Tamara Syomina

Tamara Petrovna Syomina
In October 2012 in Kaluga
Born	(1938-10-25) 25 October 1938 (age 78) Lgov, Kursk Oblast, RSFSR, USSR
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1959-present

Tamara Petrovna Syomina (born 25 October 1938) is a Russian film actress. She appeared in more than forty films since 1959.

Recipient of the title People's Artist of the RSFSR (1978).

Tamara Petrovna Syomina was born on October 25, 1938 in Lgov, Kursk Oblast into a family of a soldier, tank platoon commander Peter Fedorovich Bokhonov. During the Great Patriotic War her father was killed on the front. In 1942 her mother, Tamara Vasilyevna was evacuated with two young children, and later came to grandparents in Bryansk, where Tamara went to school.

In 1946 Tamara Vasilyevna married Pyotr Vasilievich Syomin who adopted the children, which led to Tamara bearing his last name.

Soon Tamara Vasilyevna and Pyotr Vasilevich with children moved to Kaluga, closer to his mother. Because education was free only until the 8th grade Tamara had to leave school. Her parents wanted to send her to work at a factory but Tamara intended to study and she decided to go to the school of young workers. In the school for young workers she become simultaneously a pupil, a librarian and a secretary.

She entered the Kaluga Pedagogical Institute, but then picked up her documents and went to Moscow, deciding to become an actress.

Tamara wanted to enter VGIK to study acting but applications were already closed, however the dean of the acting faculty persuaded the commission to make an exception for Tamara.

During the first course Syomina starred in graduation films made by young directors and cinematographers. She played in the eccentric comedy Man Overboard by Andrei Sakharov; on the second course she met with the young but already famous Marlen Khutsiev in the film Two Fedors; during the third year Syomina coped with the complex dramatic role in the movie It all starts with the road by Villen Azarov.

She graduated from the actor's workshop led by Olga Pyzhova at VGIK in 1961.

In 1959 Mikhail Schweitzer invited Syomina for the role of Katyusha Maslova in the film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel Resurrection.

On the set Schweitzer and Milkina, his wife and constant assistant, continually helped the young actress. Once Schweitzer noted that Syomina is too thin and asked if she read Tolstoy's novel: in it Katyusha Maslova is a rather plump woman, even stout. And then everyone at the VGIK hostel was on a mission to "save" Tamara: food was always brought to her so that she quickly gained necessary physical form for the role.