Ludmilla Pitoëff

Ludmilla Pitoëff , originally Lyudmila von Smanov or Lyudmila Smanova (born December 25, 1895 in Tbilisi , † September 16, 1951 in Rueil-Malmaison ) was a French theater actress of Russian origin.

Life

Her father Iakov von Smanov came from an old aristocratic family and was a tsarist official at the governor for the Caucasus as well as honorary manager of the Tbilisi Theater. Her mother was Anna Andrejevna Vassiliavna, who was 15 years her junior and of Caucasian origin. She attended the St. Nina boarding school, a boarding school for higher daughters from the Russian aristocracy. After finishing school, she moved with her mother to Paris , where she studied languages ​​and took singing and ballet lessons. She also took acting lessons and unsuccessfully sought admission to the Paris Conservatory .

In 1915 she married Georges Pitoëff , also from Tbilisi , with whom she had seven children. First in Geneva and then in Paris, she was constantly on stage in her husband's numerous productions. Her acting performances contributed significantly to his directing success, so that one soon spoke of "the Pitoëffs". Her most important role was that of the title character in Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw .

After the death of her husband in 1939, she played in Switzerland and the USA. She later returned to Paris, where she successfully continued theater work with her son Sacha Pitoëff . The works of Anton Pawlowitsch Chekhov formed a focus of her repertoire .

literature

• Horst Schumacher: Pitoëff, Ludmilla . In: Manfred Brauneck, Wolfgang Beck (ed.): Theater Lexikon 2. Actors and directors, stage managers, dramaturges and stage designers . Rowohlt's encyclopedia published by Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag. Reinbek near Hamburg, August 2007, ISBN 978 3 499 55650 0 , p. 565