Signoret, Simone

(1921-1985)

   Actress. Born Simone Kaminker in Wiesbaden, Germany, Simone Signoret strove to become an actress from an early age; a member of the Groupe Octobre, Signoret made her debut illegally during the Nazi Occupation of France. She was forced to change her name to disguise the fact that her father was Jewish and to work in secret in mostly uncredited roles during the war. Her first roles were in films such as Jean Boyer's Boléro (1942) and Marcel Carné's Les Visiteurs du soir (1942), but it was her role in Yves Allegret's Les Démons de l'aube (1946) that changed her career. She married Allegret in 1944, but the two divorced in 1949. Signoret went on to appear in Marcel Blistène's Macadam (1946), Jean Sacha's remake of Louis Feuillade's Fantômas (1947), and Maurice Tourneur's Impasse des deux anges (1948).

   During the 1950s, Signoret became a leading lady, appearing in such films as Allegret's Manèges (1950), Max Ophuls's La Ronde (1952), Henri Calef's Ombre et lumière (1951), Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1952), Carné's ThérèseRaquin (1953), Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques (1955), Luis Bunuel's La Mort en ce jardin (1956), and Raymond Rouleau's Les Sorcières de Salem (1957). She won an Oscar for her role in Jack Clayton's English-language film, Room at the Top (1959). The film made Signoret an international star.

   In the 1960s and 1970s, Signoret had supporting roles in Michel Boisrond's Amours célèbres (1961), Constantin Costa-Gavras's Compartement tueurs (1965), René Clement's Paris brûle-t-il? (1966), Jean-Pierre Melville's L'Armée des ombres (1969), René Allio's Rude journée pour la reine (1973), and Patrice Chéreau's La Chair de l'orchidée (1975). She also appeared in a number of English-language films. She had starring roles in Clément's Le Jour et l'heure (1963), Costa-Gavras's L'Aveu (1970), Pierre Granier-Deferre's Le Chat (1971) and La Veuve Couderc (1971), Moshe Mizrahi's La Vie devant soi (1977), Chéreau's Judith Therpauve (1978), and Jeanne Moreau's L'Adolescente (1979).

   During the 1980s, she appeared in only a handful of films including Mizrahi's Chère inconnue (1980), Granier-Deferre's L'Étoile du nord (1981), and Michel Drach's biopic Guy de Maupassant (1982). One of the most recognized and most talented actresses in French cinema, Signoret is almost universally remembered for her roles in Becker's Casque d'or (1952) and Ophuls's La Ronde (1952), films in which she played prostitutes. In fact perhaps these roles characterized her in the public mind, because she played a fair number of prostitutes on the screen. She is also widely known for her performance in Clouzot's Les Diaboliques (1955). Signoret was married to actor Yves Montand from 1951 until her death.