Zhanna Prokhorenko(1940-2011)
- Actress
Zhanna Prokhorenko was born on 11 May, 1940, in Poltava, Ukraine,
Soviet Union (now Poltava, Ukraine). Her father, Trofim Prokhorenko, an
Air Force officer, was killed in WWII, when she was a one-year-old
baby. She was brought up by single mother and went to school in
Leningrad. Young Zhanna Prokhorenko studied acting at the acting studio
of Leningrad Palace of Pioneers. There she was scouted by Moscow Art
Theatre and moved to Moscow. At age nineteen, she was cast by director
Grigoriy Chukhray in
Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
opposite Vladimir Ivashov. The movie
won Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, and Zhanna Prokhorenko shot
to international fame. In 1960, she toured the USA presenting the film
to American audiences. At that time, Moscow Art Theatre had a strict
policy against stage actors who switch to movies, so Zhanna Prokhorenko
was fired. She took the acting class of
Sergey Gerasimov at Soviet State
Institute of Cinema (VGIK), graduating in 1964 as film actress.
Zhanna Prokhorenko was married twice. Her first husband was director Evgeniy Vasilev and the couple had one daughter, Yekaterina Vasilyeva, and granddaughter, Maryana Spivak. Her second husband, writer Artur Makarov, was killed by burglars in her lavish Moscow apartment in 1995, while Zhanna Prokhorenko was away. The murderer was never found. Zhanna Prokhorenko suffered from depression and went into seclusion in a small village away from Moscow. She died of a chronic illness, on 1 August, 2011, in a Moscow hospital, and was laid to rest in Khovanskoe Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.
Zhanna Prokhorenko was married twice. Her first husband was director Evgeniy Vasilev and the couple had one daughter, Yekaterina Vasilyeva, and granddaughter, Maryana Spivak. Her second husband, writer Artur Makarov, was killed by burglars in her lavish Moscow apartment in 1995, while Zhanna Prokhorenko was away. The murderer was never found. Zhanna Prokhorenko suffered from depression and went into seclusion in a small village away from Moscow. She died of a chronic illness, on 1 August, 2011, in a Moscow hospital, and was laid to rest in Khovanskoe Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.
