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Photo of Faina Ranevskaya

Faina Ranevskaya

Actor
Born August 27, 1896Died July 19, 1984 (87 years)
Faina Georgiyevna Ranevskaya (born Faina Girschevna Feldman, on August 27th, 1896 in Taganrog), was a Soviet theatre and film actress. She is also very well known for her cheeky aphorisms. In childhood, she attended the Mariinskaya Gymnasium for Girls, receiving additional education usual for someone from an affluent family (music, singing, foreign languages). Heavily influenced by her mother's love for the arts, Ranevskaya had a budding interest in theatre and by the age of 14 was attending classes at the private theatre studio of A. Jagiello (A.N. Govberg), graduating in 1914. In 1915 she decided to move to Moscow, becoming estranged from her family due to her choice of career. During these years she met M. Tsvetaeva, O. Mandelstam, V. Mayakovsky, and V. Kachalov. In the post-revolutionary years, her family left Russia and settled in Prague, but she stayed to continue pursuing theatre. She worked in the theatres of Kerch, Rostov-on-Don, at the mobile theatre "The First Soviet Theater" in Crimea, also in Baku, Arkhangelsk, Smolensk, etc. In fall of 1915, Ranevskaya signed a contract to work in the Kerch troupe of Madame Lavrovskaya. Sadly, the public did not express great interest in the new troupe. Ranevskaya chose her stage name in honor of the main character in Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard. Once, on a walk with a fellow troupe member, Ranevskaya decided to check into the bank. The actress recalls the birth of this pseudonym: "When we came out of the massive bank doors, a gust of wind tore the banknotes out of my hands – the entire amount. I stopped, and, looking at the flying banknotes, said: 'Shame about the money, but how beautifully it flies away!' 'But indeed, you are Ranevskaya!' exclaimed her companion. 'Only she could say that!' When I later had to choose a pseudonym, I decided to take the surname of Chekhov's heroine. We have something in common–but far from everything, far from everything..." Ranevskaya also used to joke about herself, saying that she was Ranevskaya because she had butterfingers. Ranevskaya's mother and her had both greatly admired the writer himself.

In 1934, she made her debut in film as Madame Loiseau in Pyshka (dir. Mikhail Romm), based on Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant. Romain Rolland, a French writer, loved the film (his favorite actor in the movie was Ranevskaya). At his request it was shown in French cinemas and became a box-office hit. She remained both prominent film and theatre actress, although most of her work remained in theatre.

In her later years, Ranevskaya professed that meeting Pavla Woolf drastically changed her fate; it was thanks to Woolf that she became an actress. They met in 1918, when Ranevskaya worked as an extra for a circus production. She happened to see Pavla Woolf in "A Nest of the Gentlefolk", which left upon her a big impression. She asked the actress to help her (who willingly accepted), and from that day on they remained very close friends.

Movies & Shows on Plex

  • The Foundling

Known For

  • Karlson Returns
  • Junior and Karlson
  • The Foundling
  • Marriage
  • Cinderella
  • Be Careful, Grandma!
  • Lyogkaya zhizn
  • Spring
  • Nebesnyy tikhokhod
  • Vstrecha na Elbe
  • Slon i veryovochka
  • Oshibka inzhenera Kochina
  • Novye pokhozhdeniya Shveyka
  • Kak possorilis Ivan Ivanovich s Ivanom Nikiforovichem
  • Segodnya novyy attraktsion
  • U nikh est Rodina
  • Private Aleksandr Matrosov

Filmography

1980
1978
Dalshe: Tishina · as Lucy Cooper
1970
Karlson Returns · as Freken Bok (voice)
1968
Junior and Karlson · as Freken Bock
1966
Segodnya novyy attraktsion · as Ada Konstantinovna
1964
Lyogkaya zhizn · as Margarita Ivanovna, Aka Queen Margot
1962
Fitil (TV Series)
1961
Be Careful, Grandma! · as Elena Timofeevna
1958
Devushka s gitaroy · as Sviristinskaya
1950
1949
Vstrecha na Elbe · as Mrs. Macdermott
1948
1947
Spring · as Margarita Lvovna, Housekeeper
1947
Cinderella · as Stepmother
1946
Nebesnyy tikhokhod · as Military Doctor, Professor Of Medicine
1946
Slon i veryovochka · as Grandmother
1944
Marriage · as Настасья Тимофеевна Жигалова (мать Невесты)
1943
1943
Mechta · as Madame Rosa Skorokhodova
1942
Alexander Parkhomenko · as Female Pianist (uncredited)
1941
1940
The Foundling · as Lyalya (as F.g. Ranevskaya)
1939
1939
Man in a Shell · as Жена Инспектора
1937
1934
Boule de suif · as Mme. Loiseau

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