Faina Ranevskaya was one of the most remarkable Soviet actresses, who was also famous for her aphorisms.
Background
She was born as Faina Feldman to a wealthy Jewish family in the city of Taganrog. Her father, Girsch Haimovich Feldman, owned a dry-ink factory, several buildings, a shop and the steamboat "Saint Nicolas". He was the head of Taganrog synagogue and a founder of a Jewish asylum for the aged. Faina's mother, Milka Rafailovna (née Zagovaylova), was a great admirer of literature and art. That and her passion for Chekhov inluenced Faina's love of art, poetry, music, and theater.
Education
Home education.She was given music, singing, foreign languages lessons.
Career
Her passion for theater began when she was 14. Her attendance of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard at the Moscow Art Theater was an experience that had great impact on her. Her pseudonym "Ranevskaya," which later became her official surname, also came from that theater visit.The Feldman family emigrated in 1917, but Faina decided to stay and continued her acting career, working in the theaters of Kerch, Rostov on Don, at the mobile theater "The First Soviet Theater" in Crimea, also in Baku, Arkhangelsk, Smolensk and other cities.The film Pyshka (known as Boule de Suif in the U.S.), directed by Mikhail Romm marked her debut as a film actress in 1934.Ranevskaya played on stage of the Central Theater of Red Army (1935-1939), Drama Theater, now Mayakovsky Theater (1943-1949), Pushkin Theater (1955-1963), and finally Mossovet Theater (1949-1955, 1963-1983), where she worked with Yury Zavadsky. The actress was awarded the Stalin Prizes for outstanding creative achievements on stage in 1949, and in 1951 for her work in the film U nih est' Rodina (They Have Their Motherland), directed by Vladimir Legoshin and Alexandre Feinzimmer. In 1961 Faina Ranevskaya was awarded the title of the People's Artist of the USSR.