Michèle Morgan

Michèle Morgan
from the trailer for Joan of Paris (1942)
Born	Simone Renée Roussel 29 February 1920 (1920-02-29) (age 89) Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Years active	1935–1999
Spouse(s)	William Marshall (1942–1948) Henri Vidal (1950–1959) Gérard Oury (1960–2006)

Michèle Morgan (born 29 February 1920) is a French film actress, who was a leading lady for three decades.

Career

Morgan was born Simone Renée Roussel^[1][2] in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, a western suburb of Paris.

She left home at the age of 15 for Paris determined to become an actress. She took acting lessons from René Simon while serving as an extra in several films to pay for her drama classes. Her beauty was noticed by director Marc Allégret who offered her a major role in the film Gribouille in 1937, opposite Raimu. Then came the film Le Quai des brumes by Marcel Carné in 1938, opposite the great French actor Jean Gabin, and Remorques in 1941. 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 the United States and Hollywood where she was contracted to RKO Pictures. Her career there proved rather disappointing, apart from Joan of Paris opposite Paul Henreid in 1942, Higher and Higher opposite Frank Sinatra in 1943. She was tested and strongly considered for the female lead in Casablanca but RKO would not release her for the amount of money that Warner Bros. offered.^[3] Morgan did work for Warners in Passage to Marseille opposite Humphrey Bogart in 1944. Nothing major came her way.

from the trailer for
The Vintage (1957)

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 (1949), The Proud and the Beautiful (1953) by Yves Allégret, Les Grandes Manœuvres (1955) by René Clair, Marie-Antoinette reine de France (1956).

Morgan continued working in films throughout the 1960s, notably in Lost Command, a 1966 film version of Les Centurions. In the 1970s, she largely retired from the acting career, then made occasional appearances on film, television and theatre.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, 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. In 1996, she also received the Career Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival.

Morgan achieved the most popularity in french cinema during the 1940s and 1950s,^[4] although she is mostly unknown outside of France. She published her autobiography entitled Avec ces yeux-là in 1977.^[5]

She also paints and has done ever since the 1960s. She has a fetish for painting fish because it is her zodiac sign. While others were on the barricades in May 1968, she was painting abstract objects.^[6] She accepted to do an exhibition at the Paris Gallery "Artistes En Lumière à Paris" from 2 March until the end of April 2009.^[7]

Personal life

While in Hollywood, she married actor William Marshall in 1942 with whom she had a son, Mike Marshall (1944-2005). 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 film director and actor/writer Gérard Oury until his death in 2006.

In popular culture

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.^[8]

Filmography

Mademoiselle Mozart (1935) (uncredited) Une fille à papa (1935) (uncredited) Le Mioche (1936) Mes tantes et moi (1936) Gigolette (1936) La Vie parisienne (1936) (uncredited) Gribouille (1937) Le Récif de corail (1938) Orage (1938) Le Quai des brumes (1938) with Jean Gabin and Michel Simon by Marcel Carné La Loi du nord (1939) L'Entraîneuse (1940) Les Musiciens du ciel (1940) with Michel Simon and Auguste Bovério My Life with Caroline (1941) (uncredited) Remorques (1941) Joan of Paris (1942) with Paul Henreid by Robert Stevenson The Heart of a Nation (1943) Two Tickets to London (1943) Higher and Higher (1943) with Jack Haley by Tim Whelan Passage to Marseille (1944) with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet by Michael Curtiz La Symphonie Pastorale (1946) with Pierre Blanchar by Jean Delannoy The Chase (1946) with Robert Cummings by Arthur Ripley The Fallen Idol (1948) with Ralph Richardson by Carol Reed Aux yeux du souvenir (1948) Fabiola (1949) with Henri Vidal by Alessandro Blasetti La Belle que voilà (1950) Maria Chapdelaine (1950) Le Château de verre (1950) L'Étrange Madame X (1951) The Seven Deadly Sins (1952) with Françoise Rosay by Claude Autant-Lara (segment "Pride") La Minute de vérité (1952) Studio One (2 episodes, 1953) TV series The Proud and the Beautiful (1953) Destinées (1954) segment "Jeanne" Obsession (1954) Oasis (1955)

from the trailer for Lost Command (1966) Napoléon (1955) Les Grandes Manœuvres (1955) with Gérard Philipe by René Clair Marguerite de la nuit (1955) If Paris Were Told to Us (1956) Marie-Antoinette reine de France (1956) The Vintage (1957) Retour de manivelle (1957) Racconti d'estate (1958) Le Miroir à deux faces (1958) Maxime (1958) Pourquoi viens-tu si tard? (1959) Vacanze d'inverno (1959) Menschen im Hotel (1959) Les Scélérats (1960) Fortunat (1960) Les Lions sont lâchés (1961) Three Faces of Sin (1961) Rencontres (1962) Le Crime ne paie pas (1962) segment "The Hugues Case" Constance aux enfers (1963) Landru (1963) Il Fornaretto di Venezia (1963) Méfiez-vous, mesdames! (1963) Les Pas perdus (1964) Les Yeux cernés (1964) Dis-moi qui tuer (1965) Lost Command (1966) with Anthony Quinn by Mark Robson La Bien-aimée (1967) (TV) Benjamin (1968) Le Chat et la souris (1975) with Serge Reggiani by Claude Lelouch Robert et Robert (1978) (uncredited) Le Tout pour le tout (1981) (TV) Un homme et une femme, 20 ans déjà (1986) (uncredited) Le Tiroir secret (1986) TV mini-series Stanno tutti bene (1990) with Marcello Mastroianni directed by Giuseppe Tornatore La Veuve de l'architecte (1995) (TV) Des gens si bien élevés (1997) (TV) La Rivale (1999) (TV)

References

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michèle Morgan

• Michèle Morgan at the Internet Movie Database
• Michèle Morgan at Allmovie
• Michèle Morgan at filmsdefrance.com
• Michèle Morgan at AlloCiné (French)
• Photographs of Michèle Morgan