Viktor Tourjansky

Victor Tourjansky (Russian: Виктор Туржанский; Ukrainian: Віктор Туржанський; 4 March 1891 – 13 August 1976), born Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Turzhansky (Russian: Вячеслав Константинович Туржанский; Ukrainian: В'ячеслав Костянтинович Туржанський), 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. Born into a family of artists in Kiev, Tourjansky moved to Moscow in 1911, where he spent a year studying under Konstantin Stanislavski. He became involved with silent film and, two years later, made his first productions as a screenwriter and director on the eve of World War I. When the October Revolution broke out, he left and stayed in Yalta, which had not yet been taken by the Bolsheviks.

When the laws for the nationalisation of the cinema industry were applied to Crimea, he left with the Ermoliev film company and its actors 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).