Felix Yusupov

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Prince Felix Yusupov (Феликс Феликсович Юсупов) (b. March 23, 1887, Saint Petersburg, Russia – September 27, 1967, Paris, France), (variously transliterated from Russian as Yussupov, Yossopov, Iusupov, Youssoupov, or as Feliks, Graf Sumarrokow-Elston (граф Сумароков-Эльстон)), was a Russian nobleman best known for murdering Grigori Rasputin, the mystic peasant faith healer whom Yusupov and other Russian nobles believed held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.

Yusupov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Despite the fact that he was allegedly homosexual, the prince agreed to marry Princess Irina of Russia. Despite Felix's appetites, the marriage was a happy one. His mother's family, the Yusupovs , were descendants of tatar origin and fabulously wealthy. It was in their Moika Palace (one of many luxurious estates) that Felix and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch Romanov supposedly killed Rasputin.

The Yusupov family acquired their wealth generations earlier through extensive land grants in Siberia, and they owned a string of profitable mines and fur trading posts. In order that the Yusupov name might not die out, the prince's father, Count Elston-Sumarokov, took his wife's surname and title upon their marriage.

His descendants are:

Princess Irina Yusupova (1915-1983), married Count Nikolai Cheremetev (1904-1979); had issue:
- Countess Xenia Cheremeteva (born 1942), married Ilias Sfyris (born 1932); had issue:
  - Tatiana Sfyris (born 1968), married Alexis Giannakoupoulos (born 1963), divorced, no issue; married Anthony Vamvakidis and has issue:
    - Marilia Vamvakidis (2004?)

Felix was raised in opulent excess by his doting mother. Felix claimed to have caught the eye of King Edward VII of England while in drag. There is also a strong sense that there was a homoerotic undertone to Felix's fascination with Rasputin. Rasputin, however, was apparently more interested in Yusupov's wife Irina, and it was on the pretext of a tryst with her that Felix invited him to the Moika Palace on the night he died.

The assassination of Rasputin failed to prevent the Russian Revolution. The Yusupov family was sent to a virtual house arrest in their farm outside Saint Petersburg. Felix Yusupov went back to his palace in Saint Petersburg where he took some Rembrandt paintings and jewellery before fleeing to the Crimea with his wife. In Crimea he and his wife aboard a British warship the HMS Marlborough wich took them from Yalta to Malta and from there they travelled to Italy. And from there they traveled by train to Paris. In Italy he gave away diamonds to pass without a visum. In Paris they stayed a few days in Hotel Vendôme. From there he travelled to London. In 1920 they went back to Paris and bought a house on the Rue Gutenberg in Boulogne-sur-Seine ,Paris were they lived rest of their life.

From there they moved to France, where they lived rest of their life.

Felix and Irina successfully sued MGM through the English courts for invasion of privacy and libel in connection with the 1932 film Rasputin and the Empress. The alleged libel was not that the character based on Felix had committed murder, but that the character based on Irina was portrayed as Rasputin's mistress. They were awarded £25,000 damages, an enormous sum at the time, which was attributed to the success of their counsel Sir Patrick Hastings' arguments. The disclaimer now at the end of every American film, "The preceding was a work of fiction, etc.," first appeared as a result of the legal precedent set by the Yusupov case.

Felix also was able to sell a pair of Rembrandt paintings from his palace for a significant fortune.

He died in Paris in 1967.

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