Yekaterina Gradova

Ekaterina Gradova (born October 6, 1946) is a popular Russian film actress who has appeared in two Soviet blockbuster films "Seventeen Moments of Spring" and "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed". Ekaterina Gradova played her first notable role at the beginning of 1966 in the Boris Yashin's drama "Autumn Weddings". Later she starred in films rather infrequently, preferring theater to cinema . She was an actress in the Theater of Satire until the mid-1980s. Also at the Mayakovski theater, Gradova played a major role in the play «Talents and Admirers», which was made into a film in 1971.

Her most significant success was the role of "pianist" (clandestine radio-operator) Kate of Soviet spy Standartenfuhrer von Stierlitz in the Soviet blockbuster TV serial "Seventeen Moments of Spring" (1968) directed by Tatyana Lioznova. This serial was about the life of the Soviet spy Maksim Isaev, operating in Nazi Germany under the name Max Otto von Stierlitz, played by the leading Soviet film star Vyacheslav Tikhonov. The serial immediately brought immense popularity for the main actors. Later she acknowledged that for those who starred in the serial: "This was not just a movie, this was like a destiny". Indeed, for many years each of the stars of the serial received tremendous attention and were often invited to various conferences, asked for interviews, etc.

In 1979 she played a small but significant role (Svetlana Volokushina) in another Soviet blockbuster "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed" (starring another great Soviet film star and bard Vladimir Vysotsky).