Taina Elg

Taina Elg
Elg at Midnight Sun Film, June 16, 2012
Born	(1930-03-09) 9 March 1930 Helsinki, Finland
Citizenship	US citizen
Years active	1941-2006
Spouse(s)	Carl Björkenheim (1953-1958) Rocco Caporale (1985-2008) his death
Children	Raoul Björkenheim
Parent(s)	Helena Dobroumova Åke Elg

Taina Elg (born 9 March 1930) is a Finnish-American actress and dancer. She has appeared on stage, television and in film.

Life and career

Taina Elg in 1955

Eig was born in 1930 in Helsinki, but later raised in Turku by her parents, Helena Dobroumova (of Russian descent) and Åke Elg, a pianist. In 1957 she won the Golden Globe for the Foreign Newcomer Award - Female. She won another Golden Globe in 1958 for Best Motion Picture Actress - Musical/Comedy for her performance in Les Girls, tying with her co-star Kay Kendall.

In 1958 she was nominated for a Golden Laurel as Top New Female Personality. In 1975 she was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance as Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez in Where's Charley?. She appeared in the original Broadway production of Nine as Guido Contini's mother. In 1989 she had the title role as Lea in Chéri, from a Colette novel as adapted by Anita Loos.

In 1980 she played Dr. Ingrid Fischer on CBS daytime drama (soap opera) Guiding Light.

From 1980-82 she played Olympia Buchanan, first wife of tycoon Asa Buchanan, on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. Her character, held prisoner by Asa for months, had a memorable death sequence, falling over a balcony at a costume party (that lasted nearly a month!) and informing son Bo (falsely) that Asa was not his father.

Personal life

Her son by her first marriage to Carl Björkenheim, which ended in divorce in 1958, is Finnish-American jazz guitarist Raoul Björkenheim. In 1982 she remarried, to Rocco Caporale, an Italian-born educator and professor of sociology. They resided in New York City.

Filmography

• The Prodigal (1955)
• Diane (1956)
• Gaby (1956)
• Les Girls (1957)
• Imitation General (1958)
• The 39 Steps (1959)
• Watusi (1959)
• The Bacchantes (1961)
• Hercules in New York (1970)
• Liebestraum (1991)
• The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)

Stage appearances

• Look to the Lilies
• Nine
• Where's Charley?
• The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall
• A Little Night Music (in Australia)
• Chéri by Colette off-Broadway, New York 1989

External links

• Taina Elg fan site
• Taina Elg at IMDb
• Taina Elg at Yahoo! Movies
• Soap Central character brief