Galina Aleksandrovna Loginova was born on 28 October 1950 in Tuapse, located on the Black Sea, to a Russian family from Tula. Her father was a Soviet Army officer and her mother was a homemaker. Her parents divorced and she was raised by her mother in Ukraine. After graduating from high school in Dnipropetrovsk she studied acting in her native Tuapse, then moved to Moscow and attended the prestigious acting school at VGIK. In 1971, while still a student, she made her film debut in the popular TV seriesTeni ischezayut v polden. In 1972, she graduated from VGIK as an actress, from the master-class of Vladimir Belokurov. She worked on stage as well as in film and on television in the Soviet Union. Her most notable roles were roles as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, a film adaptation of Shakespeare's play of the same name, and as Molly in the criminal drama The Fairfax Millions, based on Alan Winnington's novel of the same name. In 1973, she left Moscow and returned to Ukraine on assignment as a staff actress with the Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kiev. There, in a popular Ukrainian restaurant called Libed, she met a Serbian medical doctor, Bogić Jovović, and struck up a romance with him. She was later interrogated by KGB officers, who insisted that she must end her relationship with a foreigner. However, Loginova and Jovović were married, and on 17 December 1975, she gave birth to their daughter, Milla Jovovich, in Kiev. In 1980, Galina Loginova-Jovovich, together with her family, emigrated from the Soviet Union. The Soviet authorities immediately banned all films featuring her for a period of six years, so that she could not earn any royalties from her works made in the Soviet Union. For a few years she lived with her family in London, England, then moved to Sacramento, California, and eventually settled in Los Angeles. There she raised her daughter, Milla. During the 1980s she also worked as a housekeeper at the home of Hollywood director Brian De Palma. Eventually, Loginova became her daughter's agent and was instrumental in building Milla's successful career. She holds Russian and American citizenship and also continues to act in Russian and American films.
