Olga Kurylenko Biography

Olga Kurylenko
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Olga Kurylenko
Ольга Куриленко
Olga Kurylenko by Mikolaj Kirschke Wikipedia cropped.JPG
Kurylenko during a Ford Ka presentation in Paris, October 2008
Birth name Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko
Date of birth 14 November 1979 (1979-11-14) (age 30)1
Place of birth Berdyansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)2
Hair color Dark brown
Eye color Green
Measurements 34B-23-35
Dress size 4 (US)

Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (Ukrainian: Ольга Костянтинівна Куриленко; born November 14, 1979) is an actress and model. She is perhaps best known as the Bond girl, Camille Montes, in the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. She also portrayed Nika Boronina in the movie adaptation of the video game Hitman. Born in Ukraine, she became a French citizen in 2001.3

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Early life and background

Olga Kurylenko was born in Berdyansk, Ukraine. Her father, Kostyantyn Kurylenko, is Ukrainian and her mother, Marina Alyabusheva, is an art teacher of Russian and Belarusian descent who was born in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.456

She grew up poor; she shared an apartment with her aunt and uncle, grandparents, and cousin. She never had any fancy clothes, often wearing hand-me-downs and re-sewing torn sweaters instead of buying new ones. "I couldn't have anything, basically," she has said of her childhood. "I couldn't have any clothes I wanted, shoes, beds, clothes for school — because my mum couldn't buy them."7

When Kurylenko was three years old, her parents divorced, leaving her to be raised by her mother. Kurylenko rarely had contact with her father, meeting him for the first time when she was eight years old, and later again when she was 13.48

Career

Kurylenko was discovered by a female model scout while on vacation in Moscow at the age of 13.9 When she was 17, she signed a contract with the Paris-based Madison modeling agency.10 By the age of 18, she had already appeared on the covers of Vogue and Elle.11 While working as a model in Paris, Kurylenko supported her mother back home in Ukraine.12

She also appeared on the covers of Madame Figaro and Marie Claire.13

Also, she became the face of Lejaby lingerie, bebe, Clarins, and Helena Rubinstein.14 Furthermore, she modelled for Roberto Cavalli and Kenzo,15 and briefly appeared in the Victoria's Secret catalog.

In 2005, Kurylenko began her film career in France. She received the certificate of excellence award at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival for her performance in L'Annulaire, and also starred in the Paris, je t'aime segment Quartier de la Madeleine opposite Elijah Wood. That same year, she was selected to be the face of Kenzo's new fragrance, Kenzo Amour. She has appeared in all subsequent Kenzo Amour ads. In 2007, Kurylenko starred in Hitman alongside Timothy Olyphant, in which she did a full nude scene. She played Bond girl Camille Montes in the 2008 James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.16 The film was released in the United States on her 29th birthday.

Kurylenko was featured on the cover of the December 2008 issue of the US edition of Maxim17 and on the cover of the February 2009 issue of the Ukrainian edition of Maxim magazine.18

The fact that she is the first Bond girl from a post-Soviet state received mixed reactions in post-Soviet countries. The Saint Petersburg based Communist group KPLO has accused her of "moral and intellectual betrayal" in starring in a film about the "enemy of the Soviet people" (meaning James Bond)1920 (Kurylenko considered that a PR move21), but the mayor of Berdyansk has suggested naming a street after her22 and Kurylenko and her mother23 met Ukraine's First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko in President Yushchenko's family country house.1011

Personal life

In 2000, Kurylenko married French fashion photographer Cedric van Mol,2425 but the couple divorced four years later. In 2006, she married American mobile phone accessory entrepreneur Damian Gabrielle.9 They divorced in late 2007.26 Kurylenko lived in Paris since leaving Ukraine in 1996 to pursue her modeling career8 but moved to London in 2009 21. In 2001, she was granted French citizenship.3

The new generation of Ukrainians are energetic and want to drastically change the world for the better, and it will fight for change.
—Olga Kurylenko, Komsomolskaya Pravda Ukraine chat session (October 23, 2009)21

In a October 2009 chat session with Komsomolskaya Pravda Ukraine she stated that she does not intend to move back to Ukraine, or to remarry.21

Kurylenko speaks Ukrainian, Russian, English, French, Spanish and can understand Italian.21

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Olga Kurylenko Online • www.olga-kurylenko.net • Home of the new Bond Girl!
  2. ^ Olga Kurylenko Height
  3. ^ a b (French)Olga Kurylenko : Confidences d'une James Bond Girl, Paris Match ( November 11, 2008)
  4. ^ a b Sokolovskaya, Yanina (2008-01-18). "New Bond girl was discovered in a subway while on holidays with her mother in Moscow" (in Russian). Izvestia. http://www.izvestia.ru/cultprosvet/article3112063/. Retrieved 2008-09-04. 
  5. ^ Talaeva, Olena (February 2, 2008). "Maryna Alyabusheva does not want to move to Paris" (in Ukrainian). Gazeta.ua. http://gazeta.ua/index.php?&id=211753&eid=562. 
  6. ^ Campbell, Lori (2008-11-02). "Bond girl Olga Kurylenko was picked out by Daniel Craig". Mirror.co.uk. http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/latest/2008/11/02/bond-girl-olga-kurylenko-was-picked-out-by-daniel-craig-115875-20863512/. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
  7. ^ http://www.olga-kurylenko.org/quotes.php
  8. ^ a b "Quantum of Solace: Olga Kurylenko on being the latest, beautiful Bond girl". Telegraph. 2008-10-24. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml;?xml=/arts/2008/10/24/st_olgakurylenko.xml. Retrieved 11 November 2008. "The French capital has been the actress's home for 12 years, since she left Ukraine as a 16-year-old modeling hopeful in 1996." 
  9. ^ a b "The Ukranian girl discovered on Moscow's metro who grew up to become Bond's sexiest co-star yet". Daily Mail. January 14, 2008. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=507899&in_page_id=1773. 
  10. ^ a b http://ukraine3000.org.ua/eng/news/6557.html
  11. ^ a b http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7695332.stm
  12. ^ Hilton, Ruth (December 2008), "Olga Kurylenko: A View to a Thrill", Maxim 12 (12): 74, http://img255.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc216&image=34093_Olga_Kurylenko.MAXIM.December_2008.Scanned_by_KROQJOCK.UHQ_456_122_216lo.jpg 
  13. ^ http://www.kurylenko-olga.com/
  14. ^ http://www.kurylenko-olga.com/
  15. ^ http://www.fashionmodeldirectory.com/models/Olga_Kurylenko
  16. ^ "New Bond film title is confirmed". BBC News Online. January 24, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7206997.stm. 
  17. ^ "Olga Kurylenko: If her looks don’t knock you dead, trying to pronounce her last name might.". Maxim Magazine. December 2008. http://maxim.com/OlgaKurylenko/girls_of_maxim/4403.aspx. 
  18. ^ "Olga Kurylenko for magazine "Maxim" (photo)". Ukrainians.ca worldwide ukrainian community. January 23, 2009. http://www.ukrainians.ca/index.php?option=com_content&lang=en&task=view&id=2285&Itemid=1&date=2009-02-01. 
  19. ^ http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-280886.html
  20. ^ http://www.mnweekly.ru/news/20081030/55353430.html
  21. ^ a b c d e (Russian) Ольга Куриленко: Из окна своей квартиры я вижу Эйфелеву башню, Komsomolskaya Pravda Ukraine (October 23, 2009)
  22. ^ http://www.russiatoday.com/entertainment/news/19995
  23. ^ Photo, Daylife (October 9, 2008)
  24. ^ CJuliette - Agence de photographes
  25. ^ http://www.kurylenko.org/olga-kurylenko-bio.php
  26. ^ Olga confirms she recently ended a relationship in December 2007

External links