Simone Signoret

Simone Signoret
Born	Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker 25 March 1921(1921-03-25) Wiesbaden, Germany
Died	30 September 1985(1985-09-30) (aged 64) Auteuil-Anthouillet, France
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1942–1985
Spouse	Yves Allégret (1944-1949) Yves Montand (1951-1985)

Simone Signoret (French pronunciation: [simɔn siɲɔˈʁɛ]; 25 March 1921 – 30 September 1985) was a French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest movie stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top (1959). In her lifetime she also received a BAFTA, an Emmy, Golden Globe, Cannes Film Festival recognition and the Silver Bear for Best Actress.

Early life

Signoret was born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker in Wiesbaden, Germany to André and Georgette (Signoret) Kaminker as the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers. Her father, a pioneering interpreter who worked in the League of Nations, was a French-born Jewish army officer of Polish descent,^[1] who brought the family to Neuilly-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris. Her mother Georgette, from whom she acquired her stage name, was a French Catholic^[2]. Signoret grew up in Paris in an intellectual atmosphere and studied the English language in school, earning a teaching certificate. She tutored English and Latin and worked part-time as a typist for a French collaborationist newspaper, Les nouveaux temps, run by Jean Luchaire.

Career

During the German occupation of France, Signoret mixed with an artistic group of writers and actors who met at a café in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quarter, Café de Flore. By this time, she had developed an interest in acting and was encouraged by her friends, including her lover, Daniel Gélin, to follow her ambition. In 1942, she began appearing in bit parts and was able to earn enough money to support her mother and two brothers as her father, who was a French patriot, had fled the country in 1940 to join General De Gaulle in England. She took her mother's maiden name for the screen to help hide her Jewish roots.

Signoret's sensual features and earthy nature led to type-casting and she was often seen in roles as a prostitute. She won considerable attention in La Ronde (1950), a film which was banned briefly in New York as immoral. She won further acclaim, including an acting award from the British Film Academy, for her portrayal of another prostitute in Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1951). She appeared in many notable films in France during the 1950s, including Thérèse Raquin (1953), directed by Marcel Carné, Les Diaboliques (1954), and Les Sorcières de Salem (1956), based on Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

Simone Signoret with Laurence Harvey in Room at the Top; the film established her as an international actress.

In 1958, Signoret acted in the English set Room at the Top (1959), which won her numerous awards including the Best Female Performance Prize at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was the only French cinema actress to receive an Oscar until Juliette Binoche in 1997 (Supporting Actress) and Marion Cotillard in 2008 (Best Actress), and the first woman to win the award appearing in a foreign film. She was offered films in Hollywood, but turned them down and continued to work in France and England. She played opposite Laurence Olivier in Term of Trial (1962). She did work in America for Ship of Fools (1965), which earned her another Oscar nomination, and appeared in a few other Hollywood films before returning to France in 1969.

Her one attempt at Shakespeare, performing Lady Macbeth opposite Alec Guinness at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1966 proved to be ill-advised, although some critics were harsher and one referred to her English as "impossibly Gallic".^[3]

In her later years, she was often criticized for gaining weight and letting her looks go, but Signoret, who was never concerned with glamour, ignored the insults and continued giving finely etched performances. She won more acclaim for her portrayal of a weary madam (Madame Rosa) in La Vie devant soi (1977) and as an unmarried sister who unknowingly falls in love with her paralyzed brother via anonymous correspondence in I Sent a Letter to my Love (1980).

Her memoirs, Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be, were published in 1978. She also wrote a novel, Adieu Volodya, published in 1985, the year of her death.

First married to the filmmaker Yves Allégret (1944–49), with whom she had a daughter Catherine Allégret, herself an actress. Her second marriage was to the Italian-born French actor Yves Montand in 1950, a union which lasted until her death.

She died of pancreatic cancer in Auteuil-Anthouillet, France; and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

The late, legendary American jazz musician, pianist, singer and composer Nina Simone took her stage name from Signoret.

Filmography

Television award

Emmy Awards

• 1966: Won Emmy Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama for: Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963) for episode A Small Rebellion

See also

• Cinema of France
• César Award for Best Actress

References

Bibliography

• Monush, Barry (ed), The Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors From the Silent Era to 1965. New York: Applause Books, 2003. ISBN 1-55783-551-9
• Signoret, Simone, Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978. ISBN 0-297-77417-4

External links

• Simone Signoret at the Internet Movie Database
• Simone Signoret at Allmovie
• Simone Signoret at Yahoo! Movies
• Simone Signoret at Find a Grave

Awards for Simone Signoret Academy Award for Best Actress Joan Fontaine (1941) · Greer Garson (1942) · Jennifer Jones (1943) · Ingrid Bergman (1944) · Joan Crawford (1945) · Olivia de Havilland (1946) · Loretta Young (1947) · Jane Wyman (1948) · Olivia de Havilland (1949) · Judy Holliday (1950) · Vivien Leigh (1951) · Shirley Booth (1952) · Audrey Hepburn (1953) · Grace Kelly (1954) · Anna Magnani (1955) · Ingrid Bergman (1956) · Joanne Woodward (1957) · Susan Hayward (1958) · Simone Signoret (1959) · Elizabeth Taylor (1960) Complete list · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present) BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Vivien Leigh British & Simone Signoret Foreign (1952) · Audrey Hepburn British & Leslie Caron Foreign (1953) · Yvonne Mitchell British & Cornell Borchers Foreign (1954) · Katie Johnson British & Betsy Blair Foreign (1955) · Virginia McKenna British & Anna Magnani Foreign (1956) · Heather Sears British & Simone Signoret Foreign (1957) · Irene Worth British & Simone Signoret Foreign (1958) · Audrey Hepburn British & Shirley MacLaine Foreign (1959)  · (1952–1959) · (1960–1979) · (1980–1999) · (2000–present) César Award for Best Actress 1976 Romy Schneider · 1977 Annie Girardot · 1978 Simone Signoret · 1979 Romy Schneider · 1980 Miou-Miou · 1981 Catherine Deneuve · 1982 Isabelle Adjani · 1983 Nathalie Baye · 1984 Isabelle Adjani · 1985 Sabine Azéma · 1986 Sandrine Bonnaire · 1987 Sabine Azéma · 1988 Anémone · 1989 Isabelle Adjani · 1990 Carole Bouquet · 1991 Anne Parillaud · 1992 Jeanne Moreau · 1993 Catherine Deneuve · 1994 Juliette Binoche · 1995 Isabelle Adjani · 1996 Isabelle Huppert · 1997 Fanny Ardant · 1998 Ariane Ascaride · 1999 Élodie Bouchez · 2000 Karin Viard · 2001 Dominique Blanc · 2002 Emmanuelle Devos · 2003 Isabelle Carré · 2004 Sylvie Testud · 2005 Yolande Moreau · 2006 Nathalie Baye · 2007 Marina Hands · 2008 Marion Cotillard · 2009 Yolande Moreau · 2010 Isabelle Adjani Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie Judith Anderson (1954) · Mary Martin (1955) · Claire Trevor (1956) · Polly Bergen (1957) · Julie Harris (1959) · Ingrid Bergman (1960) · Judith Anderson (1961) · Julie Harris (1962) · Kim Stanley (1963) · Shelley Winters (1964) · Lynn Fontanne (1965) · Simone Signoret (1966) · Geraldine Page (1967) · Maureen Stapleton (1968) · Geraldine Page (1969) · Patty Duke (1970) · Lee Grant (1971) · Glenda Jackson (1972) · Cloris Leachman (1973) · Susan Hampshire / Cicely Tyson / Mildred Natwick (1974) · Katharine Hepburn / Jessica Walter (1975) (1954–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)