Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė

Lithuanian actress

Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė (born 20 January 1963) is а Lithuanian actress and television presenter. Known for both her screen and stage performances, she has gained recognition for featuring in films such as Burnt by the Sun (1994) and Katya Ismailova (1994), which won her the Nika Award for Best Actress. Dapkūnaitė was also credited in Mission: Impossible (1996), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Emily Young's debut Kiss of Life (2003), and Okkupert (2015–2019). Dapkūnaitė performed in theaters in Lithuania, the United Kingdom, United States, and Russia, including Steppenwolf Theatre, Shaftesbury Theatre, The Old Vic, Hampstead Theatre, Theatre of Nations, and more. She has a long lasting professional partnership with John Malkovich, they worked together on numerous theatrical productions.

Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė was born in Vilnius, then in the Lithuanian SSR of the Soviet Union, on 20 January 1963. Her father, Petras Edmundas Dapkūnas, was a diplomat, while her mother, Ingeborga Dapkuniene (Sabalyte), was a meteorologist. Because of work, her parents spent most of their time abroad (in particular, in Moscow), while Ingeborga remained in Vilnius. She was cared for by her grandmother Genovaitė Sabliene, the manager of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, and her aunt and uncle, who held positions at the symphony orchestra. Dapkūnaitė made her theatrical debut at the age of four as Dolore in the Puccini opera Madama Butterfly. Later, she also played in Faust, The Demon, and The Queen of Spades. Dapkūnaitė attended theatrical school at the local House of Unions and practiced sports, such as figure skating and basketball (quite popular in Lithuania by that time). After school, she enrolled in the Department of Theater Arts of the Lithuanian State Conservatory and studied under Jonas Vaitkus.

After the Conservatory, Dapkūnaitė joined Kaunas State Drama Theatre. In two years, she had played seven leading roles in the productions by her master, Jonas Vaitkus. played Shelly in the Buried Child, and several Shakespearean roles. Later, she was invited to the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre. Dapkunaite played in Malkovich's Steppenwolf production Libra, acted alongside him in The Giacomo Variations in Ronacher (Vienna) and Sydney Opera,

Dapkūnaitė also worked in other theaters in the UK, U. S.,, and Europe. In London, she appeared in Cloaca, directed by Kevin Spacey, at The Old Vic, in Moonlight, and in After Darwin at the Hampstead Theatre, and in The Vagina Monologues at Ambassadors Theatre. She also had a lead play in Touchables (Прикасаемые), the first ever theatrical production with deaf blind actors.

Dapkūnaitė debuted on screen in 1984 (as a fourth grade student) as Aukse in Raimundas Banionis's first feature film Mano mazyte žmona (. In 1986, she performed together with Igor Kostolevsky in Isaak Fridbergas's Nakties paklydeliai (. In 1987, she starred in the television film lt based on Ray Bradbury's short story I Sing the Body Electric.

Dapkūnaitė became widely popular in the Soviet Union after the role of the young prostitute Kisulya in Pyotr Todorovsky's 1989 drama Intergirl. In 1991, she starred in Dmitry Meskhiev's Cynics, in which she received the 1992 Golden Aries Actress of the Year award. In 1994, the leading role in Valery Todorovsky's 1994 drama film Katya Ismailova won Dapkūnaitė the Nika Award for Best Actress. The same year, Dapkūnaitė portrayed Marussia in Nikita Mikhalkov's Burnt by the Sun, which received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Grand Prix at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Her other roles in the Soviet and Russian movies included Vija Beinerte's Stecheniye obstoyatel'stv (1988), Igor Talankin's Osen, Chertanovo (1989), Her leading roles included Orange Juice by Andrey Proshkin and Winter Will not Come by Ilia Demichev. On TV, she appeared as Morpheya in the Sky Court (2011), Mrs Hudson in the adaptation of Sherlock Holmes (2012), Alexandra Feodorovna in the Grigoriy R mini series (2014), and Maria Feodorovna in Alexei Uchitel's 2017 Matilda. On TV, Dapkūnaitė was the co host of the Russian edition of the Big Brother reality show (2005) and the spokesperson at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 finals in Moscow. She also took part in the Stars on Ice (2006) and The new songs about the most important things (2007) TV shows. She was invited to play the role of IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agent Hannah Williams in Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible and in 2007, she played the mother of Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising, directed by Peter Webber. She also acted together with Emir Kusturica in the espionage thriller L'affaire Farewell (2009) by Christian Carion and played in Alexis Lloyd's romantic comedy 30 Beats (2012). Dapkūnaitė's roles on TV included Alexandra Feodorovna in the TV mini series The Lost Prince (2003); nurse Katya Bredova in Season 1 of the medical drama series Bodies (2004); and Baiba Liepa in Wallander, episodes "The Dogs of Riga" and "Lesson in love". Dapkūnaite played top Russian diplomat Irina Sidorova, one of the key roles in the Norwegian series Okkupert , first aired in 2015. In the 2018 Russian Estonian remake of the 2011 Swedish/Danish crime drama The Bridge she played the lead role of Estonian detective Inga Veerma.

Dapkūnaitė served on the jury of the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival (2001), the 56th Cannes Film Festival Cinéfondation program (2003), the 55th Berlin International Film Festival (2005), the 20th Mar del Plata International Film Festival (2005), the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival (2009), and the 67th Venice Film Festival (2010). Dapkūnaitė was the Longines Ambassador of Elegance (since 2005) and L'Oréal Ambassador of Beauty (since 2014). Dapkūnaitė was the head of the Cinemotion acting school, and curated the acting department of the Moscow Film School. From 2013 to 2018, Dapkūnaitė was married to Russian lawyer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Dmitry Yampolsky. They have a son. At different points of her life she lived in Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Belgium. In February 2022, she denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine and left the country. She holds Lithuanian and British citizenship.

For years, Dapkūnaitė had been the chairperson of the board of trustees of the Hospice Charity Foundation Vera and a member of the board of trustees of the Friends Foundation. Since 2015, she had produced a Touchables (Прикасаемые) theatrical project in the Theatre of Nations, which aims to integrate deafblind people into the acting community.