Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Shagalova was a very popular actress in the Soviet Union. For her creative biography, she played more than fifty roles in the cinema and was awarded the Stalin Prize for the image of the heroic girl Vali Borts in the film "The Young Guard". She also starred in famous films: "Faithful Friends", "Marriage of Balzaminov", "The Tale of Lost Time", "Mustachioed Nanny", "Where is Nofelet?"
Lyudmila Alexandrovna lived a bright and not simple life. Having survived the early loss of her mother, wartime, evacuation, and the arrest of her father, she remained a strong woman and a wonderful actress, who embodied on the screen numerous images of the funny, serious, comedic and tragic heroines of her films.
Childhood
Lyudmila was born in Belarus in the spring of 1923. When the girl was only two years old, her mother died, and all her subsequent years were brought up by the father, who worked at that time in the military industry. In the late 1920s, the family left Rogachev for Moscow, where the girl went to school and received secondary education.
Lyudmila owes her career in film to the director Y. Protazanov, who noticed the girl at the time of the broadcast on television of the rally dedicated to the Papanin heroes. It was he who invited Lyudmila to the studio and offered to star in the film "Seventh Graders", which was released in 1938. From that moment, the creative biography of the famous and beloved by the audience actress Lyudmila Alexandrovna Shagalova began.
War years
Just before the start of the war, Lyudmila's father was repressed and exiled to the camps.
When the Great Patriotic War began, the girl was evacuated to Chelyabinsk, where she worked at the plant as a guard commandant.
Ludmila’s dream, even in wartime, was cinema, and immediately after returning from evacuation to Moscow, the girl entered the cinema institute in order to devote her future life to creativity.
Film career
Three years after the end of the war, Sergei Gerasimov’s film “The Young Guard” based on the novel by A. Fadeyev was released on the screens of the country, where Lyudmila played one of the main roles - Valya Borts. The film was dedicated to the Young Guard - former schoolchildren who created an underground anti-fascist Komsomol organization called Young Guard, which had been working in Krasnodon for a long time. For this role, Lyudmila was awarded the Stalin Prize.
After the success that brought her a role in this film, Shagalova became a popular and famous actress. She receives new invitations to shoot, and she willingly accepts them. The directors really appreciated the actress and loved working with her. She was distinguished by a strong and independent character and always looked 100% in her work.
For her creative biography, Lyudmila Alexandrovna played many wonderful roles in the cinema and the State Theater of the Film Actor. She got different images. The most famous works of Shagalova in the cinema were: “Farewell, America!”, “Faithful friends”, “Can't be!”, “Mustachioed nanny”. For the role in the film "Marriage of Balzaminov" Shagalova was recognized as an actress of the year.
Having worked in the film industry for most of her life, Shagalova stopped shooting in the late 80s, when her health no longer allowed the actress to work fully.
Shagalova passed away in 2012 in Moscow after a long illness. She is buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery with her husband, whom she survived for only one year.
