Françoise Rosay
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| Françoise Rosay | |
 Françoise Rosay on the cover of her biography Une Grande Dame du Cinéma Français by Didier Griselain |
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| Born | April 19, 1891 Paris, France |
| Died | March 28, 1974 Montgeron, Ile de France |
| Other name(s) | Françoise Bandy de Nalèche |
| Spouse(s) | Jacques Feyder |
| Notable roles | La kermesse héroïque |
Françoise Rosay, (Françoise Bandy de Nalèche), (April 19, 1891 - Paris, France - March 28, 1974) was a French actress who enjoyed a film career of over sixty years and who became a legendary figure in French cinema.
Rosay was born 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 1913, 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 Switzerland, where she taught acting classes at the Conservatoire de Genève, although she still appeared in films during this time.
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, 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.
It was not until 1938 that her natural father, Count François Louis Bandy de Nalèche acknowledged her as his daughter.
Her final appearance on film was in Maximilian Schell's Der Fußgänger in 1973.
She died in Montgeron, Ile de France, near Paris.
[edit] Biography
Griselain, Didier, Françoise Rosay: Une Grande Dame du Cinéma Français, 2007
