Vera Tschechowa

Vera Wilhelmowna Rust (born 22 July 1940), known as Vera Tschechowa, is a German producer, director, screenwriter, and retired actress, of Russian descent. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1957 and 1996. She was widely known as Elvis Presley's companion, particularly in connection with his Oral Poliomyelitis Vaccine (OPV) public booster-advocacy and which they both undertook during Presley's first year in Germany with the U.S. Army (1959).

Her mother, Ada Tschechowa, was the daughter of Michael Chekhov (nephew of the Russian playwright and short story writer, Anton Chekov) and Olga Chekhova. Vera herself appeared, on 6 June 1971, as one of 28 women under the banner "We've had abortions!" ("Wir haben abgetrieben!") on the cover page of the West German magazine, Stern. In that issue, 374 women publicly stated that they had had pregnancies terminated, which at that time was illegal.