Françoise Rosay

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Female

Birthday 1891-04-17

Deathday 1974-03-28 (82 years old)

Place of Birth Paris, France

Also Known As Francoise Rosay, Françoise Bandy de Nalèche, Frances Rosay

Françoise Rosay

Biography

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. 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 3.0.

Known For

Actor

1973
The Pedestrian

as Frau Dechamps

1972
Not Dumb, the Bird

as Mme Morelli-Johnson

1972
1972
Midi trente

as Self

1969
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille

as Louise de Kerfuntel

1968
Don't Take God's Children for Wild Geese

as Léontine Palpicart aka 'La Gâteuse'

1967
The 25th Hour

as Mme Nagy

1966
L'Âge heureux

as Mme Aubry

1965
Cloportes

as Gertrude, une "prêteuse" du milieu

1965
Up from the Beach

as Lili's Grandmother

1962
Frau Cheneys Ende

as Mrs. Webley

1961
The Counterfeiters of Paris

as Madame Pauline

1960
The Full Treatment

as Madame Prade

1960
Stefanie in Rio

as Leonora Guala

1960
Lovers Woods

as Madame Parisot

1959
Without Trumpet or Drum

as La grand-mère de Marguerite

1959
Eyes of Love

as Mme Montcatel mère

1959
Riff Raff Girls

as Berthe

1959
The Sound and the Fury

as Caroline Compson

1958
The Gambler

as La tante Antonia

1958
Me and the Colonel

as Madame Bouffier

1957
Non sono più guaglione

as Vincenzino's mother

1957
Interlude

as Comtesse Reinhart

1957
The Seventh Sin

as Mother Superior

1955
Girls of Today

as padrona della pensione

1955
That Lady

as Bernardine

1954
Queen Margot

as Catherine de Médicis / Catharine of Medici

1954
1953
Sul ponte dei sospiri

as Lady of Sant'Agata

1952
He Who Is Without Sin...

as La contessa Lamieri

1952
Wanda the Sinner

as Anna Steiner

1952
Smuggler's Ball

as Gabrielle Demeuse

1952
The Seven Deadly Sins

as Elisabeth de Pallières, the mother (segment "Pride")

1951
Nobody's Children

as La contessa Canali

1951
The Red Inn

as Marie Martin

1951
1951
The 13th Letter

as Mrs. Gauthier

1950
The Naked Heart

as Laura Chapdelaine

1950
September Affair

as Maria Salvatini

1950
One Only Loves Once

as Mme Monnier

1950
Women Without Names

as The Countess

1949
The Barton Mystery

as Élisabeth

1949
Les vagabonds du rêve

as Mireille Dombreval

1948
Quartet

as Lea Makart

1948
Saraband for Dead Lovers

as The Electress Sophia

1947
La Dame de Haut-le-Bois

as Countess Brévannes

1946
Back Streets of Paris

as Mme Rose, la tenancière de l'hôtel

1945
Johnny Frenchman

as Lanec Florrie

1944
The Halfway House

as Alice Meadows

1944
Portrait of a Woman

as Fanny Helder

1940
They Were Twelve Women

as La duchesse de Vimeuse

1939
Serge Panine

as Madame Devarenne

1938
Fahrendes Volk

as Madame Flora

1938
The Chess Player

as Catherine II

1938
Peace on the Rhine

as Francoise Scheffer

1938
The Stream

as Régina Berry

1938
1938
Ramuntcho

as Dolorès Detcharry

1937
Bizarre, Bizarre

as Margaret Molyneux

1937
Life Dances On

as Marguerite Audié

1937
My Son the Minister

as Sylvie - seine Mutter

1937
The Robber Symphony

as The fortune teller

1937
Armchair 47

as Gilberte Boulanger

1936
Jenny

as Jenny Gauthier

1936
1936
1935
Carnival in Flanders

as Madame Burgomaster

1935
Marie des angoisses

as Mme de Quersac

1935
Maternité

as Mrs. Duchemin

1935
Whirlpool

as Madame Gardane

1935
Pension Mimosas

as Louise Noblet

1935
Le Billet de mille

as The Russian Countess

1935
1934
Die Insel

as Silvia

1934
Vers l'abîme

as Sylvia

1934
The Great Game

as Blanche

1934
Tambour battant

as The Princess Mother

1933
Abbot Constantine

as La comtesse de Laverdens

1933
All for Nothing

as Mrs. Bossu

1933
La Pouponnière

as Mrs. Delannoy

1932
The Woman Dressed As a Man

as Princess Marie

1932
A Father Without Knowing It

as Madame Jacquet

1932
He

as Madame Husson

1931
Luck

as Mme Mougeot

1931
1931
Casanova wider Willen

as Blanche Brissac

1931
Jenny Lind

as Rosatti

1931
The Magnificent Lie

as Rosa Duchêne

1931
Let Us Be Gay

as Madame Boucijon

1931
The Little Cafe

as Mademoiselle Edwige

1929
The One Woman Idea

as Zuleide, Alizar's Mother

1928
Two Timid Souls

as The aunt

1928
Madame Récamier

as Madame de Staël

1927
Le bateau de verre

as Madame d'Arcy, his wife

1926
Gribiche

as Edith Maranet

1922
Crainquebille

as Shoe Store Customer

Director

1925
Faces of Children

as Assistant Director

Writer

1925