Leila Abashidze

Leila Abashidze (Georgian: ლეილა აბაშიძე; August 1, 1929 – April 8, 2018) was a Georgian actress, director and writer.

She is praised as Meritorious Artist of Georgia, People's Artist of Georgia.

Is the owner of Order of the Red Banner of Labour, as well as of awards of European and Asian film festivals, also has her own honorary star in front of Rustaveli cinema on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi, Georgia. During her career she was widely considered as "Mary Pickford of USSR". She is one of the most popular Georgian and Soviet actresses.

In 1951, Leila Abashidze graduated from Rustaveli Theatrical Institute in Tbilisi, Georgia. She has worked in film studio "Georgian film" since 1940 and is a member of cinematographer's union since 1958.

Leila Abashidze made her screen debut as a child alongside legendary Nato Vachnadze in Kajana (1941), but it was the hit romantic comedy called The Dragonfly (1954) which made her very popular throughout the Soviet Union and Europe. Then she appeared in another popular comedy The Scrapper (1956). After all that, she was associated with comedies, but this stereotype was destroyed after she had starred in the critically acclaimed historical drama Maia Tskneteli (1959). She has had one of her biggest commercial successes with the drama Meeting Past (1966), for which, in 1968, she was awarded on Leningrad (now: Saint Petersburg) Film Festival as a Best Actress. Also she achieved wider fame after her appearance in tragical drama Khevisberi Gocha (1964) and in one of the most popular romantic comedies Meeting in Mountains(1966).

She is the writer of Anticipation (1970), Silence of Towers (1978). She is director, writer and the leading actress of Tbilisi-Paris-Tbilisi (1980).

On April 8, 2018 Leila Abashidze's health conditions got worse, she was sent to the hospital and then she died, cause of death was Ischemic stroke of the brain.

Filmography

• Kajana (1941)
• Golden Path (1945)
• Cradle of Poet (1947)
• Keto and Kote (1948)
• Spring in Sakeni (1951)
• They Came from Mountains (1954)
• The Dragonfly (1954)
• Our Courtyard (1956)
• The Scrapper (1956)
• Where is Your Happiness Mzia? (1959)
• Maia Tskneteli (1959)
• I Shall Dance (1963)
• Khevisberi Gocha (1964)
• Wreck (1965)
• Meeting Past (1966)
• Meeting in Mountains (1966)
• Anticipation (1969)
• The Right Hand of the Grand Master (Episode One) (1969)
• The Right Hand of the Grand Master (Episode Two) (1970)
• Walking in Tbilisi (1976)
• Cinema (1977)
• Tbilisi-Paris-Tbilisi (1980)
• Commotion (1986)
• Zvaraki (1990)

Dignities and awards

• Meritorious Artist of Georgia (1958)
• People's Artist of Georgia (1965)
• People's Artist of Chechnya-Ingushetia (1964)
• Honors: Order of the Red Banner (1961) (In Georgian: წითელი დროშის ორდენი, in Russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени)
• Best actress at the St. Petersburg Film festival, 1968.
• Prize of 2 world festivals, Tokyo, 1997.