Nato Vachnadze

Nato Vachnadze (), born Nato Andronikashvili (), ( 14 June 1904 – 14 June 1953) was a GeorgianUSSR/Soviet film actress. She started her career in the silent film era, usually playing the screen character of an Ingénue, an innocent and passionate young woman. She continued to work as an actress during the sound era until her death in a plane crash in 1953. One of the first film stars of the Soviet Union she received numerous honors, including the title of People's Artist of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Stalin prize.

Biography

Nato Vachnadze was born in Warsaw, then in the Russian Empire as the daughter of a Georgian father from the Andronikashvili family and a Polish mother. She adopted her last name from her first marriage to Merab Vachnadze. Her second marriage was with the film director Nikoloz Shengelaia, with whom she had two sons, the film directors Giorgi Shengelaya and Eldar Shengelaya.

Although several versions of her discovery for the film exist, the most popular and likely is that the film director Shakro Berishvili noticed her photography in a photo studio in Tbilisi. He managed to find her in Kakheti and convinced to play in her first film, the 1923 adventure film Arsen the Bandit. The role of Nunu in the 1923 film Patricide and the role of Esma in the 1924 film Three Lives made her famous not only in the Georgian Union Republic, but all over the Soviet Union. In these...
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