Elza Radziņa 1917 Kharkiv Russian Empire 2005 Riga Latvia was a Soviet Latvian theater and cinema actress master of the spoken word reader She received award of Peoples Artist of the USSR in 1976 and Order of the Three Stars in 1995 She studied in Jelgava theater studio in 1942 After the World War II worked in Jelgava Drama theater 19451953 For a brief moment she worked in Valmiera Drama theater but from 1954 worked in Latvian National Theater where she became one of the leading actresses In 1949 she made her debut in biographical drama film Rainis from Riga Film Studio