Françoise Rosay
Born
April 17, 1891
Died
March 28, 1974 (82 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Paris, France
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.
Known For
The Pedestrian
Frau Dechamps
1973
Not Dumb, the Bird
Mrs. Morelli-Johnson
1972
3000 Million Without an Elevator
Madame Dubreuil
1972
Midi trente
Self · (9 episodes)
1972
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
Louise de Kerfuntel
1969
Don't Take God's Children for Wild Geese
Léontine Palpicart aka 'La Gâteuse'
1968
The 25th Hour
Mme Nagy (uncredited)
1967
L'Âge heureux
Mme Aubry
1966
Cloportes
Gertrude, supplies specialist in the mafia
1965
Up from the Beach
Lili's Grandmother
1965
Ruy Blas
La duchesse d'Albuquerque
1965
Full Hearts and Empty Pockets
Borgia
1964
Frau Cheneys Ende
Mrs. Webley
1962
The Counterfeiters of Paris
Madame Pauline
1961
The Full Treatment
Madame Prade
1960
Stefanie in Rio
Leonora Guala
1960
Lovers Woods
Madame Parisot
1960
Without Trumpet or Drum
La grand-mère de Marguerite
1959
Eyes of Love
Mrs. Montcatel mother
1959
Riff Raff Girls
Berthe
1959
The Sound and the Fury
Caroline Compson
1959
The Gambler
Aunt Antonia
1958
Me and the Colonel
Madame Bouffier
1958
Non sono più guaglione
Vincenzino's mother
1957
Interlude
Comtesse Reinhart
1957
The Seventh Sin
Mother Superior
1957
Girls of Today
padrona della pensione
1955
That Lady
Bernardine
1955
Queen Margot
Catherine de Médicis / Catharine of Medici
1954
Les éloquents
Self
1954
Sul ponte dei sospiri
Lady of Sant'Agata
1953
He Who Is Without Sin...
La contessa Lamieri
1952
Wanda the Sinner
Anna Steiner
1952
Smuggler's Ball
Gabrielle Demeuse
1952
The Seven Deadly Sins
Elisabeth de Pallières, the mother (segment "Pride")
1952
Nobody's Children
La contessa Canali
1951
The Red Inn
Marie Martin
1951
K – Das Haus des Schweigens
Noemi, die Amme
1951
The 13th Letter
Mrs. Gauthier
1951
The Naked Heart
Laura Chapdelaine
1950
September Affair
Maria Salvatini
1950
One Only Loves Once
Mme Monnier
1950
Women Without Names
The Countess
1950
The Barton Mystery
Élisabeth
1949
The Dream Vagabonds
Mireille Dombreval
1949
Quartet
Lea Makart (segment "The Alien Corn")
1948
Saraband for Dead Lovers
The Electress Sophia
1948
La Dame de Haut-le-Bois
Countess Brévannes
1947
Back Streets of Paris
Mrs. Rose, hotel landlady
1946
Johnny Frenchman
Lanec Florrie
1945
The Halfway House
Alice Meadows
1944
Portrait of a Woman
Fanny Helder
1944
They Were Twelve Women
La duchesse de Vimeuse
1940
Serge Panine
Madame Devarenne
1939
Fahrendes Volk
Madame Flora
1938
The Chess Player
Catherine II
1938
Peace on the Rhine
Francoise Scheffer
1938
The Stream
Régina Berry
1938
People Who Travel
Flora
1938
Ramuntcho
Dolorès Detcharry
1938
Bizarre, Bizarre
Margaret Molyneux
1937
Life Dances On
Marguerite Audié
1937
My Son the Minister
Sylvie - seine Mutter
1937
The Robber Symphony
The fortune teller
1937
Armchair 47
Gilberte Boulanger
1937
Jenny
Jenny Gauthier
1936
The Secret of Polichinelle
Mrs. Jouvenel
1936
Carnival in Flanders
Cornelia
1936
Carnival in Flanders
Madame Burgomaster
1935
Marie des angoisses
Mme de Quersac
1935
Gangster malgré lui
1935
Maternité
Mrs. Duchemin
1935
Whirlpool
Madame Gardane
1935
Pension Mimosas
Louise Noblet
1935
Le Billet de mille
la comtesse russe
1935
Marchand d'amour
Clara
1935
Die Insel
Silvia
1934
Vers l'abîme
Sylvia
1934
Coralie and Company
1934
The Great Game
Blanche
1934
Tambour battant
The Princess Mother
1934
Abbot Constantine
La comtesse de Laverdens
1933
All for Nothing
Mrs. Bossu
1933
La Pouponnière
Mrs. Delannoy
1933
The Woman Dressed As a Man
Princess Marie
1932
A Father Without Knowing It
Madame Jacquet
1932
He
Madame Husson
1932
Luck
Mme Mougeot
1931
The Trial of Mary Dugan
The widow
1931
Casanova wider Willen
Blanche Brissac
1931
Jenny Lind
Rosatti
1931
The Magnificent Lie
Rosa Duchêne
1931
Let Us Be Gay
Madame Boucijon
1931
The Little Cafe
Mademoiselle Edwige
1931
Échec au roi
The Queen
1930
Si l'empereur savait ça
Princess Plata d'Ettingen
1930
Marius à Paris
1930
The One Woman Idea
Zuleide, Alizar's Mother
1929
Two Timid Souls
The aunt
1928
Madame Récamier
Madame de Staël
1928
Le bateau de verre
Madame d'Arcy, his wife
1927
Gribiche
Edith Maranet
1926
Crainquebille
Shoe Store Customer
1922