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Top 10 Facts about Anastasiya Vertinskaya

Anastasiya Vertinskaya was born on 19th December 1944, in Moscow, soon after her father, Alexander Vertinsky returned from  Harbin with his Georgian wife Lidiya Vertinskaya.

She is a Soviet and Russian actress who came to fame in the early 1960s with her praised performances in Scarlet Sails, Amphibian Man, and Grigori Kozintsevs Hamlet.

Initially, Vertinskaya was thinking of a career in Linguistics when film director Aleksandr Ptushko approached her personally in 1961 for the role of ‘Assol’ in Scarlet Sails.

She officially joined the Vakhtangov Theatre in 1967 where she spent one season before moving to Sovremennik from 1968 to 1980. Vertinskaya faced so much criticism in her acting career and was feeling more and more dissatisfied with what was going on around her.

In 1989 she moved abroad to teach and spent 12 years in France, England, the United States, and Switzerland. She was designated a peoples Artist of Russia in 1988. Here are 10 facts about Anastasiya Vertinskaya.

1. Vertinskaya had a happy childhood with a rich cultural atmosphere  

Vertinskayas father, Alexander Vertinsky was a famous songwriter, and her mother, Lidiya Vertinskaya was a painter and an actress. She and her sister spent their early years in Moscow Metropol Hotel before they acquired a flat at Gorky street in 1946.

Their childhood was happy growing up in a family of two languages and enjoyed the fascinating environment and rich cultural atmosphere of her parent’s circle.

They attended an ordinary school in which their parents regarded studying music and foreign languages as educational priorities.

2. She was never keen on her school studies 

Vertinskayas’s father was a gentleman who never scolded his daughters for failures of which there were many. Vertinskaya was more concerned with exploring her father’s vast library during study time than her studies.

Remembering her father decades later, he said he had his own way of dealing with his daughters’ problems where he used to say, “Now the news of your misbehavior make me suffer enormously” and her daughters would try their best to relieve him from suffering.

3. She wanted to pursue a career in Linguistics

Vertinskaya was thinking of a career in linguistics, but things changed in 1961, sixteen years, then when she was approached personally by the film director Aleksandr Ptushko to play a role in Scarlet sails.

The film is a romantic teenage drama based on Alexander Grins’ novel which became an instant success, making her a national celebrity.

Many of the future stars of Soviet cinema, including Vasily Lanovoy, Ivan Pereverzev, Sergey Martinson, and Oleg Anofriev, were in the cast.

As critics noted, it was Vertinskayas passionate performance that made the film a success. It was viewed by 23million people during its first year.

4. Vertinskaya developed a fear of crowds in 1962 after the film Amphibian Man

In 1962, she was starred in the film Amphibian Man cast as a young woman in love with an amphibian man, and she went through difficulties in the underwater shooting sessions which she performed all by herself.

The became a blockbuster and made her a brand, where people used to go to the cinema to specifically watch her.

At the time, she used to travel to her studies by tram and queue for bread like everyone else where not only was she recognized but also people made a point of touching her.

It was in those days that she developed the fear of crowds which haunted her all through those years.

5. Vertinskaya enrolled in the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-C0710-0009-001, Karlsbad, Filmfestival, Blum, Beyer, Wertinskaja.jpg-by Hochneder, Christa-

In 1962, Vertiskaya joined the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre troupe meaning from then she had to tour the country with the theatre brigades. She enrolled in the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute with assistance from Lyudmila Maksakova, her elder sister Mariana’s friend as she had so much eagerness for acting.

6. She played a role of a Princess

While still at the Shchukin Theatre Institute, Vertinskaya was given the role of princess Bolkonsky in Sergey Bondarchuk’s epic adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace from 1966 to 1967.

The film gave her a new humane dimension as it tried to win against the tragic mistake people make when they neglect the love of someone who is close to them.

7. Vertiskaya officially acquired professionalism in 1980

Moscow Chekhov Art Theatre 03-2016.jpg-by A.Savin (WikiCommons) –

In 1967, she spent one season in the Vakhtangov Theatre troupe before moving to Sovremennik in 1968 where she stayed until 1980.

She needed theatrical experience for it was admittedly, of the utmost importance to an actress who never felt confident enough while acting in movies.

In 1980, she left Sovremennik for the Moscow Art Theatre. It was only in Moscow that she acquired the level of professionalism she was craving.

She mastered two roles at Moscow Art Theatre from Anton Chekhov Repertoire The Seagull and Yelena Andreyevna’s Uncle Vanya.

8. She faced much criticism and frustrations in her acting career

Life in theatre has never been easier for Vertinskaya as she remembered how Sovrennik was shifted back to the mass scenes and when she stepped on stage.

There were hushed collective whispers from the audience which forced her to artificially change her facial features so as to fit the soviet.

As time went by, she felt more and more dissatisfied with all that was going on around her on stage and beyond.

She got frustrated and her later work was made against the background of a general decline in national cinema and culture in general.

9. She is linked with romantic relationships with different famous people

Nikita Mikhalkov. jpg-by Russian Presidential Press and Information Office- 

In 1967, Vertinskaya married Nikita Mikhalkov a fellow student who is now a renowned Russian film director and actor. Their marriage lasted three years a year and a half later after their son Stepan was born.

Later she was romantically involved with actor Mikhail Kozakov, then a Russian rock singer and songwriter Alexander Gradskywith who had a three-year-long relationship.

10. Vertinskaya has taught at Oxford University and other schools after her retirement

Scene from theatrical production n.d. (3191425189).jpg-by Snyder, Frank R.-

In 1989 she received an invitation from Oxford University to give master’s classes in theatrical craftsmanship which she went abroad to teach after being disappointed in her acting career.

She spent 12 years teaching in England, France, and Switzerland; teaching drama at the Comedie-Francaise, at the Chekhov Theatre, and at EFAS(European Film Actor School).

 Today Anastasiya Vertinskaya is 77years living and working in Moscow, Russia. She had two major concerns in the 21st century, the Russian Actors Foundation Charity she founded in 1991, and restoring and producing her father’s records.

She published a poetry book in 2021 which she had worked on for five years and she is also involved in her son Stepan Mikhalkov’s restaurant business in Moscow.