Actress, Singer. She was a leading star of the Russian stage and screen for many years. Raised in the Ukraine she attended Moscow’s All Union State Institute of Cinematography and made her silver screen bow in the 1956 drama “Doroga pravdy”. That same year saw her achieve stardom with her portrayal of Lena Krylova in “Carnival Night”, a musical comedy of New Year’s Eve hijinks in an economics institute that was a major hit and has become something of a cult classic. Lyudmila next received praise for 1958’s “A Girl With a Guitar” despite the movie itself being a flop; trouble, however, was brewing. A Moscow tabloid ran stories questioning Lyudmilla’s ‘political reliability’ which apparently had their basis in her refusal to be a KGB informer. She further hurt her own cause by accepting an anomyous envelope of cash after a stage performance, not realizing that she was walking into a trap. Blacklisted, she was not stopped from working but instead found herself taking small roles in B-movies and doing stage shows at remote military bases, mines, and work camps for the next 20 years. Gladually in the late 1970s her situation improved and two 1982 film features made her a star again; “Railway Station for Two” saw her as a waitress who is always ready with a sharp comeback for lecherous customers, while in “Flights in Dreams and in Reality” she was a middle aged factory girl forced to work beside her former lover. Named People’s Artist of the USSR in 1983 she continued working for the remainder of her years, eventually adding producing and directing to her skills. Lyudmila’s personal life was a bit troubled, with five failed marriages, one of them to noted singer Joseph Kobzon. Keeping her figure, good legs, and youthful manner she had a steady following among older fans, though she was to make herself the victim of some less-than-skilled plastic surgery. Transitioning successfully into the post-Soviet world she received the Fourth Degree Order for Service to the Motherland in 2000. Lyudmila earned her final screen credit with 2010’s “Pestyre sumerki” and died about six weeks after a fall and subsequent hip surgery. (bio by: Bob Hufford)  Family links:  Spouses:  Vasiliy Sergeyevich Ordynskiy (1923 – 1995)*  Boris Borisovich Andronikashvili (1934 – 1996)* *Calculated relationship