Silvia Laidla (20 October 1927 – 3 May 2012) was an Estonian stage, television and film actress whose career spanned nearly six decades. Primarily a stage actress, she also appeared in several Estonian television series and motion pictures. Early life and education Born Silvia Lazarus in Valga in 1927 to Karl and Emilie Lazarus. She was youngest of two siblings, with an older brother. Her mother died when she was six. In 1935, the family changed their surname from Lazarus to Laidla. She attended schools in Valga and Türi, graduating from the Türi Secondary School in 1946. Following her graduation, she studied drama at the Estonian Studio of the Lutasharsky National Institute of Theatrical Arts (GITIS) in Moscow, graduating in 1953. Some of her graduating classmates included Estonian actors Ita Ever, Arvo Kruusement, Kaljo Kiisk and Jaanus Orgulas. Career Stage In 1953, Laidla returned to Estonia and began an engagement as an actress at the Estonian Drama Theatre in Tallinn. Her first role at the Estonian Drama Theatre was as Anna Fedorovna in a production of Maxim Gorky's 1905 play Barbarians. She would remain at the Estonian Drama Theatre for eleven years before joining the Estonian SSR State Youth Theatre (now, the Tallinn City Theatre) from 1966 until 1983. In 1983, Laidla again returned to the Estonian Drama Theatre, where she remained until 1992. During her later years, she became active in the Tallinn-based Salon Theatre, led by Tatar-Estonian actor and stage director Dajan Ahmet. Some of Laidla's most memorable stage roles include those in productions by such varied international playwrights and authors as: Shakespeare, Alfred Gehri, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Friedrich Schiller, Bertholt Brecht, Henrik Ibsen, Molière, Aleksis Kivi, István Örkény, Arthur Miller, Jean Cocteau, George Bernard Shaw, Alexandre Dumas, fils, Ivan Turgenev, Marsha Norman, Albert Camus, Richard Rodgers and John Murrell, among others. Among her more memorable performances in roles by Estonian playwrights and authors include those of: August Kitzberg, Eduard Vilde, A. H. Tammsaare, Juhan Smuul, Merle Karusoo, August Gailit, Urmas Vadi, Heino Väli, and several others. Television Silvia Laidla made her television debut as a narrator in the Elvi Koppel directed 1965 documentary Kakskümmend lehekülge ("Twelve Pages") about Estonian schoolboy Harry Esop, who died in the Leningrad Blockade during World War II. This was followed by her first appearance as an actress in a television film, 1968's Tädi Rose ("Aunt Rose), directed by Virve Aruoja for Eesti Telefilm