Katia Lova

Biography

She was born to Bulgarian MD, PhD and diplomat Athanasoff Loloff who had studied and practised both in France (Montpellier) and Switzerland (Geneva), and Mathilde Déléchaud, a Swiss citizen. The two met and married in Geneva in 1909, before settling in Bulgaria where Athanasoff took part in the Second Balkan War as a medical commissioned officer. K.L. was probably born in 1914, though in the latest part of her life she claimed she was born in 1916 (a birth year which actually appeared on her identity documents but probably resulted from some administrative misinterpretation upon her coming back to Western Europe). In 1919, her mother, a French native speaker as well as a brilliant speaker of German and Bulgarian, took part in the Peace Treaty of Neuilly. The year after, or so, her father was appointed Consul of Bulgaria in Geneva. The family, including K.L.'s older brother Vassil 'Vasco', resided in that city until the late 1920s and next moved to a French village nearby Geneva where Athanasoff took back to medical practise and became a French citizen. In was in the very early 1930s that K.L., who was said to be an exceptional beauty, got into the French film business and started a career. During World War II, she remained in Paris and had lead roles in several hit-plays (among which 'Moumou') while performing in 'Mélodie pour toi'. Shortly before the war she had married French barrister Christian Bernadac, but their union was an unfortunate one and did not last long. After the war, her movie career resumed for good. In 1949 she married M. L. Coustillas, a French adventurer and wealthy businessman, to whom she gave two children, Ariane (1951) and Brice (1952). In the meantime, the condition she had contracted and that was not well cured during the war, worsened and brought her career to a final halt in 1950. Her mariage with M. L. Coustillas was also an unhappy one, leading to a separation in 1955 then a divorce. In 1958, her 6-year old son appeared as the French prodigy in Henri Verneuil's 'Le Grand Chef' feature movie, co-starring with Fernandel and Gino Cervi, under the pseudo of Papouf. In 1962, she retired in Geneva, and ten years later in Cannes, a city equating to many remembrances for her. She died and was incinerated there in 1994. Her ashes where dispersed in the Bay of Cannes according to her wishes.