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Film, Theater Star Samokhina Dies Aged 47

By Galina Stolyarova

The St. Petersburg Times

For The St. Petersburg Times Anna Samokhina

Anna Samokhina, one of Russia’s most admired film and theater actresses, who was sometimes referred to as the Russian Marilyn Monroe, died of stomach cancer in a St. Petersburg hospice in the early hours of Monday. She was 47.

“We spoke at 7 p.m. last night, and everything seemed normal,” Samokhina’s close friend, St. Petersburg actor Nikolai Pozdeyev, told reporters on Monday. “She died at 2 a.m. on Monday.”

Samokhina’s diagnosis with a late-stage stomach cancer was a deep shock for her millions of admirers, colleagues and friends, as well as for members of her family and the actress herself.

Despite the discouraging news from doctors, the actress and those closest to her continued to fight what many people around her saw as a hopeless cause. Samokhina had sent her test results to some of the world’s top oncology centers, and was awaiting a response. Her friends had also been investigating the possibility of alternative medicine as a treatment for the actress, Pozdeyev said.

Samokhina had been planning a vacation to Goa in November last year when she began experiencing severe stomach pains. A subsequent endoscopy revealed a large stomach tumor on which surgeons in the most respected clinics in Russia, Germany and Israel said it was impossible to operate.

Born on Jan. 14, 1963 in the Kemerovo region in Siberia, Samokhina graduated from the Yaroslavl Theater School. The young actress achieved fame immediately after the release of her first film, Georgy Yungvald-Khilkevich’s “The Prisoner of If Castle” in 1988, in which she played Mercedes.

Her next major success was the role of Rita in the 1988 Soviet classic “The Kings of Crime,” the first attempt by Russian filmmakers during perestroika to explore the phenomenon of Soviet mobsters. Filmmaker Yury Kara, who directed the film, told RIA-Novosti news agency on Monday that Samokhina was “a self-made-woman.”

“In the beginning, for example, when she attended the casting for ‘The Kings of Crime,’ a lot of people in the industry refused to recognize a talent in an up-and-coming provincial actress, yet she won through and asserted herself most impressively,” Kara recalled. “Anna was a symbol of the evolution of Russian filmmaking, of its transition from the Soviet-era peasant-worker heroines to the modern poignant and more sophisticated characters. I am deeply sorry that I won’t be able to work with her anymore.”

Some of Samokhina’s most remarkable roles included princess Tarakanova in “The Tsar’s Hunt” (1990), Zinaida Voloshina in “The Chinese Tea-Set” (1999), Anzhelika Kudrina in “Angelica’s Passion” (1993), and Ada Zakharzhevskaya in the TV series “The Black Crow” (2001).

“Although it was the roles of adventurous women that gained me recognition, I have to say I have nothing in common with them; if someone were to make a film about me, people would probably find me boring,” the actress said in a 2009 interview. “I am a quiet person, quite shy and deeply religious. I stay away from crowds.”

“Many women in my profession say that they have no choice but to become bitchy — I cannot agree with that,” Samokhina said. “There is always a choice. It is not in my nature to humiliate people and let them down, so I would rather leave the profession than adopt that kind of attitude.”

Throughout her career, the actress was continually voted for by industry magazines as one of the most beautiful and elegant actresses in Russia, renowned for her charm and style. The owner of popular St. Petersburg restaurants Graf Suvorov (Count Suvorov) and Poruchik Rzhevsky (Lieutenant Rzhevsky), she was a favorite with the country’s premier lifestyle and beauty magazines, in which she frequently gave beauty and dietary recommendations.

On Feb. 4, Russia’s Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev signed a decree awarding Samokhina the title of Honored Artist of Russia. St. Petersburg actors Yevgeny Dyatlov, Mikhail Boyarsky, Georgy Shtil, Yevgeny Alexandrov, Yevgeny Leonov-Gladyshev and others had planned a charity concert for Feb. 7 to raise funds for Samokhina’s treatment, but the actress had asked her colleagues to cancel the event as she sought to downplay the attention being paid to her personal drama.

“Anna had a lot of stamina and was determined to fight her illness until the very end,” Pozdeyev said.

A civil farewell ceremony is tentatively scheduled for this Wednesday. The actress will be buried at the city’s Smolenskoye cemetery.

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