Alisa Freindlich

Soviet and Russian actress

Alisa Brunovna Freindlich or Freindlih (Алиса Бруновна Фрейндлих; Alissa Brunowna Freindlich, born 8 December 1934) is a Russian actress. Since 1983, Freindlich has been a leading actress of the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She was awarded the title of the People's Artist of the USSR in 1981.

Alisa Freindlich was born into the family of Bruno Freindlich, 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. Freindlich's starred as 87 year old sculptor Anna Borisovna, who lives out her life in an old workshop. For this role, Freindlich was awarded her second Nika Award for Best Actress. In 2009, Freindlich starred in Room and a Half, which won a Nika Award. 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. 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. As of 2019, Freindlich was performing in nine productions of the Bolshoi Drama in Saint Petersburg, where she is a leading actress.

Freindlich is a member of the United Russia party.