Izolda Izvitskaya

Izolda Vasilyevna Izvitskaya (Russian: Изольда Васильевна Извицкая, June 21, 1932 – March 1, 1971) was a Soviet actress.

Isolda Izvitskaya was born in the small town of Dzerzhinsk, Russia. Her father was a chemist, her mother a teacher. Right after high school she was accepted to VGIK (the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography). She was given small parts in several movies while still a student. In 1955 she was chosen for the lead in The Forty-First, a film after a short story by Boris Lavrenyov. The film was very successful all over the country and in 1957 it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival where it got a very good reception. A new café in Paris was named after her.

At home Izvitskaya was made a member of the Association for Cultural Relations with Latin American countries which gave her an opportunity to travel outside of the USSR.

She starred in several more movies; however, none of them was on the level of The Forty-First. Izvitskaya was getting depressed. She made several more attempts to work in films but parts were getting smaller and more scarce. In 1971 her husband, actor Eduard Bredun, left her. She had a nervous breakdown and locked herself up in her apartment in Moscow. She was found dead at home which was empty of any food. Her husband insisted that the obituary state "poisoning with an unknown substance" as the cause of death but according the BBC Russian service she died of cold and starvation.