Olga Chekhova Wiki, Age, Biography, Height, Husband, Fami...

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Olga Chekhova Wiki, Age, Biography, Height, Husband, Family, Images, And More

Olga Konstantinovna Chekhova (née Knipper; Russian: лa онстантиновна еова; 14 April 1897 – 9 March 1980) was a Russian-German actress known in Germany as Olga Tschechowa. She played the female lead in Alfred Hitchcock's Mary (1931).

Biography

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Olga Konstantinovna Knipper was born on April 14, 1897, the daughter of railway engineer Konstantin Knipper (1868-1929) and Yelena Luise "Lulu" Knipper (née Ried, 1874-1940), both Lutherans of ethnic German descent. Olga was the niece and namesake of Anton Chekhov's wife, Olga Knipper. She went to Tsarskoye Selo school, but after seeing Eleonora Duse, she entered the Moscow Art Theatre's studio. In 1914, she met the Russian-Jewish actor Mikhail Chekhov (Anton's nephew) and married him the following year, adopting his surname. In 1916, their daughter, also called Olga, was born. She rose to fame as Ada Tschechowa, an actress.

Chekhova divorced her husband but preserved his name during the 1917 October Revolution. In the first year of the revolution, she joined the cabaret-theatre troupe Sorokonozhka (The Little Centipede), which had only twenty members and forty feet. Chekhova was also cast in the silent film Anya Kraeva. She was cast in Cagliostro and The Last Adventure of Arsène Lupin the following year, in 1918. Despite being a member of the Moscow Art stage's social circle, she never played a role there, despite her subsequent claims to have had her first stage role in The Cherry Orchard.

She obtained a travel passport from the Soviet Union, probably in exchange for her collaboration, allowing her to escape Russia. She traveled to Vienna on a train with a Soviet spy, then to Berlin in 1920. She married Frederick Yaroshi that same year, but they divorced in 1921. In Germany, her debut film role was in F. W. Murnau's silent film Schloß Vogelöd (1921). At UFA, she appeared in Max Reinhardt's productions. She successfully transitioned from silent to talkies. In the 1930s, she ascended to become one of the Third Reich's biggest stars, and Adolf Hitler admired her. She appeared in films such as The Hymn of Leuthen, but she liked comedy. She married Marcel Robbins for the third time in 1936, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1938.

Chekhova with Walter Janssen at the Göttinger Film Festival in October 1953.

Goebbels, Joseph

A photograph published of her seated next Hitler at a reception gave Soviet intelligence leaders the notion that she had close contacts with Hitler. She had increased contact with Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, who referred to her in his diaries as "eine charmante Frau" ("a charming lady").

She is also said to have been a communist spy in a Soviet plot. According to British historian Roger Moorhouse's book Killing Hitler (2006), she was encouraged by Stalin and Beria to flirt with Adolf Hitler in order to gain and convey intelligence so that Hitler might be killed by secret Soviet operatives.

Olga later gained considerable success in the motion picture industry. Between 1917 and 1974, she had 138 credits as an actor, director, and producer. She resided in Berlin's Soviet quarter after the war, but she eventually managed to get away from her Soviet acquaintances. In 1949, she relocated to Munich, Bavaria, and established Olga Tschechowa Kosmetik, a cosmetics company.

At the same time, she continued to act, appearing in over 20 films as a supporting player or in a cameo. After authoring a memoir, she essentially retired from performing in her 70s. Her letters to Russian actresses Olga Knipper and Alla Tarasova were exposed after her death.
Her cousin Marina Ried and granddaughter Vera Tschechowa both went on to become actors.