Memorials of two centuries: long-lived Soviet actresses who are over 90 years old

Lyudmila Khityaeva graduated from theater school in 1952 and soon began acting in films. She immediately debuted in the title role in the film “Ekaterina Voronina”, after which the legendary Sergei Gerasimov invited her to shoot with him in “Quiet Don”. In Sholokhova’s film adaptation, Khityaeva played the role of Pyotr Melekhov’s wife Daria.

However, for the general audience, the actress is perhaps more remembered for the characteristic and mischievous role of Solokha in the film “Evenings on the Farm at Dikanka”. Khityaeva has been on the screen for more than half a century, and not only as an actress – already in 2010 she tried herself as a TV presenter.

The life of such a magnificent actress was also full of love passions. As a student, she had an affair with Evgeny Evstigneev. She was married three times, but the last family union was not registered, and then Khityaeva completely found a new wife for her fiancé to give birth to a child for him.

“I already had a child and because of my age I could not give him children with all my desire. He was also over 50. And I was able to convey to him the idea that a person is happier when he has his own children,” said the actress.

In 2022, shortly before her birthday, Khityaeva fell at home and ended up in the hospital, but luckily for her fans, the actress recovered from her injury.

The star of the Theater of Satire still amazes the audience with his youthfulness and elegant appearance. The actress came to the cinema in 1945 – a student of the theater school was invited to a role in the film “Twins”. The full debut of Vera Vasiljeva took place in 1947, when she played Nastya Gusenko in Ivan Pyryev’s film The Legend of the Siberian Land. For this work, the young artist received the most prestigious award of the time – the Stalin Prize.

In 1948, Vasilyeva was enrolled in the troupe of the Theater of Satire and spent her entire creative life on this stage.

In love, Vera Kuzminichna was also faithful to one chosen one. She has been married to Vladimir Ushakov since 1956, they had no children, and in 2011 Vasiliev became a widow.

The actress still goes on stage and always draws applause, because her energy at such a respectable age can only be envied.

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Lyudmila Arinina is well known to several generations of Soviet viewers, although she came to the cinema rather late – after receiving an actress diploma in 1948, she appeared on the screen only in 1967, before that she shone on the theater stage in provincial theaters.

There are hundreds of roles in her filmography, and even if the main ones were not so many, the viewer always remembered this bright actress. The older Soviet generation loved her for her roles in the films “Mom Got Married” and “Belarusian Station”, and pioneers knew her as Julia Gribkova’s grandmother from the TV series “Guest from the Future”. After the role of Julia Dmitrievna in the TV movie “For the rest of my life”, Arinina developed the role of a lonely woman with a “difficult fate”, but at the same time she was a master of the comedy genre.

The actress was married three times, but did not give birth to children. She found her last love when she was over 60 years old. After the death of her second husband, she no longer thought about her personal life, but in 1989 she met Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Semenov, who also experienced the death of his wife. The lovers already in middle age decided to get married and are still happy together.

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