Who was Olga Ilić Hristilić
Niš – The National Theatre in Niš recently marked a significant event – its 139th anniversary. During this period, longer than the entire history of some countries, there have been many artists who have left their mark on the Niš theatre stage.
TL;DR
- Olga Ilić Hristilić was a pioneering Serbian actress and singer, born in Thessaloniki in 1880.
- She moved to Niš at 14 and began her acting career there, later moving to the National Theatre in Belgrade.
- She was dismissed from the Belgrade theatre and responded by posing for a nude photograph, which became the first explicit photo in Belgrade and Serbia in 1900.
- Ilić Hristilić performed in various travelling theatres and notably played Hamlet, a demanding male role, becoming only the second woman in the world to do so after Sarah Bernhardt.
- She recorded 25 gramophone records between 1910 and 1930, becoming one of the first Balkan women with recorded sound carriers.
- Despite a prolific career, she faced hardships during both World Wars and died in poverty in a Belgrade nursing home in 1945.