Natalia Uzhviy
Natalia Mykhailivna Uzhviy (8 September 1898, Liuboml in Volhynia — 22 July 1986, Kyiv) was a Ukrainian stage and screen actress and the leading performer of the Kyiv State Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre named after Ivan Franko. In 1920 she joined an agitation-brigade theatre attached to the People's Commissariat of Education. From 1922 to 1925 she studied at the Drama Studio of the First State Drama Theatre of the Ukrainian SSR named after Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv in the class of Ivan Marianenko. In 1925–1926 she worked at the Odesa Ukrainian Drama Theatre, and from 1926 to 1934 at the legendary Kharkiv 'Berezil' of Les Kurbas. From 1936 she became the principal actress of the Kyiv Ivan Franko Theatre. She performed about ninety stage roles and appeared in twenty films. Her theatrical work includes Beatrice in 'Much Ado About Nothing' (1940) and Kateryna in the play after Shevchenko; in cinema, Olena Kostiuk in 'The Rainbow' (1943), Iaryna in 'Taras Shevchenko' (1951) and Maria in 'The Earth' (1954). In 1944 she received the title of People's Artist of the USSR. She was a laureate of the Stalin Prizes of 1946, 1949 and 1951, and of the Shevchenko Prize in 1984. In 1973 she was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labour. She headed the Ukrainian Theatre Society from 1954 to 1973. She is buried at the Baikove Cemetery.Collection1