Marina Levteva: a medical dynasty, a 'Turgenev girl' of Soviet cinema, and a maternal feat.
She chose the stage over a hospital ward. But in the lead role — as a mother — she still saved a life. On April 27, the Honored Artist of Russia would have turned 67. Instead, her name is remembered today on two dates: her birthday and the day of her death.
“Who is this?”: How One Photograph Changed a Destiny
She was born in the Yakut Neryuktyayinsky nasleg, where her parents, both doctors, were assigned after graduating from the Leningrad Medical Institute. Her birth was attended by... her own father — a medical scientist and hematologist. Then the family returned to Leningrad. There, Marina attended a regular school, where nothing foreshadowed fame.
It seemed that the daughter was destined for the same path as her parents. But fate intervened. Her classmate, actress Elena Tsyplakova, was already acting in films. Director Dinara Asanova asked for help in casting kids for roles. Tsyplakova brought a regular class photograph. Asanova pointed at Marina: “Who is this?” Thus, the 17-year-old schoolgirl, who was planning to enter medical school, traded her white coat for a skirt in Bayushkina's film “The Key Without the Right of Transfer.”
“Three Beauties” and One Headstrong Woman
The debut was stunning. Levteva went to conquer Moscow and enrolled in VGIK with the renowned Gerasimov and Makara. In her second year, the master offered her the role of Olga Buynosova in his historical epic “The Youth of Peter.” There, she met her future husband — actor and director Yuri Moroz.
Moroz later recalled: they were standing on set together, dressed in costumes from the Peter the Great era, when Levteva walked by with her classmates. One of the girls responded so sharply to someone’s joke that the seasoned actor choked. A marriage didn’t happen immediately — Marina kept Moroz at a distance for a long time; she needed a reliable support. But in the end, they lived together for almost twenty years.
A Frame in the Seventh Month: Workaholism Without Compromise
The actress could not sit idle. While pregnant in her last trimester, she went to shoot the cult series “TASS Is Authorized to Declare.” And in 1983, after giving birth to her daughter Daria, she returned to the screen with Asanova just a few months later.
At that time, no one knew that her life was short. At the end of 1999, Levteva was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Russia. And three months later, she was gone.
February 27, 2000: A Foreboding of Trouble
On the evening of February 26, the actor's club “Kino” celebrated the premiere of the comedy “Fortuna” by Danelia — in the film, Marina's 16-year-old daughter made her debut. After the banquet, the group, including Dmitry Pevtsov and Olga Drozdova, went to the dacha of a familiar millionaire, Mikhail Rudyak.
Marina initially refused to ride snowmobiles. Her husband later recounted: she seemed to sense trouble. But Dasha persuaded her. Then Levteva moved her daughter from the back to the middle — a safer spot — and sat down in the back herself.
The driver didn’t notice a deep ravine under the snow. The snowmobile crashed down and overturned. Marina hit her head on a tree. With a traumatic brain injury, she was taken to the Odintsovo hospital, where she died without regaining consciousness. If she hadn’t switched places with her daughter, the cinema would not have known the Honored Artist Daria Moroz.
Yuri Moroz, her husband, passed away in 2025. But her daughter Daria and little granddaughter Anna remain. And that fragile maternal sacrifice, which the viewers of “The Key Without the Right of Transfer” might not have noticed off-screen, now does not allow silence about it.
