Boris Alekin(1904-1942)
- Actor
Slight, skinny, sweet-faced, with light blue eyes and wavy blond hair,
young Boris Alekin fled the October Revolution and settled down in
Germany. The young Russian who could speak four languages (Russian,
German, English and French) soon became an actor in his host country,
mainly in the theater (The Volksbühne in Berlin, the Rose-Theater in
Berlin and even on Broadway for a few months in early 1935) but also
before the cameras, although he was not given very interesting parts to
play. He can be seen in minor roles (a student,a waiter, a bellboy, a
small-time crook, a politician, a musician, a low-ranking officer) in
thirteen movies, a few of which are above average such as
La Habanera (1937) and
Paramatta, bagne de femmes (1937) (both
directed by Douglas Sirk),
Trenck (1940), a
fine Hans Albers vehicle and
Friedemann Bach (1941),
'Traugott
Mûller''s excellent account of
the life of
Johann Sebastian Bach's wayward
son. In 1941, the still young actor was mobilized and sent to the
Eastern Front. The irony of fate had it that Alekin who had run away
from his country came back there only to die there in a military
hospital. This was March 1942. Boris Alekin was not yet thirty-seven.
Another life and another talent shattered by war.
