Best French Actress in Supporting Role 1960-1969

Nicole Berger was born on 12 June 1934 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Shoot the Piano Player (1960), All Boys Are Called Patrick (1959) and The Immature Grain (1954). She died on 13 April 1967 in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France.

Blanchette Brunoy was born on 5 October 1915 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Le mannequin assassiné (1948), The Human Beast (1938) and It Happened at the Inn (1943). She was married to Maurice Maillot and Robert Hommet. She died on 4 April 2005 in Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France.

Elegant, dark-haired Parisian Micheline Presle (billed in the U.S. as Micheline Prelle) was the daughter of a businessman whose surname was Chassagne. Taking acting classes as a teen, she was discovered by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and cast in Jeunes filles en détresse (1939) (portraying Jacqueline Presle, whose last name she chose as her own marquee name). Very early into her film career, she was awarded the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti as the "most promising young actress" in French cinema.

While Micheline proceeded to make movies during the Occupation with such offerings as Four Flights to Love (1939) (dual role), La comédie du bonheur (1940), Foolish Husbands (1941), Fantastic Night (1942), Twilight (1944), and Paris Frills (1945), she was regarded as an important young French star in the post-war years when she appeared in the classic films Angel and Sinner (1945) and, in particular, Devil in the Flesh (1947), both gaining her world-wide notice.

After a brief post-war marriage to Michel Lefort, Micheline's second marriage to US actor-turned-producer William Marshall in 1949 led her to attempt Hollywood pictures. Receiving a 20th Century-Fox contract, none of the those pictures, which included Under My Skin (1950), American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950) and Adventures of Captain Fabian (1951), the last one produced and directed by husband Marshall, captured the hearts of American audiences despite co-starring opposite Hollywood's top male superstars stars at the time -- John Garfield, Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn.

Divorced in 1954, Micheline never truly adjusted to the Hollywood way of life and returned quite willingly to Paris with her daughter, the future actress/director Tonie Marshall. She would, however, return briefly to the US in the early 1960s to appear in the Dee/Darin comedy fluff If a Man Answers (1962) and the spy drama The Prize (1963).

The supremely talented Micheline continued to reign supreme back in Europe and appeared frequently on the stage as well. Some of her post-Hollywood films (mid-1950's on) included House of Ricordi (1954), Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954) (as Madame de Pompadour), Her Bridal Night (1956), Demoniac (1957), Mistress of the World (1960), Imperial Venus (1962) (as Napoleon's Josephine), Dark Purpose (1964), The Nun (1966), King of Hearts (1966), Donkey Skin (1970), The Legend of Frenchie King (1971), A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973), A Young Emmanuelle (1976), Démons de midi (1979), Thieves After Dark (1983), Good Weather, But Stormy Late This Afternoon (1986), High Finance Woman (1990), Fanfan (1993), Les Misérables (1995) and Diary of a Seducer (1996).

Into the millennium, Micheline graced a large number of French films such as Le coeur à l'ouvrage (2000), Charmant garçon (2001), Le diable dans la boîte (1977), Transfixed (2001), France Boutique (2003) (directed by daughter Tonie), Grabuge! (2005), Plein sud (2009), Just Like Brothers (2012) and her last, an unbilled part in Sex, Love & Therapy (2014).

Nominated for a supporting actress Cesar Award for her role as in the Venice Film Festival winner I Want to Go Home (1989), Micheline received an honorary César Award in 2004.

Madeleine Renaud was born on 21 February 1900 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France. She was an actress, known for The Longest Day (1962), Stormy Waters (1941) and Hélène (1936). She was married to Jean-Louis Barrault and Charles Granval. She died on 23 September 1994 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France.

Édith Scob was a French stage and screen actress. Though Édith Scob was a major figure in French theater for over half a century and appeared in over a hundred feature film and television productions, she will always be remembered first for her performance as Christiane in Georges Franju's "Les yeux sans visage/Eyes Without a Face" (1960). It was two years before that Scob, still a student of French and drama at the Sorbonne, had begun appearing onstage, launching a remarkable theatrical career that would include cofounding a theater in the late 1960s with her husband, composer Georges Aperghis. Later she appeared in films by Luis Buñuel, Raúl Ruiz, Jacques Rivette, Andrzej Zutawskiand, Olivier Assayas and Mia Hansen-Løve. Leos Carax cast Édith Scob in "Les amants du Pont-Neuf/The Lovers on the Bridge" (1991) and two decades later, he offered her the role of Céline, the close friend and chauffeur of Denis Lavant's mysterious Oscar in "Holy Motors" (2012).

Enigmatic, dark-haired foreign import Alida Valli was dubbed "The Next Garbo" but didn't live up to postwar expectations despite her cool, patrician beauty, remote allure and significant talent. Born in Pola, Italy (now Croatia), on May 3, 1921, the daughter of a Tridentine journalist and professor and an Istrian homemaker, she studied dramatics as a teen at the Motion Picture Academy of Rome and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia before snaring bit roles in such films as Il cappello a tre punte (1935) ["The Three-Cornered Hat"] and I due sergenti (1936) ["The Two Sergeants"]. She made a name for herself in Italy during WWII playing the title role in Manon Lescaut (1940), won a Venice Film Festival award for Piccolo mondo antico (1941) ["Little Old World"] and was a critical sensation in We the Living (1942) ["We the Living"]. She briefly abandoned her career, however, in 1943, refusing to appear in what she considered fascist propaganda, and was forced into hiding. The next year she married surrealist painter/pianist/composer Oscar De Mejo. They had two children, and one of them, Carlo De Mejo, became an actor. She divorced in 1955, then she came back to Italy,

Following her potent, award-winning work in the title role of Eugenie Grandet (1946), she was discovered and contracted by David O. Selznick to play the murder suspect Maddalena Paradine in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947). She was billed during her Hollywood years simply as "Valli," and Selznick also gave her top femme female billing in Carol Reed's classic film noir The Third Man (1949), but for every successful film--such as the ones previously mentioned--she experienced such failures as The Miracle of the Bells (1948), and audiences stayed away. In 1951 she bid farewell to Hollywood and returned to her beloved Italy. In Europe again, she was sought after by the best directors. Her countess in Luchino Visconti's Senso (1954) was widely heralded, and she moved easily from ingénue to vivid character roles. Later standout films encompassed costume dramas as well as shockers and had her playing everything from baronesses to grandmothers in such films as Eyes Without a Face (1960) ["Eyes Without a Face"], Le gigolo (1960), Oedipus Rex (1967) ["Oedipus Rex"], The Big Scare (1974), 1900 (1976), Suspiria (1977), Luna (1979), Inferno (1980), Aspern (1982), A Month by the Lake (1995) and, her most recent, Angel of Death (2001).

Rosy Varte was born on 22 November 1923 in Istanbul, Turkey. She was an actress, known for Maguy (1985), Antoine and Colette (1962) and Love at Twenty (1962). She was married to Pierre Badel. She died on 13 January 2012 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Renée Faure was born on 4 November 1918 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for The Charterhouse of Parma (1948), Angels of Sin (1943) and Koenigsmark (1953). She was married to Christian-Jaque and Renaud Mary. She died on 2 May 2005 in Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Elina Labourdette was born on 21 May 1919 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France. She was an actress, known for The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne (1945), Lola (1961) and Elena and Her Men (1956). She was married to Louis Pauwels. She died on 30 September 2014 in Le Mesnil-le-Roi, Yvelines, France.

Monique Mélinand was born on 9 March 1916 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Adorable Sinner (1959), Le sang à la tête (1956) and Gaston Phoebus (1978). She was married to Jean Martinelli. She died on 16 May 2012 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Lea Padovani was born on 28 July 1923 in Montalto di Castro, Lazio, Italy. She was an actress, known for Give Us This Day (1949), The Anatomy of Love (1954) and Princess of Cleves (1961). She died on 23 June 1991 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Elegant, dark-haired Parisian Micheline Presle (billed in the U.S. as Micheline Prelle) was the daughter of a businessman whose surname was Chassagne. Taking acting classes as a teen, she was discovered by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and cast in Jeunes filles en détresse (1939) (portraying Jacqueline Presle, whose last name she chose as her own marquee name). Very early into her film career, she was awarded the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti as the "most promising young actress" in French cinema.

While Micheline proceeded to make movies during the Occupation with such offerings as Four Flights to Love (1939) (dual role), La comédie du bonheur (1940), Foolish Husbands (1941), Fantastic Night (1942), Twilight (1944), and Paris Frills (1945), she was regarded as an important young French star in the post-war years when she appeared in the classic films Angel and Sinner (1945) and, in particular, Devil in the Flesh (1947), both gaining her world-wide notice.

After a brief post-war marriage to Michel Lefort, Micheline's second marriage to US actor-turned-producer William Marshall in 1949 led her to attempt Hollywood pictures. Receiving a 20th Century-Fox contract, none of the those pictures, which included Under My Skin (1950), American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950) and Adventures of Captain Fabian (1951), the last one produced and directed by husband Marshall, captured the hearts of American audiences despite co-starring opposite Hollywood's top male superstars stars at the time -- John Garfield, Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn.

Divorced in 1954, Micheline never truly adjusted to the Hollywood way of life and returned quite willingly to Paris with her daughter, the future actress/director Tonie Marshall. She would, however, return briefly to the US in the early 1960s to appear in the Dee/Darin comedy fluff If a Man Answers (1962) and the spy drama The Prize (1963).

The supremely talented Micheline continued to reign supreme back in Europe and appeared frequently on the stage as well. Some of her post-Hollywood films (mid-1950's on) included House of Ricordi (1954), Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954) (as Madame de Pompadour), Her Bridal Night (1956), Demoniac (1957), Mistress of the World (1960), Imperial Venus (1962) (as Napoleon's Josephine), Dark Purpose (1964), The Nun (1966), King of Hearts (1966), Donkey Skin (1970), The Legend of Frenchie King (1971), A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973), A Young Emmanuelle (1976), Démons de midi (1979), Thieves After Dark (1983), Good Weather, But Stormy Late This Afternoon (1986), High Finance Woman (1990), Fanfan (1993), Les Misérables (1995) and Diary of a Seducer (1996).

Into the millennium, Micheline graced a large number of French films such as Le coeur à l'ouvrage (2000), Charmant garçon (2001), Le diable dans la boîte (1977), Transfixed (2001), France Boutique (2003) (directed by daughter Tonie), Grabuge! (2005), Plein sud (2009), Just Like Brothers (2012) and her last, an unbilled part in Sex, Love & Therapy (2014).

Nominated for a supporting actress Cesar Award for her role as in the Venice Film Festival winner I Want to Go Home (1989), Micheline received an honorary César Award in 2004.

Françoise Prévost was born on 13 January 1929 in Paris, France. She was an actress and writer, known for I Promised to Pay (1961), Paris Belongs to Us (1961) and The Three Musketeers (1953). She died on 30 November 1997 in Paris, France.

Françoise Rosay was born on 19 April 1891 in Paris, France. She was an actress and writer, known for Carnival in Flanders (1935), Nobody's Children (1951) and The Halfway House (1944). She was married to Jacques Feyder. She died on 28 March 1974 in Montgeron, Essonne, France.

Nicole Courcel was born Nicole Marie-Anne Andrieux, the daughter of a journalist, in the Parisian suburb of Saint Cloud. Some of her early childhood was spent in Catholic boarding schools (an unhappy experience) and with her grandmother (much happier) in the small township of Martel (renowned for its truffles). While in her mid-teens she began acting in amateur theatre, eventually completing her dramatic training at the venerable acting school René Simon in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Courcel entered films as a small part actress in 1947 and adopted the stage name Courcel two years later from a character in Jacques Becker's romantic youth comedy Rendezvous in July (1949). This was her first leading role. An actress of considerable poise, beauty and sensitivity, Courcel reached the peak of her popularity just prior to the beginning of the New Wave movement. Many of her films were commercially successful and directed by leading auteurs of the period, including Marcel Carné (in La Marie du Port (1950), co-starring opposite Jean Gabin), Jean Cocteau (in Testament of Orpheus (1960)) and Serge Bourguignon (in Sundays and Cybèle (1962)). The latter role -- as nurse to an emotionally crippled war veteran -- was arguably her most famous and complex, contrasting tender care with obsessive jealousy.

Rare international appearances saw her as a French piano teacher and romantic interest in a typical Heinz Rühmann comedy, Ein Mann geht durch die Wand (1959); as a nurse in a minor cold war drama, Stop Train 349 (1963) (starring Sean Flynn, son of the famous Errol); and a small part, as Raymonde, in the excellent wartime thriller The Night of the Generals (1967), directed by Anatole Litvak. As movie roles began to diminish in the early 70's, Courcel confined her acting to the small screen -- often in period drama -- notably in the title role as Madame Bovary (1974) and as the heroine's grandmother, Jeanne De Breuil, in an adaptation of Milady and the Three Musketeers (2004). Courcel was the mother of French television personality and food critic Julie Andrieu.

Opulent French actress Suzanne Flon, who came from humble beginnings, evolved into a luminous stage and film star whose career lasted five decades. She was born near Paris, the daughter of a railway worker and a seamstress and at school developed an interest in writing poetry. Following high school she worked as an English interpreter at Au Printemps, a large Parisian department store, before finding a position with the famed songbird Édith Piaf as her personal secretary. Ms. Flon's first performance was as a mistress of ceremonies in a musical revue. She continued on stage and eventually developed an association with the noted playwright Jean Anouilh in the early 1940s; she played his heroine Ismene in "Antigone" and played Joan of Arc to great acclaim in "The Lark" in 1953. She also dabbled in avant garde works by Marguerite Duras as well as Shakespeare, Pirandello, Chekhov and Molliere and won a number of stage awards for her efforts. In 1959, she became a member of the Theatre National Populaire and appeared in several plays under the direction of René Clair.

Ms. Flon began in films with Capitaine Blomet (1947) before branching out internationally in the 1950s. She was an elegant standout as a free-spirited couture model who became the object of fascination and desire for the crippled painter Toulouse-Lautrec played by José Ferrer in John Huston's film Moulin Rouge (1952). She also impressed in friend Orson Welles' comedy-thriller Confidential Report (1955) as a listless patrician, and later played Miss Pittl for him in The Trial (1962) [The Trial]. War themes were prominent in her 1960s work. In Thou Shalt Not Kill (1961) [Thou Shalt Not Kill], she won the Venice Film Festival award for her resolute mother whose son resists the World War I draft. In The Train (1964) starring Burt Lancaster, Jeanne Moreau and Paul Scofield she had some excellent scenes as an art curator who becomes a detrimental figure in the Nazi's plans to secretly export masterpieces out of France during the French Resistance.

Awards continued to come her way with a number of stylish and sensitive "grande dame" roles. She won bookend César awards for One Deadly Summer (1983) [One Deadly Summer] as Isabelle Adjani's deaf but highly sensitized aunt, and as the mother of Lambert Wilson in La vouivre (1989) [The Dragon]. Her rich and soothing voice was also used frequently for French narratives in numerous documentaries. Ms. Flon continued to appear on stage, film and TV right up until her death of a stomach ailment at age 87 in 2005.

Madeleine Robinson grew up in a struggling working class background but found her métier as an actress after attending the theater school run by Charles Dullin, six years that she considered the happiest of her life. The stage would stay her main love even though she would lend her striking presence to over 100 roles in film and on Tv over six decades.She was particularly acclaimed in the theater for her Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire (a role Arletty also played) and her ferocious Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Sensitive to what she saw as unfair treatment by the French press and media she left her native country after 50 years and retired to Switzerland. She was still able to catch touring productions of plays there, but this way, she said in an interview, she was able to see only the worthwhile ones and not the mediocre ones she might have gone to were she still in Paris. She wrote a memoir on her career, Belle Et Rebelle. She regretted never having become a "star" in the sense that she was the woman the main male character would embrace in the fadeout, but she was grateful for the fellow actors she got to know and for getting to work with major directors like Jean Gremillon.

Romy Schneider was born on 23 September 1938 in Vienna, Austria into a family of actors. Making her film debut at the age of 15, her breakthrough came two years later in the very popular trilogy Sissi (1955). Her mother, supervising her daughter's career, immediately approved Romy's participation in Christine (1958), the remake of Max Ophüls's Playing at Love (1933), where Magda Schneider once starred herself. During the shooting, she fell in love with her co-star Alain Delon and eventually moved with him to Paris. At that time, she started her international career collaborating with famous directors such as Luchino Visconti and Orson Welles. After Delon had broken up with her in 1964, she married Harry Meyen shortly after. Although she gave birth to a boy, David-Christopher, their relationship was difficult, so they divorced in 1975. Being unsatisfied with her personal life, she turned to alcohol and drugs, but her cinematic career -especially in France- remained intact. She was the first actress, receiving the new created César Award as "Best Actress" for her role in That Most Important Thing: Love (1975). Three years later, she was awarded again for A Simple Story (1978). After a short marriage to her former secretary Daniel Biasini, being the father of her daughter Sarah Biasini, she suffered the hardest blow of her life when her son was impaled on a fence in 1981. She never managed to recover from this loss and died on 29 May 1982 in Paris. Although it was suggested she committed suicide caused by an overdose of sleeping pills, she was declared to have died from cardiac arrest.

Édith Scob was a French stage and screen actress. Though Édith Scob was a major figure in French theater for over half a century and appeared in over a hundred feature film and television productions, she will always be remembered first for her performance as Christiane in Georges Franju's "Les yeux sans visage/Eyes Without a Face" (1960). It was two years before that Scob, still a student of French and drama at the Sorbonne, had begun appearing onstage, launching a remarkable theatrical career that would include cofounding a theater in the late 1960s with her husband, composer Georges Aperghis. Later she appeared in films by Luis Buñuel, Raúl Ruiz, Jacques Rivette, Andrzej Zutawskiand, Olivier Assayas and Mia Hansen-Løve. Leos Carax cast Édith Scob in "Les amants du Pont-Neuf/The Lovers on the Bridge" (1991) and two decades later, he offered her the role of Céline, the close friend and chauffeur of Denis Lavant's mysterious Oscar in "Holy Motors" (2012).

Alexandra Stewart was born in Montreal in 1939 and at 16 went to Paris to study art, English literature and French. Less than one year later, she appeared in her first feature film. She fell in love with Paris and lived there for some time. For a while she worked as a model then started acting appearing in French films. Les motards (1959). After a period of traveling around Europe she went to Hollywood in 1965.

In her long career, she has appeared in many films, including: Otto Preminger's Exodus (1960), Louis Malle's The Fire Within (1963) and Black Moon (1975) (Stewart has a child by Malle), Arthur Penn's Mickey One (1965) with Warren Beatty, François Truffaut's Bride Wore Black and Day For Night, In Praise of Older Women (1978), Intimate Moments, Women, Prince's Under the Cherry Moon (1986) with Prince and Kristin Scott Thomas and Roman Polanski's Frantic (1988).

Docile, delicately beautiful, light-haired Parisian actress Odile Versois was born Katiana de Poliakoff-Baidaroff on June 14, 1930, the second of four Poliakoff sisters, all of whom became renowned actresses in their own right. From an artistic family (her father was opera singer Vladimir de Poliakoff), Versois began her career as a child ballerina with the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

She subsequently turned to film acting at age 18 and proved a natural with a major debut in The Last Vacation (1948) [The Last Vacation]. Of the numerous films in which she undertook leading lady parts, she moved audiences most with her portrayals of fragile, often tragic heroines in romantic drama. Her more notable pictures include Paolo e Francesca (1950), Bel amour (1951) [Beautiful Love], the title role in Domenica (1952), Grand gala (1952) and director/actor Robert Hossein's Toi... le venin (1958) [Nude in a White Car], which also co-starred sister Marina Vlady -- known for her sultry roles. Versois also provided a lovely distraction in British films of the 1950s in_A Day to Remember (1953)_, David Knight in Chance Meeting (1954) [aka Chance Meeting], Alec Guinness in To Paris with Love (1955), Anthony Steel in Checkpoint (1956) and Room 43 (1958) starring Diana Dors and Herbert Lom.

She matured in taut crime thrillers and lively costume dramas in the 1960s, notably Le rendez-vous (1961) and Cartouche (1962) the latter starring a swashbuckling Jean-Paul Belmondo. She also worked on the French, Belgian, Swiss and North African stages and on television, lending some touching performances toward the end, particularly in the films Églantine (1972) and Le Crabe-Tambour (1977). Dogged by ill health, she was seen less frequently into the 1970s and passed away from cancer a week after her 50th birthday, a gentle, beautiful soul gone before her time.

Nelly Borgeaud was born on 29 November 1931 in Geneva, Switzerland. She was an actress, known for Tumultes (1990), Mississippi Mermaid (1969) and Le sucre (1978). She was married to Yves Vincent. She died on 14 July 2004 in Saint-Vaury, Creuse, France.

Prototype of the sexy cheeky French lady, Suzy Delair was discovered by Henri-Georges Clouzot, who became her companion and gave her two memorable roles : Mila Malou, inspector Wens' unbearable girlfriend in two films, Le dernier des six (1941), which he wrote, and The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942), which he penned and directed; and the mythical one of Jenny Lamour, a frivolous music-hall singer prepared to do anything to become famous who makes her poor husband insanely jealous in Jenny Lamour (1947). The rest of her filmography is rather disappointing, with a few exceptions such as Jean Grémillon's White Paws (1949) , where she is -once again - an unfaithful companion ; Gervaise (1956), René Clément's masterpiece as Gervaise's obnoxious rival or Luchino Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers (1960), another cinema milestone, even if her part in this film is minor. An excellent singer (Who has forgotten "Avec son tra la la"?), delightful in operettas, Suzy Delair could hardly choose between her two careers. This may be the reason why she missed out on more great roles than she finally interpreted. Nevertheless, Mila Malou and Jenny Lamour are now part of the French film heritage. Not everybody can boast having left such an imprint on several generations of movie-goers.

Mylène Demongeot, one of the blond sex symbols of French cinema during the 1950s and 1960s, managed to overcome typecasting and survived a long hiatus before a stellar comeback in her 70s. She appeared in more than 70 films, including such classics as the Fantomas trilogy.

She was born Marie-Helene Demongeot on September 29, 1935, in Nice, France, into a family of actors. Her parents met in Shanghai, China, and moved to Nice, where she grew up. Her mother, Klaudia Trubnikova, was a Russian-Ukrainian émigré from Kharkiv, who escaped from the horrors of the Russian Civil War. Her father, Alfred Demongeot, was of French-Italian heritage. The family was bilingual and young Mylène was able to speak Russian and French, but eventually switched to French.

As a young girl she was an outcast: she suffered from ruthless kids making vicious comments about her eyes (she was cross-eyed until she had surgery in her teens). She was fond of music and movies, a perfect escape from the horrors of WWII that devastated Europe during her childhood. At the age of 13, she went to Paris and continued her education. She studied piano under the tutelage of Marguerite Long and Yves Nat. She then studied dramatic art with Maria Ventura at Le Cours Simon in Paris. At 15 she became a model in the atelier of Pierre Cardin.

At 17, Mylène made her film debut in the supporting role of Nicole in Children of Love (1953). Appearing in three or four feature films every year, she rose to international fame in the late 1950s. She was together with Gary Cooper for the opening of the first escalator to be installed in a cinema (at the Rex Theatre in Paris) on June 7, 1957. She had a memorable seduction scene opposite Yves Montand in The Crucible (1957). Her first notable leading role was in Be Beautiful But Shut Up (1958) (aka "Blonde for Danger") in which she played a 17-year-old jewel smuggler.

Mylène further developed her screen image of a manipulative blond mistress in her brilliant performance opposite David Niven in Bonjour Tristesse (1958), and became permanently locked in the cliché image of a humorous seductress after co-starring with Alain Delon in the 1959 comedy Three Murderesses (1959). Her chance to update her film image came in period films. She played manipulative and coquettish Andromeda opposite Steve Reeves in The Giant of Marathon (1959) and the leading role of Rea opposite Roger Moore in Romulus and the Sabines (1961). Among her best known roles are the manipulative Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers: Part I - The Queen's Diamonds (1961) and Helen in all three of the Fantomas films.

Mylène Demongeot became one of the blond sex symbols in 1950s, 60s and 70s French cinema. She co-starred with the major French actors of the time, including Jean Marais and Louis de Funès, in the Fantomas (1964) trilogy. Although she gradually phased out of the stereotypical image of a beautiful coquette, she still looked pretty convincing as a middle-aged Madame, which she developed in the 1980s and 1990s. At that time her acting career came to a pause, as she had been aging gracefully in the South of France. She was also a producer during that time and was the co-owner of Kangarou Films, a production company that she founded with her late husband Marc Simenon. After a lengthy hiatus, she made a comeback in 36th Precinct (2004). She has also appeared in Camping (2006) and La Californie (2006) by director/writer Jacques Fieschi, based on a short story by Georges Simenon.

In addition to her film work, Mylène has also written several books, the best-known of which would be "Tiroirs Secrets" and "Animalement vôtre". In the 2000s, she made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of her mother in Kharkiv, Ukraine. There she planted a commemorative tree and presented her autobiographical book, "Les Lilas de Kharkov" (The Lilacs of Kharkiv). In 2006, she was named Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters for her achievements in acting. She resides in her French hometown of Nice.

Opulent French actress Suzanne Flon, who came from humble beginnings, evolved into a luminous stage and film star whose career lasted five decades. She was born near Paris, the daughter of a railway worker and a seamstress and at school developed an interest in writing poetry. Following high school she worked as an English interpreter at Au Printemps, a large Parisian department store, before finding a position with the famed songbird Édith Piaf as her personal secretary. Ms. Flon's first performance was as a mistress of ceremonies in a musical revue. She continued on stage and eventually developed an association with the noted playwright Jean Anouilh in the early 1940s; she played his heroine Ismene in "Antigone" and played Joan of Arc to great acclaim in "The Lark" in 1953. She also dabbled in avant garde works by Marguerite Duras as well as Shakespeare, Pirandello, Chekhov and Molliere and won a number of stage awards for her efforts. In 1959, she became a member of the Theatre National Populaire and appeared in several plays under the direction of René Clair.

Ms. Flon began in films with Capitaine Blomet (1947) before branching out internationally in the 1950s. She was an elegant standout as a free-spirited couture model who became the object of fascination and desire for the crippled painter Toulouse-Lautrec played by José Ferrer in John Huston's film Moulin Rouge (1952). She also impressed in friend Orson Welles' comedy-thriller Confidential Report (1955) as a listless patrician, and later played Miss Pittl for him in The Trial (1962) [The Trial]. War themes were prominent in her 1960s work. In Thou Shalt Not Kill (1961) [Thou Shalt Not Kill], she won the Venice Film Festival award for her resolute mother whose son resists the World War I draft. In The Train (1964) starring Burt Lancaster, Jeanne Moreau and Paul Scofield she had some excellent scenes as an art curator who becomes a detrimental figure in the Nazi's plans to secretly export masterpieces out of France during the French Resistance.

Awards continued to come her way with a number of stylish and sensitive "grande dame" roles. She won bookend César awards for One Deadly Summer (1983) [One Deadly Summer] as Isabelle Adjani's deaf but highly sensitized aunt, and as the mother of Lambert Wilson in La vouivre (1989) [The Dragon]. Her rich and soothing voice was also used frequently for French narratives in numerous documentaries. Ms. Flon continued to appear on stage, film and TV right up until her death of a stomach ailment at age 87 in 2005.