Éva Ruttkai

Born Dec. 31, 1927, in Budapest. Hungarian stage and film actress. People’s Artist of the Hungarian People’s Republic (1969).

Eva Ruttkai made her stage debut in 1945 at the Vigszínház in the role of Emily in T. Wilder’s Our Town. She achieved fame in the lyrical roles of Luisa in Schiller’s Intrigue and Love, Roxanne in Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and Natasha in Happiness, after the novel by Pavlenko. Her striking appearance, grace, and depth of psychological characterization helped her interpret the roles of Natasha Rostova in War and Peace, after the novel by L. N. Tolstoy, Ziliája in Heltai’s The Silent Knight, Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Maggie in T. Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and the mocking heroines in F. Molnár’s comedies. In the period 1949–73 she appeared in more than 50 films, including At Midnight (1957) and The Story of My Folly (1965). Ruttkai received the Kossuth Prize in 1960 and the Jásai Prize in 1955 and 1959.