Morgan, Michèle

(1920- )

   Actress. Born Simone Roussel near Paris, Michèle Morgan aspired to become an actress from an early age. She studied drama with René Simon in Paris and found bit parts in films. Among her early and largely uncredited roles were parts in René Guissart's Une fille à papa (1935), Yvan Noé's Mademoiselle Mozart (1935) and Gigolette (1936), Léonide Moguy's Le Mioche (1936), and Robert Siodomak's La Vie parisienne (1936).

   Morgan's big break came in 1937, when Marc Allegret cast her opposite Raïmu in his film Gribouille (1937). Her reputation was cemented the following year when she starred opposite Jean Gabin in Marcel Carné's Le Quai de brumes (1938). The film has long been considered one of her best and best known. With these two films, in particular, Morgan, a classic beauty and a talented actress, became an international star, and she went on to become one of the great actresses of French cinema. Her film career ultimately spanned five decades.

   During the late 1930s and 1940s, Morgan's star continued to rise. She appeared in many of the period's most significant films, including Allegret's Orage (1938), opposite Charles Boyer, Maurice Gleize's Le Récif de corail (1938), opposite Gabin, Jacques Feyder's La Piste du nord (1939), Albert Valentin's L'Entraîneuse (1940), Georges Lacombe's Les Musiciens du ciel (1940), opposite Michel Simon, Jean Grémillon's Remorques (1941), again with Gabin, Julien Duvivier's Untel père et fils (1943), alongside Raïmu and Louis Jouvet, and Jean Delannoy's La Symphonie pastorale (1946) and Aux yeux du souvenir (1948), opposite Jean Marais.

   Morgan also went to Hollywood during this period; however, she was not able to command the respect in Hollywood films that she did in French films. She appeared in a handful of English-language roles in such films as Lewis Milestone's My Life with Caroline (1941), Robert Stevenson's Joan of Paris (1942), Michael Curtiz's Passage to Marseille (1944), alongside Humphrey Bogart, Arthur Ripley's The Chase (1946), and Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol (1948). Ultimately, Morgan gave up on Hollywood and returned to France.

   The 1950s were still peak years in Morgan's career. She appeared in more than twenty films during the decade. Among the best known are Allegret's Maria Chapdelaine (1950), René Clement's Le Château de verre (1950), Grémillon's L'Étrange Madame X (1951), Delannoy's La Minute de vérité (1952), Obsession (1954), and Marie-Antoinette reine de France (1956), Christian-Jacque and Delannoy's Destinées (1954), Sacha Guitry's Si Paris nous était conté (1955) and Napoléon (1955), René Clair's Les Grandes manœuvres (1955), Denys de la Patellière's Retour de manivelle (1957), André Cayatte's Le Miroir à deux faces (1958), Henri Verneuil's Maxime (1958), Robert Hossein's Les Scélérats (1959), and Henri Decoin's Pourquoi viens-tu si tard? (1959). In addition, Morgan did several international films, particularly in Italy and Germany.

   Although her career was in slowdown by the 1960s, Morgan managed to find roles in a number of films, including Alex Joffé's Fortunat (1960), Verneuil's Les Lions sont lâchés (1961), Philippe Agostini's Rencontres (1962), Gérard Oury's Le Crime ne paie pas (1962), André Hunébelle's Méfiez-vous, mesdames! (1963), Claude Chabrol's Landru (1963), Hossein's Les Yeux cernés (1964), and Michel Deville's Benjamin (1968). She had only one film role in the 1970s, in Chabrol's Le Chat et la souris (1975). In the 1980s and 1990s, Morgan worked primarily in television, and she did not have a single credited role in a French film. She retired from the screen in 1999.