Michèle Morgan  

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Michèle Morgan (29 February 1920 – 20 December 2016) was a French actress, who was a leading lady for three decades in both French cinema and Hollywood features. She is considered one of the greatest French actresses of the twentieth century. Morgan was the inaugural winner of the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1992, she was given an Honorary César Award for her contributions to French cinema.

Biography

Morgan was born Simone Roussel in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. She left home at the age of 15 for Paris determined to become an actress. She took acting lessons from René Simon while working as a film extra to pay for her drama classes. She was noticed by director Marc Allégret who offered her a major role in the film Gribouille in 1937, opposite the great french actor Raimu. Then came the film Quai des brumes by Marcel Carné in 1938, opposite Jean Gabin, and Remorques in 1939. These two films established her as one of the leading actress of the time in french cinema.

Upon the invasion of France in 1940 by the Germans, Morgan left for America and Hollywood. Her career there proved rather dissapointing, apart from Joan of Paris opposite Paul Henreid in 1942, and Passage to Marseille opposite Humphrey Bogart in 1944, nothing major came her way. While in Hollywood, she married actor William Marshall in 1942 with whom she had a son, Mike Marshall.

The war over, Morgan returned to France and quickly picked up her career with the 1946 film, La symphonie pastorale by Jean Delannoy, which earned her the "Best Actress" award at the Cannes Film Festival. Other notable films include Fabiola (1948), Les Orgueilleux by Yves Allégret (1953), Les Grandes Manoeuvres by René Clair (1955), Marie-Antoinette reine de France (1956).

Morgan continued working in films throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Later she turned to television appearing in different made for TV films and mini-series.

Morgan and Marshall divorced in 1948. She married in 1950 French actor Henri Vidal (1919-1959) with whom she remained until his unexpected early death in 1959. She then lived with French actor and film director Gérard Oury until his death in 2006.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Michèle Morgan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street. In 1969, the government of France awarded her the Legion of Honor. For her long service to the French motion picture industry, in 1992 she was given an Honorary César Award.

Classically beautiful, remote and enigmatic, Michèle Morgan had something of the young Greta Garbo in her. She published her auto-biography entitled Avec ces yeux-là in 1977.

Trivia

The Los Angeles house she commissioned in 1944 at 10050 Cielo Drive later became famous as the site of the Manson family murders in 1969.

Selected filmography

• Port of Shadows (1938) with Jean Gabin and Michel Simon by Marcel Carné
• Les Musiciens du Ciel (1940) with Michel Simon and Auguste Bovério
• Joan of Paris (1942) with Paul Henreid by Robert Stevenson
• Higher and Higher (1943) with Jack Haley by Tim Whelan
• Passage to Marseille (1944) with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet by Michael Curtiz
• The Chase (1946) with Robert Cummings by Arthur Ripley
• La symphonie pastorale (1946) with Pierre Blanchar by Jean Delannoy
• The Fallen Idol (1948) with Ralph Richardson by Carol Reed
• Fabiola (1949) with Henri Vidal by Alessandro Blasetti
• Seven Deadly Sins (1953) with Françoise Rosay by Eduardo De Filippo and Jean Dreville
• Les Grandes Manoeuvres (1955) with Gérard Philipe by René Clair
• The Lost Command (1966) with Anthony Quinn by Mark Robson
• Cat & Mouse (1975) with Serge Reggiani by Claude Lelouch
• Everbody's Fine (1990) with Marcello Mastroianni directed by Giuseppe Tornatore

See also

• 10050 Cielo Drive

Sources

• The Illustrated Who's Who of the cinema ISBN 0-517-64419-3