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Alisa Freindlich
Alisa Freindlich
Алиса Фрейндлих
	Freindlich in 2023
Born	Alisa Brunovna Freindlich; December 8, 1934 (age 90); Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1955–present
Children	Varvara Vladimirova
Parent(s)	Bruno Freindlich, Ksenia Fedorova
Awards	;

Alisa Brunovna Freindlich^[a] (born 8 December 1934) is a Russian actress.^[1] Since 1983, Freindlich has been a leading actress of the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Saint Petersburg, Russia.^[2] She was awarded the title of the People's Artist of the USSR in 1981.

Biography

Alisa Freindlich was born into the family of Bruno Freindlich,^[3] a prominent actor and People's Artist of the USSR. She is of German and Russian ancestry. Her father and paternal relatives were ethnic Germans living in Russia for more than a century.^[4] In her childhood years, Alisa Freindlich attended the drama and music classes of the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers. During World War II, she survived the 900-day-long Nazi siege of Leningrad and continued her school studies after the war.

In the 1950s, she studied acting at the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema, graduating in 1957 as actress. From 1957 to 1961, Alisa Freindlich was a member of the troupe at Komissarzhevskaya Theatre in Leningrad. Then she joined the Lensovet Theatre company, but in 1982, she had to leave it following her divorce from the theatre's director, Igor Vladimirov. Thereupon director Georgy Tovstonogov invited her to join the troupe of Bolshoi Drama Theater.^[3]

Although Freindlich put a premium on her stage career, she starred in several notable movies, including Eldar Ryazanov's enormously popular comedy Office Romance (1977), the long-banned epic Agony (1975) and Andrei Tarkovsky's^[5] sci-fi movie Stalker (1979). Another notable role was the Queen Anne of Austria in the Soviet TV series D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978) and its later Russian sequels, Musketeers Twenty Years After (1992) and The Secret of Queen Anne or Musketeers Thirty Years After (1993).

In 1999, Igor Vladimirov, Freindlich's second husband, died after a long illness, and three years later, her father, Bruno Arturovich, also died.^[6]^[7]

2000–present

On her 70th birthday, she was visited by Vladimir Putin in her Saint Petersburg apartment, who awarded her with the State Prize of the Russian Federation. She also received a Nika Award in 2005.^[8]^[9]

In 2004 film, Freindlich starred in On Upper Maslovka Street after a 10-year hiatus. Her partner on the set was the young actor Yevgeny Mironov.^[10] Freindlich's starred as 87-year-old sculptor Anna Borisovna, who lives out her life in an old workshop.^[10]

Despite the mixed reception of the film by film critics, Freindlich's acting was highly praised by journalists and critics. Yeaterina Tarkhanova, a columnist for film.ru, noted that Freindlich "performs the "old woman sketch" absolutely flawlessly: plastically, facially, intonation."^[10] Igor Mikhailov from kino.ru expressed his opinion as follows:

She plays the inability to walk, breathe, and sometimes speak. In the last frames she plays the transition to death. But the key word in "woman over ninety" is WOMAN. She plays the ability to love, charm, despise, forgive, TRY TO HELP A MAN BE A MAN... Always, under any trials and circumstances. And the viewer lives with Alisa, loves with Alisa, laughs with Alisa, and dies with Alisa.^[11]

For this role, Freindlich was awarded her second Nika Award for Best Actress.^[12]

In 2009, Freindlich starred in Room and a Half, which won a Nika Award.^[13] Freindlich starred as the mother of the poet Joseph Brodsky.

On 7 December 2009, on the stage of the Great Hall of the Central House of Actors named after Yablochkina, the Theatrical Star 2009 award ceremony was held. Freindlich was nominated "For Best Improvisation" for her role as Madeleine in Lessons of Tango and Love.^[14]

On 5 December 2014, in honor of Friendlich's 80-year anniversary, an exhibition dedicated to the history of her family, titled Theater Dynasties of Freindlich, was opened in St. Petersburg at the Museum-Apartment of Samoilov Actors, Stremyannaya, 8.^[15]

As of 2019, Freindlich was performing in nine productions of the Bolshoi Drama in Saint Petersburg, where she is a leading actress.^[16]

Personal life

Freindlich is a member of the United Russia party.^[17]

Selected filmography

Unfinished Story (1955) as episode
Talents and Admirers (1956) as episode
Immortal Song (1957) as gymnasium student
The City Turns the Lights On (1958) as Zina Pichikova
The Story Of Newlyweds [ru] (1960) as Galya
Striped Trip (1961) as barmaid
Fro [ru] (1964) as Natasha Bukova
The First Visitor [ru] (1965) as Tanya
Adventures of a Dentist (1965) as Masha
The City and the Song (1968) as singer
To Love (1968) as Anya
The Waltz [ru] (1969, TV Movie) as Marusya
Yesterday, Today and Forever (1969) as defendant's wife
Family Happiness (1970) as Anna Semyonovna Kapitonova
The Secret of the Iron Door (1970) as Lyusa Ryzhkova, Tolik's mother
My Life (1973) as Kleopatra Polozneva
Acting As [ru] (1973) as Yevgenia Sinegrach
Melodies of Vera Quarter (1973) as Alisa Akvamarinskaya
The Taming of the Shrew (1973, TV Movie) as Katherina
Anna and Commodore [ru] (1974) as Anna
The Straw Hat (1974, TV Mini-Series) as Baroness de Champigny
Blue Puppy (1976, Cartoon) as Blue Puppy (singing voice)
Always with Me... (1976) as Tanya Ilyina
The Princess and the Pea (1977) as Queen Mother
Office Romance (1977) as Lyudmila Prokofyevna Kalugina
Old-Fashioned Comedy (1978) as Lydia Vasilievna Zherber
Stalker (1979) as Stalker's wife
D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1979, TV Mini-Series) as Anne of Austria Queen
Sergey Ivanovich Retires (1980) as Natasha
Three Years (1980) as Polina Rassudina
Dangerous Age (1981) | Lilia Ivanovna Rodimtseva
Two Voices (1981) as Yekaterina
Agony (1981) as Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova
A Canary Cage (1983) as Olesya's mother
A Cruel Romance (1984) as Harita Ignatievna Ogudalova
Success (1985) as Zinaida Nikolayevna Arsenyeva
A Simple Death (1985) as Praskovya Fedorovna
Forgive Me (1986) as Elizaveta Andreyevna
The Secret of the Snow Queen (1986) as Snow Queen
Chekharda (1987) as Margarita Vasilievna Kudryavtseva, accompanist and second conductor
Weekdays and Holidays of Serafima Glukina (1988) as Serafima Glukina
Musketeers Twenty Years After (1992, TV Mini-Series) as Queen Anne of Austria
The Secret of Queen Anne or Musketeers Thirty Years After (1994) as Queen Anne of Austria
Katya Ismailova (1994) as Irina Dmitrievna
Women's Logic (2003-2006) as Olga Petrovna Tumanova
On Upper Maslovka Street (2005) as Anna Borisovna
A Room and a Half (2009) as Brodsky's mother
The Return of the Musketeers, or The Treasures of Cardinal Mazarin (2009) as Queen Anne of Austria
Bolshoi (2017) as Galina Beletskaya
Thawed Carp (2017) as Lyudmila Borisovna
Parents of the Strict Regime (2022) as mother

Honors and awards

Honorary titles:

Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1965)
People's Artist of the RSFSR (1971)
People's Artist of the USSR (1981)
Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts

State awards and incentives:

RSFSR State Prize of Stanislavsky (1976) for the performance of roles Shchegoleva, Kovaleva, Kid plays in "The Man from", "Kovalev of the province," IH Butler, "The Kid and Carlson," by Astrid Lindgren^[18]
State Prize of the Russian Federation in Literature and Art in 1995 (27 May 1996) for the outstanding performance of roles of the classical repertoire^[19]
State Prize of the Russian Federation in Literature and Art in 2000 (6 June 2001) for the performance of the Russian State Academic Bolshoi Drama Theatre Tovstonogov "Arcadia" play by Tom Stoppard^[20]
State Prize of the Russian Federation for year 2007 (19 May 2008) for creating artistic images that have become classics of domestic theatrical art and film^[21]
Diploma of the President of the Russian Federation (8 December 2010) for a great contribution to the development of domestic theater and cinema art.^[22]

Orders:

Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1986)
Order of Friendship (17 December 1994) for services to the people associated with the development of Russian statehood, the achievements in labour, science, culture, arts, strengthening friendship and cooperation between nations

Order "For Merit to the Fatherland":

4th class (13 February 2004) for outstanding contribution to the development of domestic theatrical art.^[23]
3rd class (5 February 2009) for outstanding contribution to the development of domestic theatrical art and many years of fruitful activity.^[24]
2nd class (28 October 2019) for outstanding contribution to the development of domestic culture and arts and many years of fruitful activity.^[25]
Order of Honour (25 September 2014)^[26]

Other awards, prizes, promotions and public recognition:

Nika Award for Best Supporting Actress (movie "Moscow Nights", dir. Valeri Todorovski; 1994)
Honorary citizen of St. Petersburg (2001)^[18]
Nika Award for Best Actress (movie "In the Upper Maslovka", dir. Konstantin Khudyakov; 2005)
"Golden Mask" Award for best dramatic actress ("Oscar and the Pink Lady", Lensovet Theatre; 2006)