Simone Signoret
Encyclopedia
Simone Signoret 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
Room at the Top
Room at the Top is a 1959 British film based on the novel of the same name by John Braine. The novel was adapted by Neil Paterson with uncredited work by Mordecai Richler. It was directed by Jack Clayton and produced by James Woolf and John Woolf....

(1959). In her lifetime she also received a BAFTA, an Emmy, Golden Globe, Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 recognition and the Silver Bear for Best Actress
Silver Bear for Best Actress
The Silver Bear for Best Actress is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for achievement in performance by an actress.-Awards:- External links :*...

.

Early life

Signoret was born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker in Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

, 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
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

, was a French-born Jewish army officer of Polish descent, who brought the family to Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Although Neuilly is technically a suburb of Paris, it is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is composed of mostly wealthy, select residential...

 on the outskirts of Paris. Her mother Georgette, from whom she acquired her stage name, was a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

. 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
Jean Luchaire
Jean Luchaire was a French journalist and politician who founded the weekly Notre Temps in 1927 and the Collaborationist evening daily Les Nouveaux Temps in 1940. Luchaire supported the Vichy regime's Révolution nationale.Born in Siena, Italy, he was a grand nephew of historian Achille 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
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an area of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés....

 quarter, Café de Flore
Café de Flore
The Café de Flore, at the corner of the Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Rue St. Benoit, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, has long been celebrated for its intellectual clientele....

. By this time, she had developed an interest in acting and was encouraged by her friends, including her lover, Daniel Gélin
Daniel Gélin
Daniel Yves Alfred Gélin was a French actor, occasional director and screenwriter.-Early life:Gélin was born in Angers, Maine-et-Loire. When he was 10 his family moved to Saint-Malo where Daniel went to college until he was expelled for 'uncouthness'. His father then found him a job in a shop that...

, 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
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

 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
La Ronde (1950 film)
La Ronde is a 1950 film directed by Max Ophüls and based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1897 play of the same name. The title means "the round-dance".The film was nominated for two Academy Awards; for Best Writing and Best Art Direction...

(1950), a film which was banned briefly in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 as immoral. She won further acclaim, including an acting award from the British Film Academy, for her portrayal of another prostitute in Jacques Becker
Jacques Becker
Jacques Becker was a French screenwriter and film director.Becker was born in Paris, in an upper class background. During the 1930s he worked as an assistant to director Jean Renoir during his peak period, which produced such cinematic masterpieces as Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game...

's Casque d'or
Casque d'or
Casque d'or is a 1952 French film directed by Jacques Becker. It is a Belle Époque tragedy, the story of an ill-fated love affair between characters played by Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani.-Plot:...

(1951). She appeared in many notable films in France during the 1950s, including Thérèse Raquin
Thérèse Raquin (1953 film)
Thérèse Raquin is a 1953 French Drama film directed by Marcel Carné and starring Simone Signoret and Raf Vallone. The story is based on the Émile Zola novel but updated to 1953.-Plot:...

(1953), directed by Marcel Carné
Marcel Carné
-Biography:Born in Paris, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five, Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication, Hebdo-Films, and working for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933. In the same period he worked in...

, Les Diaboliques
Les Diaboliques (film)
Les Diaboliques , released as Diabolique in the United States and variously translated as The Devils or The Fiends, is a 1955 French black-and-white thriller feature film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot and Paul Meurisse...

(1954), and The Crucible (Les Sorcières de Salem; 1956), based on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...

's The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...

.
In 1958, Signoret acted in the English set Room at the Top
Room at the Top
Room at the Top is a 1959 British film based on the novel of the same name by John Braine. The novel was adapted by Neil Paterson with uncredited work by Mordecai Richler. It was directed by Jack Clayton and produced by James Woolf and John Woolf....

(1959), which won her numerous awards including the Best Female Performance Prize at Cannes
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 and the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

. She was the only French cinema actress to receive an Oscar until Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche is a French actress, artist and dancer. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films, been recipient of numerous international accolades, is a published author and has appeared on stage across the world. Coming from an artistic background, she began taking acting lessons during...

 in 1997 (Supporting Actress) and Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants...

 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
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

 in Term of Trial
Term of Trial
Term of Trial is a 1962 British drama film made by Romulus Films Ltd. and distributed by Warner-Pathé. It was written and directed by Peter Glenville and produced by James Woolf with James H. Ware as associate producer from a screenplay based on the novel of the same name by James Barlow...

(1962). She did work in America for Ship of Fools
Ship of Fools (film)
Ship of Fools is a 1965 film drama which tells the overlapping stories of several passengers aboard an ocean liner bound to Germany from Mexico in 1933...

(1965), which earned her another Oscar nomination, and appeared in a few other Hollywood films before returning to France in 1969.

In 1962 she translated Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes
The Little Foxes
The Little Foxes is a 1939 play by Lillian Hellman. Its title comes from Chapter 2, Verse 15 in the Song of Solomon in the King James version of the Bible, which reads, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Set in a small town in Alabama in...

into French for a production in Paris that ran for six months at the Theatre Sarah-Bernhardt. She played the Regina role as well. Hellman was displeased with the production, although the translation was approved by scholars selected by Hellman.

Her one attempt at Shakespeare, performing Lady Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

 opposite Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...

 at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...

 in London in 1966 proved to be ill-advised, although some critics were harsher and one referred to her English as "impossibly Gallic".

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 in Madame Rosa
Madame Rosa
Madame Rosa is a 1977 French film adaption of the novel The Life Before Us , authored by Romain Gary under the pseudonym of Émile Ajar...

(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
Yves Allégret
Yves Allégret was a French film director in the film noir genre.He is noted as having been the husband of actress Simone Signoret between the years 1944–1949.-Selected filmography:...

 (1944–49), with whom she had a daughter Catherine Allégret
Catherine Allégret
Catherine Allégret is a French actress. She is the daughter of Simone Signoret and Yves Allégret.In 2004, she published a book titled World Upside Down in which she contended that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather Yves Montand since the age of 5.In 2007, she portrayed Édith Piaf's...

, herself an actress. Her second marriage was to the Italian-born French actor Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...

 in 1950, a union which lasted until her death.

A lifelong chain smoker, she died of pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...

 in Auteuil-Anthouillet, France, and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...

 in Paris next to her second husband.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1942 Boléro uncredited
1942 Extra uncredited
1942
1943 Adieu Léonard uncredited
1943 Extra uncredited
1944 uncredited
1944 La maitresse de Firmin
1944 Service de nuit
Service de nuit
Service de Nuit is a 1944 French-Italian film comedy directed by Jean Faurez.-Synopsis:In a small village in Savoy, the astute night telephone operator knows all the local intrigue and cleverly manipulates them --but doesn't reveal a word.- Cast :...

1944 Béatrice devant le désir
1945 uncredited
1946 Back Streets of Paris
Back Streets of Paris
Back Streets of Paris is a 1946 French drama film directed by Marcel Blistène.- Plot :This story involves Madame Rose, a hotelkeeper in a Paris suburb who will stop at nothing, including murder...

Gisèle
1946 Annette
1946 Lily, la cabaretière
1947 Fantômas Hélène
1948 Impasse des deux anges Marianne
1948 Dédée d'Anvers
Dédée d'Anvers
Dédée d'Anvers is a 1948 French film directed by Yves Allégret. The film stars Simone Signoret, Bernard Blier, Marcel Pagliero and Jane Marken....

Dédée
1948 Against the Wind
Against the Wind (1948 film)
Against the Wind is a black-and-white British film directed by Charles Crichton and produced by Michael Balcon, released through Ealing Studios in 1948...

Michele Dennis
1950 Manèges
Manèges
Manèges is a French film directed by Yves Allégret and released in 1950. The film stars Simone Signoret , Bernard Blier and Jane Marken. It is shot in black-and-white in film noir style, with extensive use of flashback and the voiceover of characters' unspoken thoughts...

Dora
1950 Gunman in the Streets
Gunman in the Streets
Gunman in the Streets is a 1950 black-and-white film shot in film noir style. The low-budget B-movie was shot on location in Paris, France. The film was directed by Frank Tuttle, who directed the film noir classic This Gun for Hire...

Denise Vernon a French version was also filmed as Le Traqué
1950 Leocadie, the Prostitute
1950 Swiss Tour Yvonne
1951 Ombre et lumière
Ombre et lumière
Ombre et lumière is a 1950 psychological drama by French film director Henri Calef. The film stars Jacques Berthier, María Casares, Pierre Dux, Jean Marchat and Simone Signoret....

Isabelle Leritz
1951 ...Sans laisser d'adresse
...Sans laisser d'adresse
...Sans laisser d'adresse is a 1951 French comedy film directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois. At the 1st Berlin International Film Festival it won the Golden Bear award.-Cast:* Bernard Blier - Émile Gauthier* Danièle Delorme - Thérèse Ravenaz...

uncredited
1952 Casque d'or
Casque d'or
Casque d'or is a 1952 French film directed by Jacques Becker. It is a Belle Époque tragedy, the story of an ill-fated love affair between characters played by Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani.-Plot:...

Marie 'Casque d'Or' BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :...

1953 Thérèse Raquin
Thérèse Raquin (1953 film)
Thérèse Raquin is a 1953 French Drama film directed by Marcel Carné and starring Simone Signoret and Raf Vallone. The story is based on the Émile Zola novel but updated to 1953.-Plot:...

Thérèse Raquin
1955 Mother Courage and Her Children Yvette, Lagerhure
1955 Nicole Horner Diabolique
1956 Janine Alix
1956 Death in the Garden Djin
1957 Elisabeth Procter BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :...

1957 Die Windrose
Die Windrose
Die Windrose was a film made for the East German production company DEFA in 1957 and commissioned by the World Federation of Women. Alberto Cavalcanti was film director, with artistic input from Joris Ivens...

1959 Room at the Top
Room at the Top
Room at the Top is a 1959 British film based on the novel of the same name by John Braine. The novel was adapted by Neil Paterson with uncredited work by Mordecai Richler. It was directed by Jack Clayton and produced by James Woolf and John Woolf....

Alice Aisgill
1960 Adua and Friends Adua Giovannetti
1960 Roberte
1960 Amours célèbres Jenny segment "Jenny de Lacour"
1961 Barabbas
1962 Unconfirmed
1962 Term of Trial
Term of Trial
Term of Trial is a 1962 British drama film made by Romulus Films Ltd. and distributed by Warner-Pathé. It was written and directed by Peter Glenville and produced by James Woolf with James H. Ware as associate producer from a screenplay based on the novel of the same name by James Barlow...

Anna
1963 Sweet and Sour
Sweet and Sour (film)
Sweet and Sour is a 1963 French-Italian comedy film directed by Jacques Baratier and starring Guy Bedos.-Cast:* Jean Babilée - Oscar* Guy Bedos - Gerard* Jean-Paul Belmondo - Raymond* Claude Brasseur - Plumber* Françoise Brion - Striptease Girl...

Genevieve
1963 Therese Dutheil
1965 Eliane Darès
1965 Ship of Fools
Ship of Fools (film)
Ship of Fools is a 1965 film drama which tells the overlapping stories of several passengers aboard an ocean liner bound to Germany from Mexico in 1933...

1966 Is Paris Burning?
Is Paris Burning?
Is Paris Burning? is a 1966 film dealing with the 1944 liberation of Paris by rival branches of the French Resistance and the Free French Forces.-Plot:...

1966 Elsa Fennan Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film...

1967 Games
Games (film)
Games is a 1967 psychological thriller, directed by Curtis Harrington and starring James Caan, Katharine Ross, and Simone Signoret.-Plot:...

Lisa Schindler Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :...

1968 Arkadina, an actress
1969 Léone
1969 Army of Shadows Mathilde
1969 Mr. Freedom
Mr. Freedom
Mr. Freedom is a 1969 film by American expatriate photographer and filmmaker William Klein. In addition to starring popular French actor Delphine Seyrig, this anti-imperialist satirical farce features cameos by well-known actors Donald Pleasence and Philippe Noiret, as well as musician Serge...

uncredited cameo
1970 Mme L. aka Lise London
1971 Veuve Couderc Tati
1971 Clémence Bouin Silver Bear for Best Actress
Silver Bear for Best Actress
The Silver Bear for Best Actress is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for achievement in performance by an actress.-Awards:- External links :*...

 at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival
21st Berlin International Film Festival
The 21st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from June 26 to July 6, 1971.-Jury:* Bjørn Rasmussen * Ida Ehre* Walter Albuquerque Mello* Paul Claudon* Kenneth Harper* Mani Kaul* Charlotte Kerr* Rex Reed* Giancarlo Zagni...

1971 Comptes à rebours Léa
1973 Rude journée pour la reine Jeanne
1973 Rose
1975 Lady Vamos
1976 Police Python 357 Thérèse Ganay
1977 Madame Rosa
Madame Rosa
Madame Rosa is a 1977 French film adaption of the novel The Life Before Us , authored by Romain Gary under the pseudonym of Émile Ajar...

Madame Rosa
1978 Judith Therpauve Judith Therpauve
1979 Mamie
1980 Chère inconnue Louise
1982 Guy de Maupassant Maupassant's mother
1982 Mme Louise Baron Nominated — César Award for Best Actress
César Award for Best Actress
List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:...


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
    Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
    Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an anthology television series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967...

    (1963) for episode A Small Rebellion

Popular Culture

  • Marilyn (2011) by Sue Glover, premiered at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
    Glasgow
    Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

     on 17 February 2011. The play charted the deteriorating relationship between Signoret and Marilyn Monroe
    Marilyn Monroe
    Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

     during the filming of Let's Make Love
    Let's Make Love
    Let's Make Love is a 1960 musical comedy film made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by George Cukor and produced by Jerry Wald from a screenplay by Norman Krasna, Hal Kanter and Arthur Miller...

    . Unable to achieve the recognition of Oscar-winning Signoret, Monroe begins an affair with Signoret's husband, Yves Montand
    Yves Montand
    -Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...

    .

External links

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