Olena Chekan

Olena Vasilivna Chekan (also Yelena Chekan, , , ; 26 April 1946, Kyiv, Soviet Union – 21 December 2013, Kyiv, Ukraine) was a Soviet and Ukrainian film actress, script writer and journalist.

Early life Chekan was born on 26 April 1946 in Kyiv. Her father was Vasily Ioannovich Chekan (28 December 1906 – 23 November 1986), mother Lyubov Pavlovna Tarapon (15 June 1914 – 19 July 1994).

Personal life

Chekan was married to Stanislas Rodyuk (1937–2003), an architect. Together, they had a son, Bohdan Rodyuk Chekan (born 1978).

Filmography Chekan worked as an actress in many films from 1980 to the 1990s, including: The Bothersome Man (1978) Family Circle (1979) Women Joke In Good Earnest (1981) To The Whizz of Bullets (1981) The Rooks (1982) The Secrets of St. George's Cathedral (1982) Three Shells of An English Rifle (1983) Haunted By Ghosts (1984) Life Bridge (1986) Premiere In Sosnovka (1986) Approaching Future (1986) By Your Side (1986) Start The Investigation (second film, Smear) (1987) Gypsy Aza (1987) Blue Rose (1988) Sinner (1988) How Men Were Talking About Women (1988) The Prisoner of Château d'If (1988) Storm Warning (1988) Road Through The Ruins (1989) I Want To Make A Confession (1989) Vehement (1990) Doping For Angels (1990) Niagara (1991)

Publications Chekan published book-interview Etoile d'Alex Moscovitch (The Star of Alex Moscovitch). This book was written by Chekan in Moscow in 1990–1991 on the basis of personal conversations and political memories by Alex Moscovitch, companion of General de Gaulle. The book-interview was published in Moscow at publishing house NORD in 1992 with the autobiography of Moscovitch Le Temps Des Punaises in Russian.

Her son, Bohdan Rodyuk-Chekan, initiated publishing of English translation of her creative works and collections of her best materials published previously in The Ukrainian Week. Austrian artist and publisher published the book titled The Quest for a free Ukraine in Vienna at the editorial house Der Konterffei in 2015. The second book, Hymns to Ukrainian Art, published in 2016, includes further interviews published in The Ukrainian Week as well as chapters on acting career and literary work.