Eva Norvind

Former actress Eva Norvind was an independent film and video producer as well as a psychosexual counselor in New York City. She was born Eva Johanne Chegodayeva Sakonskaya in Trondheim, Norway, on May 7th, 1944, the daughter of Russian refugee Prince Paulovic Chegodayef Sakonsky and a Norwegian sculptress. Besides the name Eva Norvind, she has also worked under the pseudonyms Ava Taurel and Eva Hultgreen. Having moved to France at age 15 with her family, she entered the field of entertainment when she won the second prize in the beauty contest at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival where the reward was a minor role as a German tourist in Marcel Moussy's Saint-Tropez Blues (1961). Shortly thereafter Eva changed her name to Eva Norvind when she became a showgirl at the Follies Bergere and began acting at the Comedie Francaise. In 1962 Eva moved to Canada and then to New York City, where she worked as a showgirl and Can-Can dancer in cabarets, as well as a lunch-time Playboy bunny. Upon finishing high school in 1964 she took a bus to Mexico City to study Spanish over the summer and was recruited by a television producer to act a small part in a TV variety show. Because of her Nordic beauty, voluptuous figure, and daring attitude she rapidly became a film actress and a sex symbol in the Mexican media. After her first Mexican film, 'Nuestros buenos vecinos de Yucatan' (1965), made in 1965, Eva went on to act in six more films over the next three years;Esta noche no (1966), followed by her first co-starring role in Pacto de sangre (1966), and Juan Pistolas (1966), where she played the sheriff's wife opposite Javier Solis. Other films include Santo contra la invasion de los marcianos (1966), Baname mi amor (1966), and her last Mexican film Don Juan 67 (1966), with Mauricio Garces. After a highly publicized scandal in 1966 when she spoke of birth control on national TV, the Mexican government ordered Eva to leave the country within 24 hours. With help from the actors union she was able to remain in Mexico, but was forbidden all work on television for one year and any kind of work for 4 months. She did return to the theatre, acting in 'En el Closet, no' and Machiavelli's 'La Mandragola.' In 1968, still living in Mexico, she became a freelance photographer covering fashion and celebrity news in Paris and New York. She also worked as a journalist specializing in film, covered international film festivals and got Latin American exclusives with major Hollywood talent from Paramount and Universal Pictures. She then worked in film distribution, buying European films for the Mexican Cineteca and selling Mexican films to Scandinavian Television. In 1980, Eva returned to New York to study film production at NYU, where she received her BFA in 1982. She produced shorts and promotional films within the health field, and worked as associate producer of feature films in the development stage with Ziegler Films in Berlin and the Kibbutz Association in Israel. In 1985, she became fascinated with the exploration of erotic power exchange and invented a pseudonym for herself as dominatrix Ava Taurel. In 1987 she founded Taurel Enterprises, Inc, the umbrella company for counseling, erotic role play and video production for health related services. She gave lectures at national conferences worldwide, to both health professionals and lay audiences. In 1996 she received her MA in Human Sexuality and Health Education from NYU and pursued graduate studies in Forensic Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her controversial life and work has been documented in many books and feature films; In 1996 she was featured in 'Whipped', a documentary by Iana Porter and Sasha Waters which premiered at The Chicago Underground Film Festival and was screened at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC two years later. In 1997, feminist filmmaker Monika Treut made 'Didn't Do It for Love' (1997), a documentary about Eva's life, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, followed by the Berlin International Film Festival, among others. In 1999, Eva appeared in 'Tops & Bottoms' (1999), by Christine Richie. She has been featured in many magazines as well as books like 'How to Be Hap Hap Happy Like Me' by Merrill Markoe, Marianne Macy's 'Working Sex' (1996), Bill and Gloria Brame's 'Different Loving', and Luisa Valenzuela's 'La travesia' (2002) and 'Black Novel with Argentines' (2003). In 1999, John McTiernan hired her to coach Rene Russo for her assertive sexual image in 'The Thomas Crown Affair' for which she got screen credit. In 2002, she was featured in a documentary film directed by Radovan Tadic, made for French and German cable television. She recently optioned a screenplay by Tadic for a feature film that she planned to produce with him as director. Eva lived in New York and Connecticut but travelled frequently. She was fluent in English, French, Spanish, German, Swedish and Norwegian, and conversed in Russian and Italian. She was the sister of Georg Kajanus, London based singer and composer, and she was the single mother of Mexican actress Nailea Norvind. At the time of her death, Eva was making a documentary about severely handicapped Mexican actor and musician Jose Flores, entitled 'Born Without'.