27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Gene Kelly's co-star and award winner Taina Elg dies as fans pay tribute
Les Girls star and Golden Globe winner Taina Elg has died at the age of 95. The star's family confirmed that she died on 15 May in a care facility in Helsinki, where she spent her final years.
The actress was best known for starring alongside Gene Kelly in Les Girl - for which she won the Golden Globe for best actress in a musical or comedy. She went onto appear in The 39 Steps, Hercules in New York and The Mirror Has Two Faces. Taina also took the theatre world by storm, working alongside Raul Julia in the 1974 revival of Rank Loesser's Where's Charley?.
She received a Tony nomination for her performance in the role and later did so for her performance in a production of Nine.
The Finnish star was also best known for her roles in 1955's The Prodigal as well as her performance in 1956's Gaby, for which she received her first Golden Globe nomination.
In the '80s, Taina took on the role of Olympia Buchanan in American soap One Life to Live - with her time on the show coming to an end when her character fell to her death from balcony during a costume party.
Taina was married twice in her life: first to economist and importer Carl 'Poku' Bjorkenheim from 1953 until their divorce in 1958. She wed a second time to educator Rocco Caporale in 1982, with the pair staying together until his death in 2008.
After living in New York for over three decades, she chose to return to Finland after the death of her second husband. She is survived by her son Raoul Bjorkenheim - a Finish-American jazz guitarist.
