Victor Tourjansky

Victor Tourjansky
Виктор Туржанский
Born
Вячеслав Константинович Туржанский

(1891-03-04)4 March 1891
Kyiv, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died13 August 1976(1976-08-13) (aged 85)
Munich, West Germany (now Germany)
OccupationsFilm director, screenwriter, actor
Years active1913–1964

Victor Tourjansky (Russian: Виктор Туржанский 4 March 1891 – 13 August 1976), born Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Turzhansky (Russian: Вячеслав Константинович Туржанский), was a Russian actor, screenwriter and film director who emigrated after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He worked in France, Germany, Italy, and the United States.

Biography

Born into a family of artists in Kyiv, Tourjansky moved to Moscow in 1911, where he spent a year studying under Konstantin Stanislavski. He began his film career as an actor in 1912 and made his directorial debut in 1914, on the eve of World War I. After the October Revolution, Tourjansky continued working in Yalta with Ermolieff's company until the Red Army advanced into Crimea in late 1919.

When the Red Army advanced into Crimea, Tourjansky fled with the Ermolieff film company and its actors, leaving for France via Constantinople in February 1920. He was accompanied by his wife, the actress Nathalie Kovanko. On arriving in Paris, he changed his birth name Viatcheslav, to Victor, which was more easily pronounceable for the French. He was the assistant to Abel Gance for the filming of his Napoléon (1927). He later worked for Universum Film AG in Germany, where he arrived during the 1930s and directed twelve films, of which several were officially honored by the Nazis (City of Anatol, Secret Code LB 17, Faded Melody, Enemies , and Orient Express).

Tourjansky has been credited by some writers as being the director of the first ever film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, although it is disputed if the film, which is supposed to have been released in 1920, ever actually existed.[1]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ Giesen, Rolf (2025). The Nosferatu Story The Seminal Horror Film, Its Predecessors and Its Enduring Legacy (2nd ed.). McFarland. p. 45. ISBN 9781476650487.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Victor Tourjansky.
  • Victor Tourjansky at IMDb
  • Christian Gilles, Le cinéma des années [trente, quarante, cinquante] par ceux qui l'ont fait, Paris : L'Harmattan, 2000. ISBN 978-2-7384-8951-7

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