Lyudmila Gurchenko's Birthday

On November 12, 1935, in Kharkov, a daughter, Lyudmila, was born into the family of Mark Gavrilovich Gurchenkov and his wife Elena Alexandrovna, nee Simonova.

In the literature you can often find statements about the supposed Ukrainian roots of Lyudmila Gurchenko. The reason for this is her birth in Kharkov, which was part of the Ukrainian SSR, and the Actress shortening her last name by one letter. But, in fact, the roots of Lyudmila Markovna’s parents lie in the Smolensk region. The Actress's paternal ancestors were peasants, and Elena Alexandrovna Simonova's parents were nobles who owned an estate in the Smolensk region. The October Revolution mixed everything up in Russia, as a result of which the parents of Mark Gurchenkov and Elena Simonova ended up in Kharkov.

At the time of Lyudmila’s birth, her parents worked as musicians at the Kharkov Philharmonic. When the war began, Mark Gavrilovich, despite his disability, volunteered for the front. But, being disabled and a professional musician, he was assigned to a front-line concert brigade, where he played the button accordion.

The parents' musical abilities were passed on to their daughter. When German troops occupied Kharkov, Lyusya performed in front of the Germans to earn food for herself and her mother. The Wehrmacht soldiers were probably impressed by the performance of songs from Marika Rökk's repertoire by 6-year-old Lyusya Gurchenkova.

In 1943, after the liberation of Kharkov from the German occupation, Lyusya went to school where teaching was conducted in Ukrainian. It was there that the surname of the future Actress was changed into the Ukrainian style. And a year later, Lyusya also entered the music school named after. L.Beethoven.

After graduating from school, in 1953, Lyudmila Gurchenko entered VGIK (All-Union State Institute of Cinema), in the workshop of Sergei Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova. Sergei Gerasimov was known for actively “promoting” his students. So he suggested Lyudmila Gurchenko for one of the roles in Jan Fried’s film “The Road of Truth,” since he himself was the author of the script for this film. Neither the film itself, released in September 1956, nor Gurchenko’s role in this film had any success.

However, thanks to filming in the film by Jan Fried, Lyudmila caught the eye of the then director of the Mosfilm film company, Ivan Pyryev. When Eldar Ryazanov, who was filming the film “Carnival Night” at that time, initiated by the same Pyryev, began to experience problems with the leading actress in the film, Pyryev very persistently suggested replacing her with Lyudmila Gurchenko. The role in “Carnival Night” brought the 21-year-old Actress all-Union fame.

A huge number of materials have been published about Lyudmila Gurchenko, documentaries and television series have been shot. Not to mention the fact that she herself wrote several autobiographical books. There is no point in retelling these publications.

Over her more than half-century career in cinema, Lyudmila Gurchenko has played more than 70 roles in full-length feature films, not counting the huge number of roles in television films. 10 films with the participation of Lyudmila Gurchenko entered the Golden Thousand, including “Siberiade” (director Andrei Konchalovsky, 1978), “Love and Doves” (director Vladimir Menshov, 1984), “Five Evenings” (director Nikita Mikhalkov, 1978), "Twenty Days Without War" (director Alexey German, 1976), "A Railway Station for Two" (director Eldar Ryazanov, 1982), "Balzaminov's Marriage" (director Konstantin Voinov, 1965), "Carnival Night", "Shadow" (director Nadezhda Kosheverova, 1971), “Flights in Dream and in Reality” (director Roman Balayan, 1982), “Rock'n Roll Wolf” (director Elizabeta Bostan, 1976). Thanks to this indicator and her beauty, Lyudmila Gurchenko is included in the list of 100 most beautiful and sexy Actresses of world cinema, compiled by FilmGourmand. In this list, Lyudmila Gurchenko ranks highest among Russian-speaking Actresses.

In honor of the great Actress’s birthday, I would like to remind fans of her work of footage from the best films with her participation, included in the Golden Thousand.