Micheline Presle

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Micheline Presle

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Biography

After a convent education, Paris-born Micheline Presle entered films as an ingénue in 1938. She blossomed into a sleek, seductive leading lady in the mid-'40s, thanks in great part to her sensuous performance in Claude Autant-Lara's Devil in the Flesh (1947) and ethereal portrayal of the "back from the dead" heroine in Les Jeux Sont Faits (1947). Presle was brought to Hollywood in 1950 by Darryl F. Zanuck, who sought to deflect problems with the pronunciation of her last name by changing the spelling from "Presle" to "Prelle." After a handful of inconsequential American film appearances, the last and least of which was the disastrous Republic costumer The Adventures of Captain Fabian (1951), she returned to Europe. Micheline Presle continued going strong with choice character parts in continental films into the 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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Micheline Presle

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Micheline Presle
Born Micheline Nicole Julia Émilienne Chassagne
(1922-08-22) 22 August 1922 (age 89)
Paris, France
Other names Micheline Prelle
Spouse William Marshall (1950 - 1954)

Micheline Presle (born 22 August 1922) is a French actress also known in English language films as Micheline Prelle. She's one of the most famous and admired actress of the french movie.

Born Micheline Nicole Julia Émilienne Chassagne in Paris, she wanted to be an actress from an early age. She took acting classes in her early teens and made her film debut at the age of fifteen in the 1937 production of La Fessée. In 1938 she was awarded the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti as the most promising young actress in French cinema. Her rise to European stardom, in films such as Devil in the Flesh, led to offers from Hollywood and in 1950 she was signed by 20th Century Fox. Using the easier to pronounce last name of "Prelle," her first Hollywood production was a starring role opposite John Garfield in the film Under My Skin directed by Jean Negulesco. That same year director Fritz Lang cast her opposite Tyrone Power in the war drama American Guerrilla in the Philippines. In 1950 she became the second wife of American actor William Marshall with whom she had a daughter, Tonie. William Marshall had teamed up with actor Errol Flynn and his production company and in 1951 he directed her and Flynn in the film Adventures of Captain Fabian.

Presle's marriage did not last and she returned to France, divorcing Marshall in 1954. Her career flourished in French films and in 1957 she was a guest on the American Ed Sullivan Show. In 1959 she performed in the United Kingdom English-language production of Blind Date directed by Joseph Losey. She returned to Hollywood in 1962 for the role of Sandra Dee's mother in the Universal Studios film If a Man Answers which also featured Dee's husband, singer Bobby Darin. The following year Presle acted again in English in The Prize starring Paul Newman. She did not make another English film but after performing in for than fifty films in French, in 1989 she appeared in the French-made bilingual production I Want to Go Home for which she was nominated for the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Presle continues to act both in film and on television, and over her career she has made more than one hundred and fifty films. One of her more recent appearances is Venus Beauty Institute.

Selected filmography

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Mentioned in

L'Amour d'une Femme (1954 Drama Film)
Les Impures (1954 Drama Film)
Alouette, Je Te Plumerai (1989 Comedy Film)
Demons du midi (1980 Film)