1891-04-17 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.
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Der Fußgänger | Frau Dechamps | 1973-09-05 |
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Pas folle la guêpe | Mrs. Morelli-Johnson | 1972-11-15 |
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Trois Milliards Sans Ascenseur | Madame Dubreuil | 1972-08-18 |
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Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille | Louise de Kerfuntel | 1969-08-14 |
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Faut pas prendre les enfants du bon Dieu pour des canards sauvages | Léontine Palpicart aka 'La Gâteuse' | 1968-09-06 |
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La Vingt-cinquième Heure | Mme Nagy (uncredited) | 1967-04-26 |
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L'Âge heureux | Mme Aubry | 1966-02-11 |
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Up from the Beach | Lili's Grandmother | 1965-05-25 |
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La Métamorphose des cloportes | Gertrude, supplies specialist in the mafia | 1965-09-08 |
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... e la donna creo l'uomo | Borgia | 1964-02-27 |
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Frau Cheneys Ende | Mrs. Webley | 1962-09-27 |
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Le cave se rebiffe | Madame Pauline | 1961-09-27 |
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Le bois des amants | Madame Parisot | 1960-08-13 |
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The Full Treatment | Madame Prade | 1960-10-01 |
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Stefanie in Rio | Leonora Guala | 1960-09-19 |
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Die Gans von Sedan | La grand-mère de Marguerite | 1959-12-22 |
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The Sound and the Fury | Caroline Compson | 1959-03-27 |
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Les Yeux de l'amour | Mrs. Montcatel mother | 1959-11-25 |
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Du rififi chez les femmes | Berthe | 1959-05-20 |
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Me and the Colonel | Madame Bouffier | 1958-10-01 |
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Le Joueur | Aunt Antonia | 1958-10-26 |
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Interlude | Comtesse Reinhart | 1957-10-30 |
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Non sono più guaglione | Vincenzino's mother | 1957-12-23 |
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The Seventh Sin | Mother Superior | 1957-06-28 |
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Ragazze d'oggi | padrona della pensione | 1955-12-27 |
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That Lady | Bernardine | 1955-03-05 |
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Les éloquents | Self | 1954-01-01 |
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La Reine Margot | Catherine de Médicis / Catharine of Medici | 1954-11-25 |
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Sul ponte dei sospiri | Lady of Sant'Agata | 1953-08-21 |
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Les Sept Péchés capitaux | Elisabeth de Pallières, the mother (segment "Pride") | 1952-03-27 |
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Wanda, la peccatrice | Anna Steiner | 1952-08-16 |
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Chi è senza peccato.... | La contessa Lamieri | 1952-12-18 |
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Le Banquet des Fraudeurs | Gabrielle Demeuse | 1952-06-08 |
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L'Auberge rouge | Marie Martin | 1951-10-19 |
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K – Das Haus des Schweigens | Noemi, die Amme | 1951-03-27 |
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The 13th Letter | Mrs. Gauthier | 1951-02-21 |
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I figli di nessuno | La contessa Canali | 1951-11-22 |
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Donne senza nome | The Countess | 1950-03-23 |
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On n'aime qu'une fois | Mme Monnier | 1950-06-09 |
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September Affair | Maria Salvatini | 1950-10-18 |
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Maria Chapdelaine | Laura Chapdelaine | 1950-11-16 |
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Le Mystère Barton | Élisabeth | 1949-08-19 |
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Les vagabonds du rêve | Mireille Dombreval | 1949-08-05 |
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Saraband for Dead Lovers | The Electress Sophia | 1948-10-04 |
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Quartet | Lea Makart (segment "The Alien Corn") | 1948-10-26 |
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La Dame de Haut-le-Bois | Countess Brévannes | 1947-03-05 |
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Macadam | Mrs. Rose, hotel landlady | 1946-11-27 |
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Johnny Frenchman | Lanec Florrie | 1945-10-29 |
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The Halfway House | Alice Meadows | 1944-04-02 |
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Une femme disparaît | Fanny Helder | 1944-01-17 |
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Elles étaient douze femmes | La duchesse de Vimeuse | 1940-04-16 |
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Serge Panine | Madame Devarenne | 1939-01-20 |
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Le Joueur d'échecs | Catherine II | 1938-11-25 |
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Paix sur le Rhin | Francoise Scheffer | 1938-11-10 |
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Fahrendes Volk | Madame Flora | 1938-12-15 |
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Ramuntcho | Dolorès Detcharry | 1938-02-24 |
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Les Gens du voyage | Flora | 1938-03-04 |
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Le Ruisseau | Régina Berry | 1938-10-29 |
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Un carnet de bal | Marguerite Audié | 1937-09-09 |
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Mein Sohn, der Herr Minister | Sylvie - seine Mutter | 1937-07-06 |
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Le fauteuil 47 | Gilberte Boulanger | 1937-01-01 |
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Drôle de drame | Margaret Molyneux | 1937-10-20 |
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La symphonie des brigands | The fortune teller | 1937-05-21 |
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Le Secret de Polichinelle | Mrs. Jouvenel | 1936-02-07 |
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Die klugen Frauen | Cornelia | 1936-01-15 |
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Jenny | Jenny Gauthier | 1936-09-18 |
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Pension Mimosas | Louise Noblet | 1935-01-16 |
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La Kermesse héroïque | Madame Burgomaster | 1935-12-03 |
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Marie des angoisses | Mme de Quersac | 1935-07-24 |
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Le Billet de mille | The Russian Countess | 1935-01-11 |
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Maternité | Mrs. Duchemin | 1935-04-19 |
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Remous | Madame Gardane | 1935-03-14 |
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Marchand d'amour | Clara | 1935-01-01 |
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Gangster malgré lui | 1935-05-03 | |
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Coralie et Cie | 1934-06-07 | |
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Tambour battant | The Princess Mother | 1934-03-02 |
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Vers l'abîme | Sylvia | 1934-07-13 |
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Le Grand Jeu | Blanche | 1934-05-02 |
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Die Insel | Silvia | 1934-08-29 |
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Tout pour rien | Mrs. Bossu | 1933-10-15 |
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L'Abbé Constantin | La comtesse de Laverdens | 1933-10-19 |
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La Pouponnière | Mrs. Delannoy | 1933-02-03 |
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La Femme en homme | Princess Marie | 1932-05-11 |
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Papa sans le savoir | Madame Jacquet | 1932-04-10 |
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Le Rosier de madame Husson | Madame Husson | 1932-02-15 |
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Casanova wider Willen | Blanche Brissac | 1931-10-19 |
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Soyons gais | Madame Boucijon | 1931-04-17 |
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La Chance | Mme Mougeot | 1931-12-24 |
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Le Petit Café | Mademoiselle Edwige | 1931-01-20 |
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The Magnificent Lie | Rosa Duchêne | 1931-07-25 |
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Jenny Lind | Rosatti | 1931-09-28 |
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Le procès de Mary Dugan | The widow | 1931-11-06 |
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Si l'empereur savait ça | Princess Plata d'Ettingen | 1930-10-31 |
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Marius à Paris | 1930-10-26 | |
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Échec au roi | The Queen | 1930-12-27 |
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The One Woman Idea | Zuleide, Alizar's Mother | 1929-06-02 |
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Les deux timides | The aunt | 1928-12-04 |
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Madame Récamier | Madame de Staël | 1928-06-28 |
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Le bateau de verre | Madame d'Arcy, his wife | 1927-01-01 |
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Gribiche | Edith Maranet | 1926-04-02 |
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Crainquebille | Shoe Store Customer | 1922-11-15 |
