Vera Karalli was a Russian silent film actress and ballerina of Bolshoi
Theatre and the "Ballets Russes" (Russian Ballet) led by
Sergei Diaghilev.
She was born Vera Alekseevna Karalli on July 27, 1889, in Moscow,
Russia. In 1906 she graduated as a ballerina from the ballet class of
Alexander Gorsky at Moscow Theatre School. From 1906 - 1909 she was
member of the troupe at Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and made appearances
in ballets by Mikhail Fokin and Aleksandr
Gorsky. In 1909 Karalli performed in Paris with the "Russian Seasons"
and "Ballets Russes" (Russian Ballet) led by impresario
Sergei Diaghilev. Then she returned to
Russia and was member of the troupe at Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
During the 1910s, she appeared as a lead dancer in such productions as
"Swan Lake" by composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and in
"Life for the Tsar" by composer
Mikhail Glinka staged at Bolshoi Theatre.
In 1914 Vera Karalli made her film debut at the Moscow film studio of
Aleksandr Khanzhonkov co-starring
as Elena opposite Ivan Mozzhukhin and
Pyotr Chardynin in
Ty pomnish' li? (1914), by
director Pyotr Chardynin. She also
co-starred in Voyna i mir (1915), the
first adaptation of the Lev Tolstoy's
classic novel "War and Peace" by directors
Vladimir Gardin and
Yakov Protazanov. Karalli shot to
international fame with her role as Gizella, the mute dancer in
Umirayushchiy lebed (1917)
(aka.. Mad Love) by director
Yevgeny Bauer, among her other film works.
During the 1910s, Vera Karalli was a mistress of Grand Prince Dmitri
Pavlovich Romanov. She was also co-conspirator in the
Feliks Yusupov's plot and murder of
Grigory Rasputin in December of 1916.
Karalli was present at the Yusupov's Moika Palace and allegedly she was
there to act as a substitute bait for Rasputin, instead of Yusupov's
wife Irina, who was initially shown to the lusty Rasputin as the main
bait to lure him into the trap before he was killed. Karalli was chosen
for the plot to murder Rasputin, because he knew of her as an actress,
she was very pretty and was already a well known film star, who
appeared in about twenty silent films in Russia. However, later some of
her films were lost or destroyed during the chaos of Communist
Revolution and the Russian Civil War of 1917 - 1921.
After the Communist Revolution, Vera Karalli emigrated from Russia, and
worked in Paris for the Diaghilev's Ballete Russes. She also taught
dance in Kaunas, Lithuania, during the 1920s, and was the ballet
mistress for the Bucharest Opera in Romania during the 1930s. Later she
taught dance and lived in Austria, and died there on November 16, 1972.
