Margarita Terekhova

Margarita Borisovna Terekhova (born 25 August 1942 in Turinsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast) is a celebrated Soviet and Russian film and theatre actress who achieved iconic status through a versatile career spanning four decades. She began her artistic journey after a brief study of physics and mathematics at Tashkent State University, turning to the dramatic arts by enrolling in Yuri Zavadsky’s school‑studio of the Mossovet Theatre in Moscow. Upon graduating in 1964, Terekhova joined the Mossovet Theatre where she performed leading roles such as Cleopatra in Caesar and Cleopatra and Sonya in Crime and Punishment, establishing a reputation for powerful stage presence. Her cinematic debut arrived with the 1965 film Hello, That's Me! and she quickly rose to national fame in the late 1970s with memorable television musical films The Dog in the Manger (as the capricious Countess Diana de Belflor) and D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (as the treacherous Milady de Winter). A landmark achievement came in 1975 when she portrayed the dual characters Maria and Natalia in Andrei Tarkovsky’s critically acclaimed Mirror, a role that cemented her status as a leading actress of her generation. International collaborations followed, including George Cukor’s The Blue Bird (1976) and Konrad Wolf’s Mama, I'm Alive (1977), demonstrating her ability to bridge Soviet and Western cinema. Beyond acting, Terekhova co‑founded the theatre collective “The Puppet Show” (1983‑1987) with Igor Talkov, and later made her directorial debut in 2005 with the film The Seagull, adapted from Anton Chekhov. Despite battling Alzheimer's disease in recent years, her contributions have been honored with titles such as People’s Artist of Russia (1996) and the Order of Honour (2013), reflecting a legacy that continues to inspire Russian cultural heritage.