Nathalie Kovanko (1899-1967) was a Russian-Ukrainian actress who played in Russian and French silent cinema. She started her career in 1917 at the Ermolieff studio in Yalta. Kovanko appeared in many films by her husband Victor Tourjansky. During the Russian Revolution, they fled the Crimea and emigrated to France, where they build up new careers.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 27. Photo: Studio Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Nathalie Kovanko as Hélène in Jean d'Agrève (René Leprince, 1922).
Romanian postcard. Nathalie Kovanko in Le chante de l'amour triomphant/The song of triumphant love (Viktor Tourjansky, 1923).
French postcard by Editions Filma, no. 143. Photo: Ermolieff. Nathalie Kovanko as the princess Goul-y-Hanar [Gulnare]/Shéhérazade in Les contes de mille et une nuits/The Tales of a Thousand and One Nights (Viktor Tourjansky, 1921).
Croatian postcard by Mosinger Film, Zagreb. Collection: Didier Hanson. Nathalie Kovanko and Jaque Catelain in Le prince charmant/Prince Charming (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 299. Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (Victor Tourjansky, 1926).
Natalia Ivanovna Kovanko (Наталья Ивановна Кованько) was born in Yalta, Russian Empire (now Crimea, claimed by Ukraine) in 1899. She was the sister of author/scriptwriter Boris de Fast, né Boris Fastovich.
Natalia debuted in the Russian cinema in 1917 in Kozy…kozochki…kozly/The Goats (Ivan Perestani, 1917) with Viatcheslav (Victor) Tourjansky and Nikolai Orlov.
In 1917-1919 she played in many Russian films shot in Yalta at the Ermolieff studio, of which most were directed by actor-turned-director Victor Tourjansky: Zakoldovanny ykrug/The Vicious Circle (1917), Bolotnye mirazhi/Storm in March (1918), Bal gospoden/The Eternal Ball (1918), Irene Negludov (1919), and Grekh i iskuplenie/Sin and Redemption (1919).
She also played in a film by animation master Ladislas Starevitch, Sorotchinskai a yarmaka/The Sorotochinsk Fair (1918).
Kovanko and Tourjansky had married in the meanwhile. When the Red Army reached Yalta, the couple, together with the other Ermolieff actors including Ivan Mozzhukhin, Nicolas Koline, Nicolas Rimsky, and Nathalie Lissenko, fled the Crimea and emigrated to France.
In Paris, Tourjansky and Kovanko managed to build up new careers through the help of the Russian producers Alexander Kamenka and Joseph Ermolieff.
Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Romanian postcard. Nathalie Kovanko in Le chante de l'amour triomphant/The song of triumphant love (Viktor Tourjansky, 1923).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1067/1, 1927-1928. Photo: De Westi.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1067/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Dewesti Film GmbH. Nathalie Kovanko in the Albatros production La dame masquée (Viktor Tourjansky, 1924).
Probably Croatian postcard, dated 27-4-1927, editor unknown. Photo: Films Albatros. Jean Angelo and Nathalie Kovanko in Le prince charmant/Prince Charming (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).
French postcard. With Jaque Catelain in Le prince charmant (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).
French postcard. Jaque Catelain and Kovanko in Le prince charmant (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).
For a decade Nathalie Kovanko was a French film star in films that were almost all directed by her husband. One exception was Jean d’Algreve (1922) by René Leprince, with Léon Mathot.
Among the films directed by her husband were L’ordonnance/The order (1921) with Alexandre Colas, Les contes de mille et une nuits/Tales from Arabian Nights (1921), Nuit de carnaval/Carnival Night (1922) with Nicolas Rimsky and Nicolas Koline, and Le quinzième prélude de Chopin/The fifteenth Chopin prelude (1922) with André Nox.
Then followed Le chant de l’amour triomphant/The song of triumphant love (1923) with Jean Angelo and Rolla Norman, Calvaire d’amour/Calvary Love (1923) with Charles Vanel, and La dame masquée/The masked lady (1924) with René Maupré.
In Le prince charmant/Prince Charming (1925) she co-starred with Jaque Catelain. In Michel Strogoff/Michael Strogoff (1926), she played Nadia Fedor and Ivan Mozzhukhin was Strogoff. It was her last silent film.
She did not collaborate on Abel Gance’s Napoléon for which Tourjansky assisted Gance, neither was she involved in the film projects of her husband in Hollywood in 1928, or in his German films from the late 1920s. Kovanko’s last film was the sound film Volga en flammes (Viktor Tourjansky, 1934) starring Albert Préjean.
In 1931 Tourjansky had discovered Simone Simon and directed her in Le Chanteur inconnu/The Unknown Singer (1931). The two became a pair and Tourjansky directed her again in Les yeux noirs/The Black Eyes (1935).
Nathalie Kovanko divorced from Tourjansky and returned to Ukraine. There she died in Kiev in 1967.
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag no. 574. Photo: Micheluzzi-Film. Ivan Mozzhukhin and Nathalie Kovanko in the French silent film Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926).
Romanian postcard by Editura Librariei SOCEC & Co. S.A., Bucuresti, no. 53. Photo: Monopol "Lux-Film". Ivan Mozzhukhin and Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1511/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Deulig. Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1512/1. Photo: Deulig. Publicity still for Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926). Nadia Fedor consoles Michael Strogoff (Ivan Mozzhukhin) after he is blinded.
German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. 3570/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Arthur Erma, Hollywood / Ama-Film.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3570/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Ama-Film.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3637/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Ernst Schneider, Berlin.
Sources: Ciné-Artistes (French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 9 June 2020.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 27. Photo: Studio Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Nathalie Kovanko as Hélène in Jean d'Agrève (René Leprince, 1922).
Romanian postcard. Nathalie Kovanko in Le chante de l'amour triomphant/The song of triumphant love (Viktor Tourjansky, 1923).
French postcard by Editions Filma, no. 143. Photo: Ermolieff. Nathalie Kovanko as the princess Goul-y-Hanar [Gulnare]/Shéhérazade in Les contes de mille et une nuits/The Tales of a Thousand and One Nights (Viktor Tourjansky, 1921).
Croatian postcard by Mosinger Film, Zagreb. Collection: Didier Hanson. Nathalie Kovanko and Jaque Catelain in Le prince charmant/Prince Charming (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 299. Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (Victor Tourjansky, 1926).
Escape from Crimea
Natalia Ivanovna Kovanko (Наталья Ивановна Кованько) was born in Yalta, Russian Empire (now Crimea, claimed by Ukraine) in 1899. She was the sister of author/scriptwriter Boris de Fast, né Boris Fastovich.
Natalia debuted in the Russian cinema in 1917 in Kozy…kozochki…kozly/The Goats (Ivan Perestani, 1917) with Viatcheslav (Victor) Tourjansky and Nikolai Orlov.
In 1917-1919 she played in many Russian films shot in Yalta at the Ermolieff studio, of which most were directed by actor-turned-director Victor Tourjansky: Zakoldovanny ykrug/The Vicious Circle (1917), Bolotnye mirazhi/Storm in March (1918), Bal gospoden/The Eternal Ball (1918), Irene Negludov (1919), and Grekh i iskuplenie/Sin and Redemption (1919).
She also played in a film by animation master Ladislas Starevitch, Sorotchinskai a yarmaka/The Sorotochinsk Fair (1918).
Kovanko and Tourjansky had married in the meanwhile. When the Red Army reached Yalta, the couple, together with the other Ermolieff actors including Ivan Mozzhukhin, Nicolas Koline, Nicolas Rimsky, and Nathalie Lissenko, fled the Crimea and emigrated to France.
In Paris, Tourjansky and Kovanko managed to build up new careers through the help of the Russian producers Alexander Kamenka and Joseph Ermolieff.
Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Romanian postcard. Nathalie Kovanko in Le chante de l'amour triomphant/The song of triumphant love (Viktor Tourjansky, 1923).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1067/1, 1927-1928. Photo: De Westi.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1067/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Dewesti Film GmbH. Nathalie Kovanko in the Albatros production La dame masquée (Viktor Tourjansky, 1924).
Probably Croatian postcard, dated 27-4-1927, editor unknown. Photo: Films Albatros. Jean Angelo and Nathalie Kovanko in Le prince charmant/Prince Charming (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).
French postcard. With Jaque Catelain in Le prince charmant (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).
French postcard. Jaque Catelain and Kovanko in Le prince charmant (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).
A French Film Star
For a decade Nathalie Kovanko was a French film star in films that were almost all directed by her husband. One exception was Jean d’Algreve (1922) by René Leprince, with Léon Mathot.
Among the films directed by her husband were L’ordonnance/The order (1921) with Alexandre Colas, Les contes de mille et une nuits/Tales from Arabian Nights (1921), Nuit de carnaval/Carnival Night (1922) with Nicolas Rimsky and Nicolas Koline, and Le quinzième prélude de Chopin/The fifteenth Chopin prelude (1922) with André Nox.
Then followed Le chant de l’amour triomphant/The song of triumphant love (1923) with Jean Angelo and Rolla Norman, Calvaire d’amour/Calvary Love (1923) with Charles Vanel, and La dame masquée/The masked lady (1924) with René Maupré.
In Le prince charmant/Prince Charming (1925) she co-starred with Jaque Catelain. In Michel Strogoff/Michael Strogoff (1926), she played Nadia Fedor and Ivan Mozzhukhin was Strogoff. It was her last silent film.
She did not collaborate on Abel Gance’s Napoléon for which Tourjansky assisted Gance, neither was she involved in the film projects of her husband in Hollywood in 1928, or in his German films from the late 1920s. Kovanko’s last film was the sound film Volga en flammes (Viktor Tourjansky, 1934) starring Albert Préjean.
In 1931 Tourjansky had discovered Simone Simon and directed her in Le Chanteur inconnu/The Unknown Singer (1931). The two became a pair and Tourjansky directed her again in Les yeux noirs/The Black Eyes (1935).
Nathalie Kovanko divorced from Tourjansky and returned to Ukraine. There she died in Kiev in 1967.
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag no. 574. Photo: Micheluzzi-Film. Ivan Mozzhukhin and Nathalie Kovanko in the French silent film Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926).
Romanian postcard by Editura Librariei SOCEC & Co. S.A., Bucuresti, no. 53. Photo: Monopol "Lux-Film". Ivan Mozzhukhin and Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1511/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Deulig. Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1512/1. Photo: Deulig. Publicity still for Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926). Nadia Fedor consoles Michael Strogoff (Ivan Mozzhukhin) after he is blinded.
German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. 3570/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Arthur Erma, Hollywood / Ama-Film.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3570/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Ama-Film.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3637/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Ernst Schneider, Berlin.
Sources: Ciné-Artistes (French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 9 June 2020.
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