15 Facts About Natalya Varley

Natalya Varley is a Soviet and Russian film and theater actress, who became famous in 1966 for her part in the comedy Kidnapping, Caucasian Style.

Natalya Varley was born in Constanta, Romania, a daughter of the sea captain Vladimir Viktorovich Varley, who was a one-time City Council chairman of Murmansk where the family lived.

In 1965, in Odessa where the troupe was on tour, Natalya Varley met Soviet clown and film actor Leonid Yengibarov.

Natalya Varley proved to be a kindred spirit and became a close friend, as well as occasional stage partner.

Kidnapping, Caucasian Style, which premiered on 1 April 1967, became a huge success and Natalya Varley found herself an overnight superstar.

Years later, when Natalya Varley embarked upon successful musical career and herself became a well-known voiceover artist, doubts as to the wisdom of such a move were raised.

Natalya Varley found herself in the focus of media attention; crowds of fans started to gather wherever she would arrive to perform with her Circus troupe.

Several other films of the late 1960s featured Natalya Varley, who has by now left the Moscow Circus to become a Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute student.

In 1971 Natalya Varley graduated the Theatre Institute and joined the Moscow Drama Stanislavsky Theatre troupe where she worked till 1978.

Natalya Varley continued to be filmed throughout the 1980s, but despite some minor successes her career in cinema was ostensibly in decline.

Natalya Varley joined the so-called "Moral Revival" committee and backed Gennady Zyuganov's 1996 election campaign.

In 1967 Natalya Varley married actor Nikolay Burlyaev, to a dismay of her circle of friends who tried to put it to her how passionately her fellow student Leonid Filatov was in love with her.

In January 1972 Natalya Varley gave birth to her first son, Vasily, but that was after the couple divorced.

Natalya Varley's second son, Alexander was born in 1986; the identity of his father remained unknown to the media.

In 1999 Natalya Varley married for the third time, but again this marriage proved to be short-lived.