Alīda Vija Artmane (August 21, 1929 – October 11, 2008) was a
Latvian / Soviet
theatre and cinema
actress.
Childhood
Artmane was born Alīda Artmane at the time when Latvia was a
sovereign nation. Her father, Franz (Fritz) Artmann, of
Baltic German ancestry, died in a tragic
accident aged 19, just four months before she was born. Her
Polish mother survived as a single mother by
doing seasonal agricultural jobs. As a young girl, Artmane grew up
playing in the fields; she was fond of wild flowers and learned
tomake flower arrangements and dolls in the Latvian traditional
style. While her mother worked for a landlord, her master sent
young Artmane to study music and dance at a ballet class for couple
of years. However, at the age of 10, young Artmane became a
shepherd girl. She worked with a herd of
cows for over five years, and survived until the end of the
Second World War. In 1946 she
graduated from secondary school and had a dream of becoming a
lawyer in order to make the world a better
place. At the same time she was involved in amateur acting at her
school, and became interested in film and theatre, and eventually
her passion for acting prevailed.
Acting career
After the
war in 1946 Artmane moved to Riga
, and began
her studies at the Daile Theatre
Second Studio, eventually staying there as member of the troupe for
the next 50 years. At the very beginning of her acting
career she made the inevitable sacrifices, such as abandoning her
favorite countryside, her cows, and changing her first name to
Vija, upon a hint from her teacher and for artistic reasons. From
1946 to 1949 Artmane studied acting under the tutelage of the
Latvian theatre director
Eduards Smiļģis, the original
founder of the troupe. From 1949 - 1998 Artmane was the leading
star of the troupe at the Daile Theatre in Riga. She played her
best stage roles under the directorship of Smiļģis. Her most
memorable stage works were such classic roles as
Juliet in
Romeo and
Juliet (1953), and
Ophelia in
Hamlet among other
Shakespeare plays. Artmanealso created
important roles in Latvian plays such as
Indulis and Ārija
and
Fire and Night under the direction of the National
Actor of Latvia
Rainis. She wascritically
acclaimed for her stage works in Russian plays, such as her
passionate performance as Tolstoy's heroine
Anna Karenina; she also played in Tolstoy's
War and Peace, in
Gogol's
Dead Souls,
and other classic Russian plays. After the death of Smiļģis, in
1966, Artmane gradually switched to contemporary plays, but she
also continued to perform some of her classic stage roles during
the 1970s and 1980s.
From 1998 to 2000 she worked with the New Riga Theatre. There she
appeared in the title role in a stage production of
The Queen of Spades based on
the
eponymous short
story by
Alexander
Pushkin.
Becoming a film star
In 1956, Artmane was already a recognised star of the Latvian
stage, when she made her film debut in
Posle shtorma
(
After the Storm).
In 1963 she shot to fame in the Soviet Union
with her leading role as Sonya, a beautiful and
loving mother, opposite Evgeni
Matveev in the popular film Rodnaya krov
(1963). After that film Artmane was nicknamed
"Mother-Latvia" in her homeland. She enjoyed a steady film career
in the Soviet Union during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Her film
career was highlighted with such roles as Veda Kong in the popular
science fiction film
Tumannost' Andromedy (1967), as
Empress Catherine the Great in the historical
drama
Yemelyan Pugachyov
(1978), as Julia Lamber in the film
Teātris (1978) and
other notable film works. Vija Artmane appeared as herself in a
documentary on her life entitled
Conversation with the
Queen (1980) which was produced at the Riga Film Studio.
Recognition
Vija Artmane is regarded as one of the leading figures of Latvian
culture. During the period of Soviet control, Artmane took an
active part in the movement for preservation and support of Latvian
national heritage; she has been an active proponent for the use of
the
Latvian language in literature
and art, as well as in everyday life. She received the title of
"National Actress of Latvia", and was recognised as a
People's Artist of the USSR in
1969.
In 1999 Artmane was given an award by the Latvian Ministry of
Culture for her contribution tothe art of theatre and cinema. In
2003 she received the special Theatre Prize for her long-standing
contribution to Latvian culture.In 2007 Vija Artmane was decorated
with the Order of the Three Stars. The Order is conferred in
recognition of outstanding civil merit in the service of
Latvia.
4136 Artmane was named in her
honour.
Personal life
Vija Artmane was married to Latvian actor Artur Dimitres, and the
couple had two children, a son and a daughter. In 1986, after the
death of her husband, she suffered from emotional breakdown and
later had a stroke. In the 1990s, Artmane moved out of the city of
Riga due to money shortage and settled in the countryside. In early
2000s she converted to
Russian
Orthodoxy. In 2004 she published a book of memoirs covering her
acting career as well as her personal life.
References
Sources
- Biography of Vija Artmane by: Steve Shelokhonov
- Artmane Vija, "Ziemcieši. Mirkļi no manas dzīves", Pētergailis,
2004. Dokumentary prose, memoirs.
- Eduards Smiļģis Theatre Museum, Pārdaugava, Riga, Latvia.
Filmography
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