Valentina Leontyeva(1923-2007)

Valentina Mikhaylovna Leontyeva is Soviet Russian TV presenter, announcer of the Central Television of the USSR State Radio and Television (1954-1989). Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1975). People's Artist of the USSR (1982). Valentina Leontyeva was born in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg). Together with her parents, she remained in the besieged city in the Leningrad blockade. At the age of 18, she went to help the wounded and sick citizens. On siege days, her father died. In 1944 she entered the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology of Dmitri Mendeleev, but did not begin to study, worked in a clinic. In 1948 she graduated from the Opera and Drama Studio of Konstantin Stanislavski (now the Stanislavskiy Electrotheatre). After graduating from the studio, she served in the Tambov Drama Theater for two seasons. In 1954, having passed the competitive selection, she came to work on television. First, as an assistant director, then becomes an announcer. In the late 1960s, she lived in New York (USA) with her husband-diplomat and son. Having returned from the USA, she again worked on television. Over the years of her long-term work on television, she led the Goluboy ogonyok (1962), holiday broadcasts, the program From the Theater Box (along with Igor Kirillov), as well as many other television programs that were popular at that time. She was a TV presenter of children's programs - "Visiting a fairy tale", Spokoynoy nochi, malyshi! (1964), "Alarm clock", "Skillful hands" - more than one generation of Soviet people grew up on these programs. In 1980, she acted as a commentator on the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Moscow. The peak of her work was the program "With all my heart", which was awarded the USSR State Prize. First aired on July 13, 1972, the program went on for 15 years. The last 52nd issue took place in July 1987 (from Orenburg).