French Film Star Simone Simon Dies at 93 - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Janice · 02-25-2005, 12:04 PM

http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D88F4FH83.html

French Film Star Simone Simon Dies at 93

PARIS (AP) - French screen star Simone Simon, best known for her delicate beauty and lead role in the 1942 thriller "Cat People," has died. She was 93.

Simon, one of the few French starlets of her time to achieve success in Hollywood, died in the evening between Tuesday and Wednesday, her family said.

In Jacques Tourneur's "Cat People," Simon played a Serbian-born artist living in New York who is haunted by a fear that intimacy will prompt her to turn into a deadly panther. The film was remade in 1982 with Nastassja Kinski playing the lead.

"With Simone Simon, we have lost one the most seductive, most radiant actresses of French cinema in the first part of the 20th century," Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said in a statement.

Born April 23, 1911, in the southern French city of Marseille, Simon started out as a model before becoming a stage actress, then turning to film.

Her first major role came in 1938 in Jean Renoir's "La bete humaine" (The Human Beast), a movie adaptation of the novel by Emile Zola. She starred opposite legendary French actor Jean Gabin, famously telling him: "Don't look at me that way, you're going to wear out your eyes."

It was Darryl Zanuck, co-founder of 20th Century Fox, who took Simon to America and launched her career in Hollywood.

The actress starred in about a dozen Hollywood pictures through the 1940s, including two Robert Wise films from 1944, "The Curse of the Cat People," a sequel of Tourneur's film, and "Mademoiselle Fifi," based on Guy de Maupassant stories.

Back in France in the 1950s, Simon starred in "La Ronde" and "Le Plaisir," before returning to the stage. She made her very last movie appearance in the 1973 film "La Femme en Bleu." "Years have passed but have erased nothing of Simone Simon's charm," the culture minister said. "We will keep in memory for a long time the trace of that undefinable something that made this very beautiful actress so endearing."

02-25-2005, 12:04 PM	#1
Janice Retired Admin - Hollywood Swingin' Forum Legend Join Date: Aug 03, 2001 Location: Beantown Posts: 36,388	French Film Star Simone Simon Dies at 93 http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D88F4FH83.html French Film Star Simone Simon Dies at 93 PARIS (AP) - French screen star Simone Simon, best known for her delicate beauty and lead role in the 1942 thriller "Cat People," has died. She was 93. Simon, one of the few French starlets of her time to achieve success in Hollywood, died in the evening between Tuesday and Wednesday, her family said. In Jacques Tourneur's "Cat People," Simon played a Serbian-born artist living in New York who is haunted by a fear that intimacy will prompt her to turn into a deadly panther. The film was remade in 1982 with Nastassja Kinski playing the lead. "With Simone Simon, we have lost one the most seductive, most radiant actresses of French cinema in the first part of the 20th century," Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said in a statement. Born April 23, 1911, in the southern French city of Marseille, Simon started out as a model before becoming a stage actress, then turning to film. Her first major role came in 1938 in Jean Renoir's "La bete humaine" (The Human Beast), a movie adaptation of the novel by Emile Zola. She starred opposite legendary French actor Jean Gabin, famously telling him: "Don't look at me that way, you're going to wear out your eyes." It was Darryl Zanuck, co-founder of 20th Century Fox, who took Simon to America and launched her career in Hollywood. The actress starred in about a dozen Hollywood pictures through the 1940s, including two Robert Wise films from 1944, "The Curse of the Cat People," a sequel of Tourneur's film, and "Mademoiselle Fifi," based on Guy de Maupassant stories. Back in France in the 1950s, Simon starred in "La Ronde" and "Le Plaisir," before returning to the stage. She made her very last movie appearance in the 1973 film "La Femme en Bleu." "Years have passed but have erased nothing of Simone Simon's charm," the culture minister said. "We will keep in memory for a long time the trace of that undefinable something that made this very beautiful actress so endearing."