Lyudmila Maksakova was born in Moscow on September 26, 1940. Her mother, Maria Maksakova, is a famous opera singer, People's Artist of the USSR.
In addition to the usual school, the girl simultaneously studied at the Central Music School, but wanted to become an actress.
To enter the Shchukinsky school, the girl had to endure a huge competition. There was no limit to Lyudmila’s happiness when she learned that she was enrolled in the course of Vladimir Etush, a famous actor and an excellent teacher.
The young actress graduated from the school in 1961 and was sent to the Vakhtangov Theater, where she was entrusted with two roles at once (Masha in the play “Living Corpse” and Masha Chubukova in the production “The Dying Man Is Married”), with which Lyudmila coped perfectly.
Two years later, she was invited to play the role of the Tatar princess in the play Princess Turandot. The actress brilliantly played her role, after which the whole theatrical community talked about her as an actress of great talent.
Lyudmila Maksakova in the following years played in many performances, she created a variety of scenic characters, such as: Mamaeva ("Every sage is quite simple"), Maria ("Konarmies"), Nicole ("The philistine in the nobility"), Knipper-Chekhova ("Mocking my happiness"), Lolia ("Dion"), etc.
In the mid-60s, Lyudmila Maksakova was offered the first role in cinema. Her debut in the cinema was the role of Nina in
the film "Once upon a time there was an old man with an old woman" . Then the actress played the main roles in the films: “Bad, good man”, “Indicted”, “Tatian day”, and secondary in the films: “Train in tomorrow”, “Your contemporary”, etc.
Lyudmila married the famous artist Lev Zbarsky for the first time. From this marriage she had a son named Maxim.
In the mid-seventies, the actress married Peter Andres Igenbergs, a German citizen. At that time, marriage with a foreigner was unthinkable, and this event almost put an end to the artistic career of the actress. In this marriage, a daughter was born, who was named Masha.
Lyudmila remained unclaimed until the time when foreign directors were invited to theaters, which gave her the opportunity to return to the stage and to the wide screen.
During her creative life, Lyudmila Maksakova, People’s Artist of the RSFSR, laureate of the Crystal Turandot Theatre Award, laureate of the Stanislavsky Prize, laureate of the State Prize, played a huge number of diverse roles both in theater and in cinema. Now Lyudmila Vasilyevna works at the Vakhtangov Theatre and teaches at the Shchukin Theatre School. /