Tatyana Ivanovna Pelttser was born on 6 June 1904 in Moscow, into the family of the well-known actor Ivan Pelttser. She first took the stage at the age of nine. Till 1925 the actress worked in provincial theatres. From 1925 to 1940 she was engaged in MGSPS Theatre (Moscow) and from 1940 to 1947 in Moscow Theatre of Miniatures. From 1947 she was the leading actress of Satire Theatre.

Tatyana Pelttser made her film debut in the satirical comedy Marriage (Svadba) (1944), and then appeared in the drama She Defends the Motherland (Ona zashchishchayet rodinu) (1943). Her first remarkable film role was that of Plaksina in Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg’s Simple People (Prostye lyudi) (1946) Simple People. The actress gained enormous popularity with her role of Lukerya in the stage play Bride with a Dowry (Svadba s pridanym) (1953), which was filmed and demonstrated in the countries cinemas on a large scale. It was followed by another successful film, namely Soldier Ivan Brovkin (Soldat Ivan Brovkin) (1955), where she played the main character’s mother.

Her first role in the Satire Theatre was that of Mrs. Jacobs in Evgeny Petrov’s pamphlet “Island of Peace”. Afterwards she acted in the plays Someone Else’s Child, The Split Cup, Bride with a Dowry, Choir, My Hopes, Spinster, My House is My Castle, Breakfast with the Leader, Intervention, House of Breaking Hearts, Prisoner of Time, Speed 1929, Kid and Carlson, and only two roles from the classical repertoire: in No man is wise at all times and The Fat Job. In her benefit role of Aunt Tonia in the play Wake Up and Sing Tatyana Pelttser would sing, dance and fly upstairs with the sprite of a young girl, though she was already nearly seventy. In the same captivating manner she performed Marselina in the play Crazy Day, or Marriage of Figaro. Among the great number of her roles in Satire Theatre there stood out her lead in Mother Courage and Her Children. In this role she displayed no habitual gaiety and mischievous glitter in her eyes: it was an aged woman worn out by war and deprived of her children.

In 1972 Tatyana Ivanovna Pelttser became the People’s Artist of the USSR, the first one in the 48 years of the Satire Theatre’s existence.

After the stage director Mark Zakharov shifted to the Lenkom Theatre, it became harder for Tatyana Ivanovna to work in the Satire Theatre. Once during a rehearsal she quarreled with the theatre’s principal director Valentin Pluchek and left for Lenkom.

Like a young pioneer, Tatyana Ivanovna was always ready for filming, even in her eighties. She often worked with unknown directors, because they needed her help, as she explained to her friends. She always kept her travel bag with a compulsory exercise mat ready to be able to rush off wherever she was invited for filming. Once in a theatre when hearing some young actors’ complains she exclaimed: “Why are you lamenting! Just live and be joyful about that – living is such a gift!”

In the late years of her life Tatyana Ivanovna Pelttser started loosing her memory. She could hardly move and memorize her text, and constantly confused her cues. Yet, all the company loved the merited actress and wanted her to go on playing. Specially for her Mark Zakharov staged the play A Funeral Prayer after the scenario by Grigori Gorin, who made up for her the character of the old Jewish woman Berta for Tatyna Pelttser. Aleksandr Abdulov who played her son accompanied her onto the stage and did it so carefully and delicately as if she were a fragile treasure. Her role had just a few words, but the viewers did not care. Every appearance of her on stage evoked extraordinary joy and exultation.

In 1992 after a nervous breakdown Tatyana Ivanovna found herself in a hospital again. There she fell down and fractured her femoral neck. There was only one outcome for the 88 year old person. On 16 July 1992 Tatyana Ivanovna Pelttser passed away.

Tatyana Pelttser was laid down to rest at Vvedenskoe Cemetery nearby her father’s grave.

Sources:
 kino-teatr.ru
 peoples.ru