Acting
Françoise Rosay
Françoise Rosay born Françoise Bandy de Nalèche, (19 April 1891 – 28 March 1974) was a French opera singer, diseuse, and actress who enjoyed a film career of over sixty years and who became a legendary figure in French cinema. She went on to appear in over 100 movies in her career.
Rosay was born Françoise Bandy de Nalèche in Paris, the illegitimate daughter of Marie-Thérèse Chauvin, an actress known as Sylviac. She originally planned to become an opera singer, and in 1917, won a prize at the Paris Conservatoire and made her debut at the Palais Garnier in the title role of Salammbô by Ernest Reyer. She also sang in Castor et Pollux by Rameau and Thaïs by Massenet.
Her first recorded film was Falstaff in 1911, and she began to work in Hollywood from 1929 onwards. In 1917, she married the director Jacques Feyder, with whom she remained until his death in 1948, having three sons. She appeared in several films under her husband's direction, including Le Grand Jeu (1933), Pension Mimosas (1934), La Kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders) (1935) and Les Gens du voyage (1937). Rosay spent the duration of World War II in England and Switzerland, where she taught acting classes at the Conservatoire de Genève. She still appeared in films during this time, notably the British Halfway House (1944) as the refugee French wife of a British sea captain.
During her career, she appeared with all the great stars of French cinema, including Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan, Raimu, Jeanne Moreau, Danielle Darrieux, Micheline Presle, Paul Meurisse, Gérard Philipe, Louis Jouvet, Michel Simon, Simone Signoret, Fernandel and Jean-Louis Barrault. In Hollywood, she co-starred with Charles Boyer, Maurice Chevalier and Buster Keaton and worked with directors such as William Dieterle (September Affair, 1949), Martin Ritt (The Sound and the Fury, 1958), Ronald Neame (The Seventh Sin, 1956) and Peter Glenville (Me and the Colonel, 1957) with Danny Kaye. In England she appeared in The Alien Corn, a segment of the W. Somerset Maugham anthology film Quartet. A highly accomplished pianist herself in real life, she played the role of a famous piano virtuoso who gives aspiring pianist Dirk Bogarde a compassionate but honest and devastating critical appraisal of his likelihood of becoming a great musician – which results in his suicide. She performs in the film Schubert's Impromptu in E flat.
In 1950 she appeared on stage at London's Winter Garden Theatre, playing the title role in 'Madame Tic Tac' but it had only a short run.
It was not until 1938 that her biological father, Count François Louis Bandy de Nalèche, acknowledged her as his daughter.
Her final appearance on film was in the Maximilian Schell-directed Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winner for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film of 1974, Der Fußgänger (English title: The Pedestrian).
She died in Montgeron, Île-de-France, near Paris. Her grave is located in Sorel-Moussel, Île-de-France, where she is buried with her husband, movie director Jacques Feyder. They had three sons.
There are streets named after Françoise Rosay in Limoges, Montpellier, Chevry-Cossigny, Launaguet and Martigues.
Source: Article "Françoise Rosay" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Filmography
Browse movies and TV shows featuring Françoise Rosay
The Sound and the Fury
The once-prominent Compson family of Jefferson, Miss., has been reduced to near-penury by generations of alcoho...
That Lady
In 1570, widowed Princess Ana de Mendoza becomes the love object of a deadly rivalry between her cousin Don Ini...
Full Hearts and Empty Pockets
A young German comes to Rome on vacation and is not slow to win female hearts. When the game become dangerous d...
The Counterfeiters of Paris
"Le Dabe" retired many years ago and now he lives in the Tropics where he owns stables and horses. He is a very...
The 25th Hour
A Romanian peasant fights to get back to his family after he's imprisoned by the Nazis.The picture is based on...
Quartet
Somerset Maugham introduces four of his tales in this anthology film: "The Facts of Life," "The Alien Corn," "T...
September Affair
An industrialist and a pianist meet on a trip and fall in love. Through a quirk of fate, they are reported dead...
The Gambler
In 1866, a young Muscovite named Alexei Ivanovitch arrives in Baden Baden, then the gambling capital of Austria...
Jenny
When her fiancé breaks off their engagement, Danielle leaves London and returns to her mother, Jenny, in Paris....
The Halfway House
A group of travellers, each with a personal problem that they want to hide, arrive at a mysterious Welsh countr...
Saraband for Dead Lovers
Sophie Dorothea is a young woman forced into a loveless marriage with Prince George Louis of Hanover. George Lo...
Interlude
A young woman touring Germany is caught between a married symphony conductor and a doctor from back home.
Cloportes
Three little criminals get a tip for a great coup with lots of money in it. Unfortunately they lack the startin...
Non sono più guaglione
A mechanic falls in love with a girl who aspires to become a diva.
The Seven Deadly Sins
A compilation of segments covers the seven deadly sins of greed, wrath, envy, pride, lust, sloth, and gluttony.
Bizarre, Bizarre
A French farce set in Victorian London where a botanist and his wife get into trouble when they pretend to go m...
Girls of Today
Peppino Bardellotti, a widower, lives in Milan with his four daughters and ex sister-in-law Matilde, who urges...
Queen Margot
Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Catherine de Médicis, celebrates her wedding with Henri de Navarre. Officiall...
The 13th Letter
A new doctor in a quiet Quebec town sparks rumors and accusations when anonymous letters allege an affair with...
Don't Take God's Children for Wild Geese
Rita is a girl that lives on taking gangsters as lovers. But when the money stops coming, she swears revenge.
The Great Game
Pierre , a young lawyer, has enormous debts due to his mistress Florence and her whims of luxury life. Pierre h...
Le Billet de mille
The tribulations of a banknote, from its exit from a counter to its destruction, passing through dozens of hand...
Nobody's Children
The tragic love story between Guido, the owner of a marble quarry and Luisa, the humble daughter of one of his...
Johnny Frenchman
The fisherman from a Cornish village have a friendly rivalry with the fishermen (and one formidable woman) from...
3000 Million Without an Elevator
Seven small rogues dream of stealing the beautiful jewels which are in Paris for an exhibition.
The Seventh Sin
In post-WWII Hong Kong, unhappily married Carol has an affair with a married man. Her husband discovers it and...
The Stream
When Paul, an officer, discovers Denise, a young orphan escaped from her orphanage, he takes advantage of his n...
Women Without Names
This is the sad story of several desperate ladies incarcerated somewhere in Italy in a camp for displaced women...
Back Streets of Paris
Madame Rose runs a seedy hotel in a suburb of Paris. Strong-minded but without the least moral scruple, she onc...
He Who Is Without Sin...
Stefano and Maria have a marriage by proxy while he is working abroad in Canada. When she is mistakenly accused...
The Red Inn
A group of travelers, including a monk, stay in a lonely inn in the mountains. The host confesses the monk his...
Up from the Beach
After the D-Day landings in June 1944, a US squadron liberates a small village in Normandy from German occupati...
Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudes
A documentary about writer Michel Audiard (1920-1985). Contemporary interviews are interwoven with archival foo...
Riff Raff Girls
Vicky de Berlin, a female gangster, haunted by wartime memories , runs a floating night-club in Brussel. Marcel...
Wanda the Sinner
Wrongly accused of his wife's death, a marine officer is forced to resign and sees his life fall apart.