Biography
Iya Sergeevna Savvina was a Soviet and Russian actress associated with the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).
Born on March 2, 1936, in Voronezh, Russia (then part of the Soviet Union), Savvina studied Journalism at Moscow University from 1954 to 1958, graduating as a journalist. During her university years, she was active in the student drama club, where casting directors from Lenfilm studios discovered her. She made her film debut in Leningrad and gained fame starring opposite Aleksey Batalov in Iosif Kheifits’s 1960 film The Lady with the Dog. From 1960 to 1977, Savvina was a member of the Mossoveta Theatre in Moscow, performing alongside actors such as Rostislav Plyatt, Georgi Zhzhyonov, and Aleksandr Lazarev.
In 1977, she joined the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT) as a permanent troupe member, acting with distinguished Russian performers including Olga Androvskaya, Angelina Stepanova, Mark Prudkin, Anastasiya Georgievskaya, Vasili Toporkov, Mikhail Bolduman, Pavel Massalsky, and a new generation of actors like Oleg Efremov, Tatyana Doronina, Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Oleg Tabakov, Alla Pokrovskaya, Kira Golovko, Tatyana Lavrova, Nina Gulyaeva, Elena Panova, Darya Moroz, Olga Litvinova, Natalya Rogozhkina, Ekaterina Semyonova, Olga Yakovleva, Raisa Maksimova, Irina Miroshnichenko, Evgeniya Dobrovolskaya, Kristina Babushkina, Anastasiya Voznesenskaya, Andrey Myagkov, Stanislav Lyubshin, Vladimir Kashpur, Vladlen Davydov, Viktor Sergachyov, Vyacheslav Nevinnyy, Evgeniy Kindinov, Vladimir Krasnov, Sergei Desnitsky, Dmitriy Nazarov, Sergey Sazontev, Avangard Leontev, Igor Vasilev, Igor Vernik, Sergei Sosnovsky, Mikhail Porechenkov, Konstantin Khabenskiy, Valeri Khlevinsky, Aleksei Agapov, Valeriy Troshin, Mikhail Trukhin, Eduard Chekmazov, Aleksey Kravchenko, and Evgeniy Mironov.
Between the 1970s and 1990s, Savvina was acclaimed for her roles in Anton Chekhov’s classic plays, notably as Anfisa in The Three Sisters and as Sharlotta in The Cherry Orchard. She also earned praise for her performance as Sofia alongside Natalya Tenyakova in Christmas Dreams, directed by Pyotr Shteyn, and as Khlestova in Aleksandr Griboyedov’s Woe From Wit.
Iya Savvina was honored with the title of People's Actress of the USSR. She received the State Prize of the USSR twice, in 1983 and 1990, along with numerous awards from the Soviet and Russian governments.
