Nicolas Koline
French postcard by Cinémagazine Editions, no. 135.
Nicolas Koline, aka Nikolaj Kolin, was born in Russia in 1878.
Nicolas Koline originally was a stage actor who had played with Stanislavsky before starting in film. He was known for his comic talents. Koline was one of the Russian actors fleeing from the country after the revolution and during the Civil War. Together with his compatriots he moved to France, where he played in several of the films directed by Russian emigré directors, starting in 1920 in L'angoissante aventure (Yakov Protazanov 1920), a film with several fled Russian actors: Ivan Mozzhukin (the lead and the scriptwriter of the film, together with Alexander Volkov), Nathalie Lissenko, Dimitri Buchowetzki, Vera Orlova and Nicolas Panoff. Actually, the film was started during the trip of the emigrés from Yalta to Paris and finished in the Montreuil studio in Paris as the second film of the Ermolieff company, which a few years after turned into Albatros Films. The newly formed company Ermolieff Films (1920) gathered the Russian emigrés; this also included Russian cameramen such as Fédote Bourgassoff and Nicolas Toporkoff.
After this first film followed La tourmente (Serge Nadejdine 1921) starring Koline; Justice d'abord (Protazanov 1921); Les Contes de mille et une nuits (Viatcheslav/Victor/Viktor Tourjansky 1921); the serial La maison du mystère (Volkov 1922) which was also released as a feature; Nuit de carnaval (Tourjansky 1922); Calvaire d'amour (Tourjansky 1923); Le brasier ardent (Mozzhukin and Volkov 1923); Le Chant de l'amour triomphant (Tourjansky 1923); and Kean (Volkov 1923). In particular in the last three Koline had leading parts as respectively the cuckolded husband, the besotted valet, and Kean's soffleur and aid. He was even the main star of the next film Le Chiffonnier de Paris (1924) by Serge Nadejdine, after the famous drama by Félix Pyat. In the same year he played leading roles opposite Nathalie Kovanko and Nicolas Rimsky in La Dame masquée (Tourjansky 1924) and opposite Andrée Brabant and again Rimsky in La Cible (Nadejdine 1924). In these three films he played a man who can only protect his beloved who are inaccessible to him.
In the late 1920s Koline started to play in German films by UFA, first in the Franco-German coproduction Die geheimnisse des Orients (1927/1928) by Alexander Volkov, a film with an internatinal cast including Ivan Petrovich, Marcella Albani and Gaston Modot. It was followed by the highly popular vaudeville comedy Hurrah! Ich lebe! (Wilhelm Thiele 1928) where Koline formed a couple with his compatriot Natalia Lissenko, and Gaukler/Les saltimbanques (1929/1930), a multilingual directed by Robert Land in the German version and by Jacquelux in the French version.
From 1934 on Koline played minor parts in German films such as the coproduction Variétés (Nicolas Farkas 1934/1935) with Annabella, Menschen ohne Vaterland (Herbert Maisch 1936) with Wolly Fritsch, Patrioten (Karl Ritter 1937) with Lida Baarova, Ab Mitternacht (Carl Hoffmann 1937/38) with Gina Falckenberg, and several films by Victor Tourjansky: Geheimzeichen LB17 (1938), Der Gouverneur (1939), Feinde (1940), and in particular Illusion (1941) with Johannes Heesters and Brigitte Horney, and Tonelli (1942/43) with Ferdinand Marian and Winnie Markus. Besides several small roles until the end of the war in films by a.o. G.W. Pabst and Hans Steinhoff such as Komödianten (1940/41) and Rembrandt (1941/42), Koline had a major part in those years in Johann (Robert A. Stemmle 1942/43).
After the war, Koline remained in Germany and played small parts in films from 1947 on again, but in 1948 he also had a major lead again in Tragödie einer Leidenschaft by Kurt Meisel, an adaptation of the Nikolai Leskov novel. Nicolas Koline continued to play in German films until his death in 1954, mostly small parts but occasionally a bigger one as in Cuba Cabana (Fritz Peter Buch 1952), starring Zarah Leander. Some of Koline's parts were in films by Tourjansky again such as Dreimal Komödie (1949), Der blaue Strohhut (1949) and Salto mortale (1953). In the 1950s most films in which Koline played were produced in Munich, some in Hamburg, Wiesbaden or Fankfurt.
Sources:
IMDB, filmportal.de
François Albéra, Albatros - des Russes à Paris 1919-1929 (1995).
Nicolas Koline
French postcard by Cinémagazine Editions, no. 135.
Nicolas Koline, aka Nikolaj Kolin, was born in Russia in 1878.
Nicolas Koline originally was a stage actor who had played with Stanislavsky before starting in film. He was known for his comic talents. Koline was one of the Russian actors fleeing from the country after the revolution and during the Civil War. Together with his compatriots he moved to France, where he played in several of the films directed by Russian emigré directors, starting in 1920 in L'angoissante aventure (Yakov Protazanov 1920), a film with several fled Russian actors: Ivan Mozzhukin (the lead and the scriptwriter of the film, together with Alexander Volkov), Nathalie Lissenko, Dimitri Buchowetzki, Vera Orlova and Nicolas Panoff. Actually, the film was started during the trip of the emigrés from Yalta to Paris and finished in the Montreuil studio in Paris as the second film of the Ermolieff company, which a few years after turned into Albatros Films. The newly formed company Ermolieff Films (1920) gathered the Russian emigrés; this also included Russian cameramen such as Fédote Bourgassoff and Nicolas Toporkoff.
After this first film followed La tourmente (Serge Nadejdine 1921) starring Koline; Justice d'abord (Protazanov 1921); Les Contes de mille et une nuits (Viatcheslav/Victor/Viktor Tourjansky 1921); the serial La maison du mystère (Volkov 1922) which was also released as a feature; Nuit de carnaval (Tourjansky 1922); Calvaire d'amour (Tourjansky 1923); Le brasier ardent (Mozzhukin and Volkov 1923); Le Chant de l'amour triomphant (Tourjansky 1923); and Kean (Volkov 1923). In particular in the last three Koline had leading parts as respectively the cuckolded husband, the besotted valet, and Kean's soffleur and aid. He was even the main star of the next film Le Chiffonnier de Paris (1924) by Serge Nadejdine, after the famous drama by Félix Pyat. In the same year he played leading roles opposite Nathalie Kovanko and Nicolas Rimsky in La Dame masquée (Tourjansky 1924) and opposite Andrée Brabant and again Rimsky in La Cible (Nadejdine 1924). In these three films he played a man who can only protect his beloved who are inaccessible to him.
In the late 1920s Koline started to play in German films by UFA, first in the Franco-German coproduction Die geheimnisse des Orients (1927/1928) by Alexander Volkov, a film with an internatinal cast including Ivan Petrovich, Marcella Albani and Gaston Modot. It was followed by the highly popular vaudeville comedy Hurrah! Ich lebe! (Wilhelm Thiele 1928) where Koline formed a couple with his compatriot Natalia Lissenko, and Gaukler/Les saltimbanques (1929/1930), a multilingual directed by Robert Land in the German version and by Jacquelux in the French version.
From 1934 on Koline played minor parts in German films such as the coproduction Variétés (Nicolas Farkas 1934/1935) with Annabella, Menschen ohne Vaterland (Herbert Maisch 1936) with Wolly Fritsch, Patrioten (Karl Ritter 1937) with Lida Baarova, Ab Mitternacht (Carl Hoffmann 1937/38) with Gina Falckenberg, and several films by Victor Tourjansky: Geheimzeichen LB17 (1938), Der Gouverneur (1939), Feinde (1940), and in particular Illusion (1941) with Johannes Heesters and Brigitte Horney, and Tonelli (1942/43) with Ferdinand Marian and Winnie Markus. Besides several small roles until the end of the war in films by a.o. G.W. Pabst and Hans Steinhoff such as Komödianten (1940/41) and Rembrandt (1941/42), Koline had a major part in those years in Johann (Robert A. Stemmle 1942/43).
After the war, Koline remained in Germany and played small parts in films from 1947 on again, but in 1948 he also had a major lead again in Tragödie einer Leidenschaft by Kurt Meisel, an adaptation of the Nikolai Leskov novel. Nicolas Koline continued to play in German films until his death in 1954, mostly small parts but occasionally a bigger one as in Cuba Cabana (Fritz Peter Buch 1952), starring Zarah Leander. Some of Koline's parts were in films by Tourjansky again such as Dreimal Komödie (1949), Der blaue Strohhut (1949) and Salto mortale (1953). In the 1950s most films in which Koline played were produced in Munich, some in Hamburg, Wiesbaden or Fankfurt.
Sources:
IMDB, filmportal.de
François Albéra, Albatros - des Russes à Paris 1919-1929 (1995).