People’s Artist of the RSFSRLyudmila Vasilyevna Tselikovskaya was born on 8 September 1919 in Astrakhan.She studied at the Gnessin Musical College in piano class, but was suddenly carried away by theatre.In 1941 she graduated from the Schukin Theatre School.She worked at the Vakhtangov Theatre from 1941 till 1992.She also actively took part in founding Moscow Taganka Theatre, as in 1960-1978 she was Yury Lyubimov’s wife. Soviet film star, an outstanding actress of both theatre and cinema, feminine, charming and ironic Lyudmila Tselikovskaya became a legend in her lifetime. Female audience of the Vakhtangov Theatre, passionate admirers of the two leading actresses – Lyudmila Tselikovskaya and Galina Pashkova – divided into “tselikistki” and “pashkistki” whose confrontation sometimes even ended with hand-to-hand fights.In the 40s Tselikovskaya often acted in films. Films she acted in were sold out, admirers fondly called her Lyusya, her portraits were often used to decorate flats. However the actress was not popular with the authorities. While Alexandrov’s and Pyryev’s films were praised by the official press, comedies with Tselikovskaya were criticized severely. Stalin himself truck her out of the Laureate list for the film “Ivan Grozniy”. Nobody patronized her; on the contrary, her characters were believed not to carry an ideological message.Lyudmila Vasilyevna Tselikovskaya died on 4 July 1992.