Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė

Ingeborga Edmundovna Dapkūnaitė (born 20 January 1963) is а Lithuanian theatre and cinema actress, who plays mostly in Russian films. Winner of the prize "Nika" in 1994 for Best Actress.

Ingeborga Dapkunaite was born in Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union. Her father was a diplomat and her mother was a meteorologist. For many years her parents worked in Moscow, and she saw them only on holidays. She was cared for by her grandparents and an uncle and aunt, musicians in a theatre orchestra, during her parents' long absences.

At the age of four, she first appeared on the stage in the Puccini opera Madam Butterfly, watched by her grandmother, the administrator of the Vilnius opera theatre. After her opera debut, she at first seemed to have little interest in the dramatic arts, dance, singing, or music. For her childhood and youth, it seemed she might pursue a career in sports; she figure-skated and played basketball, popular in Lithuania.

Career

She has had a number of minor roles in some top Hollywood movies including Mission: Impossible (1996) and Seven Years in Tibet (1997), the latter of which featured her as the wife of Heinrich Harrer (played by Brad Pitt). She is best known for her portrayal of Maroussia, the wife of Colonel Sergei Kotov (portrayed by Nikita Mikhalkov) in Mikhalkov's Academy Award-winning film Burnt by the Sun (1994). In 2001 she was a member of the jury at the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival.

She also portrayed the Russian Tsaritsa Imperatritsa Aleksandra Fyodorovna Romanova in the 2003 British mini-series The Lost Prince, and was mother to Thomas Harris's fictional cannibal and serial killer, also known to be of Lithuanian origin, Hannibal Lecter, in Hannibal Rising (2007).

On television, she was featured as a skating partner to Alexander Zhulin in Ice Age. In the first season of the BBC series Bodies, she played nurse Katya Bredova. In addition, she portrays a Bosnian refugee named Jasmina Blekic in Prime Suspect 6, co-starring Helen Mirren and in 2012 played Kenneth Branagh's love interest in the Wallander TV episode "Dogs of Riga". She also starred in Branded. She also portrayed the role of Mrs Hudson in Russia's Sherlock Holmes.

Personal life

Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė has been married three times. Her second husband was a British director, whom she divorced in 2009. Dapkūnaitė is a United Kingdom citizen. Her latest husband is a Russian lawyer and businessman, who is 12 years her junior.