Vera Alentova


Vera Valentinovna Alentova is a Soviet and Russian actress famous for her leading role in Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears.

Biography

Vera Alentova was born on February 21, 1942 in the town of Kotlas in the Arkhangelsk Oblast, in the family of actors Valentin Mikhailovich Bykov and Irina Nikolaevna Alentova. She was named in honor of her maternal grandmother, who died at the age of twenty-eight. The actress's grandfather graduated from Tomsk State University and worked as a doctor, her grandmother graduated from Bestuzhev's courses. Vera's father died when she was four years old, after which her mother took her to Ukraine.
She came to Moscow in 1961, where she entered the Moscow Art Theater School. During the second course Alentova married Vladimir Menshov who was also studying acting at the same theatre school. Vera finished her studies in 1965, after which she became an actress of the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre. In the same year she debuted in cinema with the film Flying Days.
The actress appeared in a leading role as Nastya in the 1975 miniseries Such a Short Long Life which was about the life of ordinary Soviet families.
In 1979 Alentova starred in the popular romantic drama Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears which was directed by her husband Vladimir Menshov. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1981. In the film she played Katya Tikhomirova, a menial factory worker who rises to the ranks of a company director.
Vera Alentova played the ill-tempered head teacher Valendra in the 1987 picture Tomorrow Was the War by Yuri Kara.
Alentova acted in two more productions directed by Menshov — What a Mess! and The Envy of Gods.
Since 2009, she co-operates with her husband Vladimir Menshov, an acting and directing workshop in VGIK.

Personal life

Vera Alentova married director Vladimir Menshov in 1962. They have a daughter, Yuliya Menshova.

Awards