Dzidra Ritenbergs has died

obituary
The famous Soviet actress Dzidra Ritenbergs died in Riga at the age of 75.
Dzidra Ritenbergs was born in a country that in the Soviet Union was called bourgeois Latvia. And she took her first steps on stage in Soviet Latvia: in 1948 she graduated from the studio at the Latvian Art Theater named after Rainis. She played at the Liepaja Theater, then at the same Rainis Theater. But it was the cinema that made her famous throughout the country. One of her first roles brought her great fame - it was the proud village girl Malva in the film based on the stories of Maxim Gorky. European recognition soon added to her all-Union popularity: in 1957 she received the Venice Film Festival prize for best actress.
In the early 60s, at the International Film Festival in Moscow, where she represented Latvia together with Vija Artmane, Dzidra Ritenbergs met Evgeniy Urbansky and soon became his wife. This was one of the most beautiful married couples in Soviet cinema. Dzidra Ritenbergs moved to Moscow and entered the Stanislavsky Drama Theater - Baltic actresses in any Russian theater troupe and in any film crew were bearers of a special nobility of intonation and a light but exciting “non-Sovietness”.
Their daughter was born three months after the tragic death of Yevgeny Urbansky on the set of the film “Director” in 1965. And a few years later, Honored Artist of the Latvian SSR Dzidra Ritenbergs and her daughter returned forever from Moscow to Riga. She decided to change not only her registration, but also her profession: after graduating from the directing department of the Latvian Conservatory, Urbanski's widow began to try herself in directing. Dzidra Ritenbergs directed three films - "That Dangerous Door to the Balcony", "House with No Exit" and "Waltz of a Lifetime". But until the end of her days she remained for everyone one of the bright stars of the Thaw era.
PAVEL Ъ-SIGALOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 41 dated March 12, 2003, p. 22

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Obituaries

The non-Soviet face of the thaw