The parents of Elena Yakovlevna Nightingale took part in the Great Patriotic War and married when both served in Berlin, after it ended. Elena was born in the German city of Neustriz on February 24, 1947. In 1950, the girl’s father was transferred to Krasnoyarsk, and in 1960 the family moved to Moscow.
From an early age, Lena dreams of acting life, is engaged in theater circles, learns music. But her first try of admission to VGIK ended in failure. Elena teaches music and singing in a Moscow school for a year, and a year later repeats the attempt to enter the “actor” in VGIK and turns out to be accepted by Babochkin – the people’s artist who played the famous role of Chapaev. Student Nightingale plays the role of heroines because of the amazing plasticity and musicality: Juliet, Nina Zarechna.
Debuted actress in the movie
"In the mountains my heart" Khamdamova, playing the role of the baker's daughter, in 1967. There were a number of other roles, but “really” she was recognized as an actress after the release of the 1969 films.
Flowers are late and
"The Deer King" .
In 1970, Elena Nightingale graduated from VGIK, and she was taken to the troupe of the Moscow Maly Theatre. She was predicted a great career on the stage, but she married the Leningrad film artist Yuri Pugachev, whom she met on the set of the film Averbach “Dumb Artist”, and went with him to Northern Palmyra, where she immediately enrolled in the state of “Lenfilm”.
In the Leningrad Council just put “Anna Karenina”, and Elena is invited to the main role, but the production of the play never took place. Only in 1983 the Nightingale played her first role in Arbuzov’s “Winner”, where she played with M. Boyarsky. She did not like the role, as it was not her image - anti-women!
In the 70s, Elena very often appears on the screens in films: “On Love”, “And there was an evening, and there was morning”, “Drama about ancient life”, “Egor Bulychev and others”, “Children of Vanyushin” and the main film – “Slave of Love” Mikhalkov (1976).
80-ies also pass with triumph on the screens of the country, the actress played about 60 main roles in Soviet films.
The 90s began, the Soviet cinema did not become, and the new did not think to create. The film industry has collapsed! Only 3 films with her participation came out of film studios, and we know little about them.
It was autumn 1991. The Nightingale family “all of them” goes to the States, to New Jersey. At first, Elena occupied the house, then settled in a store, then became a secretary in the lawyer's office. The main earner in the house is Elena’s husband Yuri. He got a job in the jeweler's workshop as a stone carver. But the dream of theater does not leave the Nightingale. In 1996, she was invited by Maya Merkel to the role of a ballerina in the film “Grazia of the XX century”. In 2001, she created a children’s creative studio “Etude”, and in the same year she was invited by the Moscow director Borshchevsky to shoot the “Moscow Saga” for one of the main roles. ORT has made a film "Permanence" about expats in the States, where Nightingale and Sichkin, who played Bubu in "The Elusives," star. Moscow has not forgotten the actress and awarded the title "The most graceful" in the 97th. She is rarely seen in Russia, but the audience continues to remember her and love her!