Marina Aklekseyevna Ladynina was born on June 24 (11), 1908 in Skotinino Village of the Smolensk Province.  

 

Soon the family moved to Nazarovo Village near the town of Achinsk of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. At the age of 16 Marina became a teacher and taught her fellow villagers. At about the same age she first took the stage as a member of an amateur theatrical circle and played in productions of the Achinsk Theater. 

 

Having arrived in Moscow, Marina Ladynina at once entered the GITIS Academy (the State Institute for Theatre Arts), where she was immediately recognized as “especially gifted”. In 1928 she appeared in a small episode in the silent movie Forbidden to Enter the City.

 

Having graduated from the State Institute for Theatre Arts in 1933, Marina joined the company of the Moscow Art Theatre but worked there only till 1935, and then entirely dedicated her work to cinema.  Her leaving of the Moscow Art Theatre was also prompted by the film director Ivan Pyryev, whom she married in 1936. 

 

The creative union of Marina Ladynina and Ivan Pyryev was one of the most successful ones in the Soviet cinema. Marina became the holder of five State Awards of the USSR: for the role of Maryana Bazhan in the movie Tractor Drivers in 1941; for Glasha Novikova's role in the movie Pig-tender and Shepherd in 1942; for Varya Pankova's role in the movie At Six O'clock in the Evening after War in 1946; in 1948 for Natasha Malinina's role in the movie Ballad of Siberia; for Galina Peresvetova’s role in the movie Cossacks of the Kuban in 1951.

 

In 1950 after the release of Cossacks of the Kuban she was honoured with the title of the People’s Actress of the USSR. 

 

However, while embodying on screen an idealized image of workers and collective farmers, Marina Ladynina was quite a sober minded person and did not cherish illusions about the compliance of screen images with reality. 

 

In 1954 following the release of the movie Fidelity Test the marriage of Ladynina and Pyryev broke up. This divorce doomed the actress’ career: after 1954 she did not appear in any film. For some time she worked at the Theatre Studio of Film Actor and toured around the country, giving concerts in Russian towns and villages.

 

In 1998, at the age of 90 Marina Ladynina got Nika Prize in the nomination For Honour and Dignity.

 

Marina Ladynina died on March 10, 2003. The actress was laid down to rest at the Novodevichy Cemetery.