| Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 January 1963 Vilnius, Lithuania |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1983–present |
Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė (born 20 January 1963) is a Lithuanian actress,[1] who stars mostly in Russian movies.
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Ingeborga Dapkunaite was born in Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR. Her father was a diplomat and her mother a meteorologist. For many years her parents worked in Moscow, and she only saw them 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 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 and music. For her childhood and youth it seemed she might pursue a career in sports; she figure skated and played basketball, popular in Lithuania.
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). 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, the Russian version of Stars on Ice. In addition, she portrays a Bosnian refugee in Prime Suspect 6, costarring Helen Mirren.