The Life Story of Ludmilla Tchérina
From: Picture Show January 7th 1956
Ludmilla Tchérina, one of the stars of
Oh - Rosalinda!!, was born in Paris, France, of a French mother and
a Russian father. Her birthday is October 10th.
She commenced dancing at the age of three, and by the time she was seven
she was showing a brilliant aptitude for the art. It was then she began
a full time study of ballet, and when she was eleven years old she made
her first professional appearance.
When Ludmilla joined Serge Lifar's Monte Carlo Ballet she quickly became
one of the company's principal ballerinas. Later, her experience included
a tour of Switzerland.
She was twenty-one years of age when she was offered her first film part
- to appear with the French star, Jouvet, in Le Revenant (1946).
The following year she came to England to make her British film debut in
The Red Shoes (1948). It was the first time she had spoken English
on the screen, and when she made the film she did not understand what she
was saying. She memorised her dialogue phonetically.
Other Continental films followed, and then she made her second British picture,
The Tales of Hoffmann in which she starred as Giulietta.
Ludmilla won the French equivalent of Hollywood's Oscar in a short film
A La Memoire du Hero, in which she portrayed, oddly enough, Bonaparte,
as she danced to the Funeral March of Beethoven's "Eroica".
It was her brilliant work in The Tales of Hoffmann which caused Universal-International
to become interested in her. In consequence she was flown to Hollywood to
make her American screen bow in Sign of the Pagan, co-starring with
Jeff Chandler, Jack Palance and Rita Gam. Although her role was a straighforward
dramatic portrayal, she also danced in the film, performing an interpretative
dance at a feast for barbarian Kings. She devised the dance personally,
and it was her first departure from classic ballet.
As soon as her first American film was completed, Ludmilla returned to Europe,
and, eventually she came back to England to play the title role in Oh
- Rosalinda!!
She has proved herself to be a top ranking film star, and she is certain
to be offered more of this work; but with Ludmilla dancing comes first,
and she will not accept a film contract. She likes to film, however, but
she prefers to choose her subjects and finds it pleasant to make a film
here and there.
She confesses that one of the hardships of ballet for her is the fact that
dieting is included in the strict curriculum of training, as she loves eating.
She says that it was torture for her a short time ago when she was dancing
at the Scala in Milan, for she adores spaghetti, and everywhere she went
she saw people eating quantities of her favourite dish.
Raven-haired Ludmilla had dark brown eyes, and is five feet three and a
half inches in height. Her first husband, Edmund Audran, who was also her
choregrapher and dance partner,
[and appeared in TRS, TEP & ToH]
was killed in a car accident in 1951. After his death, Ludmilla did not
dance again for more than a year. On May 28th, 1953, she married Raymond
Roi, a noted French financier and industrialist.
Ludmilla has a great capacity for hard work, but she has also found time
to devote to another art besides that of her career. She has painted in
water colours since the age of six.
