Nicolas Koline Russian, French and German actor. Date of Birth: 07.05.1878 Country: USA

Biography of Nikolai Colin

Nikolai Fyodorovich Colin was a Russian, French, and German actor. He began his acting career at the 1st Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre (MHT) and was a steadfast member of its leadership for ten years. Despite the prohibition by Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko, who did not consider cinema as a true art form, Colin did not appear in Russian films. He performed brilliantly in plays such as "Twelfth Night," "The Cricket on the Hearth," and "The Village of Stepantchikovo" at the MHT. In the 1st Studio, he directed the opera "Eugene Onegin" with students from the conservatory. Colin once wrote about his work at the 1st Studio of the MHT, stating, "I never left the studio except when I was engaged in the MHT itself. And why didn't I leave? Very simple: I lived in the studio. I slept on the couch (which was called the 'Colin couch'), in the room where the male staff applied makeup."

In February 1920, together with his colleague Richard Boleslavsky, a Polish actor, Colin left Russia. Since there were no Russian-language theaters in Poland, Colin gave lectures on Russian literature to earn money for his further journey to Paris. In France, he actively worked in cinema and appeared in films such as "L'Angoissante aventure" (1920) by Yakov Protazanov, "Le Brasier ardent" (1923) by Ivan Mozzhukhin, "Le Chant de l'amour triumphant" (1923) by Victor Tourjansky, "Kean" (1924) by Alexander Volkov, and "Napoleon" (1927) by Abel Gance. In 1925, he co-directed the film "600,000 francs per month" with Robert Péguy.

Starting from 1928, Colin predominantly worked in Germany. Like all Russians who remained in Germany after the Nazis came to power, he had to prove his Aryan ancestry to the so-called "Russian Trust Department," located at Blaybtreustrasse 27 in Berlin. After a pause caused by the end of World War II, he resumed his career in German cinema in 1947, particularly in films by Victor Tourjansky. His last film in West Germany, the comedy "Der Frontgockel" (1955), was released in 1955.

In 1956, Colin emigrated to the United States and lived in poverty in Nayack, New York State. According to Roman Gulya's testimony, friends collectively gathered money for him. Nikolai Colin passed away in 1973 at the age of ninety-five.