Vera Kholodnaya was born on August 9, 1893 in Poltava. At a very young age, she took dance lessons.
Her film career lasted from 1914 to 1918. She began as an extra and played a minor role in Vladimir Gardin's Anna Karenina in 1914. Her career really took off in 1915 when she played the main role in the film The Song of Triumphant Love, by Yevgeny Bauer based on the work of Ivan Turgenev. In 1918 she played in one of the biggest hits of the time, Molchi, grust... molchi (Be quiet, my sadness, be quiet) by (and with) Pyotr Tchardynin.
Vera Kholodnaya played a number of roles typical of early Russian cinema melodrama, roles in which a young woman seeks to rise socially, but fails in her attempt while being rejected by her own environment. This is the case in Mirages in 1915, where the heroine, a reader for a billionaire, falls in love with his son, or in Be Still, My Sadness, Be Still.
She died of Spanish flu in 1919 at the age of 26. Renowned for the beauty of her eyes, Vera Kholodnaya was the most adored actress of her time. Alexander Vertinsky, who played with her, dedicated one of his songs to her, Vashi paltsy pakhnut ladanom.
Of the forty or more films (or more according to some sources) in which she played, only five remain today.
