special secondary school and studied French to an advanced level.[2]
In 1973, she graduated from Moscow Secondary School No. 37.[4]
At her third attempt, she was accepted by theGerasimov Institute of Cinematography to study acting. In between her entrance exams, she earned income as a librarian. After studying at the Film Institute for two years she returned to Leningrad, where she would graduate in 1981 from theLeningrad Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography (under Ruben Agamirzyan). In the same year she became an actress at theKomissarzhevskaya Theatre, where she worked for one season. She made her debut in cinema in 1974, in the role of Lyuba in the filmLooking for my destiny.
Safonova's first major film role was asSolomiya Krushelnytska in the biographical pictureThe Return of Butterfly (1983). Safonova became a household name in Russia with the role of the 30-year-old divorcee Olga in the romantic comedyWinter Cherry (1985) byIgor Maslennikov. She acted in another picture by the same director,The Twentieth Century Approaches, which was Maslennikov's lastSherlock Holmes adaptation.
Since 1986, the actress has worked with the Russian film studioMosfilm. In 1987 Yelena starred oppositeMarcello Mastroianni in the romantic dramaDark Eyes by directorNikita Mikhalkov. The film tells the story of a 19th-century married Italian who falls in love with a married Russian woman. For her performance she received theDavid di Donatello Prize in 1988.
In the 1990 dramaTaxi Blues byPavel Lungin Safonova played Nina, wife of a saxophone player. The film was about the connection between an alcoholic saxophonist and a hard-man taxi driver.
In 1999 Safonova portrayed a teacher who falls in love with a young acting student inDmitry Meskhiyev's romantic dramaWomen's Property. Her screen partner was budding actorKonstantin Khabensky. In the same year she played in the thriller filmThe Admirer byNikolay Lebedev.
Between 1992 and 1997 she worked in both France and Russia. Since 1997 she has resided in Moscow.
Yelena Safonova married for the first time at the age of twenty, to actorVitaly Yushkov, whom she had met on the set ofThe Family of the Zatsepins (1977). Six years later the couple divorced.[5]
In the late 1980s, Yelena was romantically involved withVache Martirosyan, a businessman from the United States, who was married at that time. In 1991 Yelena gave birth to her son Ivan to whom she gave her own surname.[6] Currently, Ivan works for Mosfilm.[5]
She was married to fellow actorSamuel Labarthe between 1992 and 1997. Yelena had a second son, Aleksandr, from the marriage.[5]
She starred in 87 films.
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