Gabrielle Danièle Marguerite Andrée Girard (9 October 1926 – 17 October 2015), known by her stage name Danièle Delorme (), was a French actress and film producer, famous for her roles in films directed by Marc Allégret, Julien Duvivier and Yves Robert.

Early life

Gabrielle Danièle Marguerite Andrée Girard was born on 9 October 1926 in Levallois-Perret, Hauts-de-Seine, one of four children to the well-known painter, poster-maker, and theater-designer André Girard and his wife Andrée (nee Jouan). Girard maintained a studio in Venice in 1936–1937 and in Manhattan, New York City, in 1938. After the Battle of France (1940), Girard removed to Antibes, then a free-zone, and established a network that provided recruiting and spying work for the French resistance. It was during this time that young Delorme began her acting career.

Career

In 1940, at the age of 14, Delorme began acting and played a series of minor roles before she began acting in film. Two years later, owing to her father's contacts, she was able at age 16 (at the time using the name Danièle Girard) to secure a bit part in The Beautiful Adventure (La Belle aventure (1942)).

Two years later, director Marc Allégret again used Delorme in a large role. This time, she performed with the stage name she used for the rest of her career: Danièl Delorme. One story developed that she took the name in order to hide from the Gestapo her relationship to her father.

During the first decade of her career Delorme played delicate, demure, bright young women, roles for which she was physically fitted. Her first husband Daniel Gélin, who also performed in The Beautiful Adventure, said she had "the face of a little girl, an upturned nose with passionate nostrils, the lips of a child, the body of a woman and a certain way about her that turns heads."

Death

Delorme died on 17 October 2015.

Personal life

In 1945, Delorme married actor Daniel Gélin with whom she had a son, Xavier (1946–1999), an actor. Delorme divorced Gélin in 1954. In 1956, Delorme married actor/filmmaker Yves Robert who was her partner in a production company. They remained married until his death in 2002.

Delorme served as a member of the Caméra d'Or jury at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.

Delorme died in Paris on 17 October 2015 at age 89.

Selected filmography

  • The Beautiful Adventure (1942) – Monique
  • Les Petites du quai aux fleurs (1944) – Bérénice Grimaud
  • Twilight (1944) – La camarade de Félicie (uncredited)
  • Lunegarde (1946)
  • The Captain (1946)
  • Les J3 (1946) – Une élève
  • Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (1946)
  • Les jeux sont faits (1947) – La noyée
  • Cruise for the Unknown One (1948)
  • Dilemma of Two Angels (1948) – Anne-Marie
  • Gigi (1949)
  • Repeated Absences (1972) – La mère de François
  • ' (1972) – Lilian
  • Belle (1973) – Jeanne
  • Pardon Mon Affaire (1976) – Marthe Dorsay
  • Pardon Mon Affaire, Too! (1976) – Marthe Dorsay
  • La barricade du Point du Jour (1978) – La Générale Eudes
  • Dirty Dreamer (1978)
  • The Crying Woman (1979)
  • Qu'est-ce qui fait courir David? (1982) – Georges
  • La côte d'amour (1982) – Helle Waver
  • ' (1985) – Ferial's mother
  • Bal perdu (1990) – Maryse de Belloise
  • Les eaux dormantes (1992) – Mme de Lespinière
  • Sortez des rangs (1996) – Mme Germaine

References

  • Profile , purepeople.com; accessed 10 July 2015.