Svetlana Orlova (actress)

Svetlana Fyodorovna Orlova (Russian: Светлана Фёдоровна Орлова; born 8 April 1956) is a Soviet and Russian film actress. She has appeared in over forty roles and was dubbed the "first beauty of Soviet cinema fairy tales" for her roles in films such as Granddaughter of Ice, The Princess on a Pea, and Finist, the brave Falcon.

Born in Kaliningrad, Orlova's family moved to Alma-Ata in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic when she was five years old. She excelled at ballet dancing at the local house of culture, and was invited to study at the Bolshoi Theatre's choreographic school at the age of nine. While walking in Moscow on a day off, was approached to appear Boris Buneev's Little Farm on the Steppe [ru]. She continued her studies with the Bolshoi, combining it with appearances in films, with her breakthrough role occurring when she was cast in Finist, the brave Falcon. She met her future husband while working on this project, and having achieved fame in cinema, she became a fulltime actress. She went on to appear in over forty roles in Soviet cinema during the 1970s and 1980s, before the early death of her husband in 1987. She has since become a fitness teacher, teaches choreography at a private school, and makes occasional appearances on television, and in roles in the New Year's performances on Sparrow Hills.