Simone Signoret

Simone Signoret (; born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker; 25 March 1921 – 30 September 1985) was a French actress. She received various accolades, including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, a César Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, in addition to nominations for two Golden Globe Awards.

Early life

Signoret was born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker in Wiesbaden, Germany, to Georgette (née Signoret) and André Kaminker. She was the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers. Her father, a pioneering interpreter who worked in the League of Nations, was a French-born army officer from an assimilated and middle-class Polish-Jewish and Hungarian-Jewish family, who brought the family to Neuilly-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris. Her mother, Georgette, from whom she acquired her stage name, was a French Catholic.

Signoret grew up in Paris in an intellectual atmosphere and studied English, German and Latin. After completing secondary school during the Nazi occupation, Simone was responsible for supporting her family and forced to take work as a typist for a French collaborationist newspaper Les nouveaux temps, run by Jean Luchaire.

Career

During the occupation of France, Signoret mixed with an artistic group of writers and actors who met at the Café de Flore in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quarter. By this time, she had developed an interest in acting and was encouraged by her friends, including her lover Daniel Gélin to follow her ambition. In 1942, she began appearing in bit parts and was able to earn enough money to support her mother and two brothers as her father, who was a French patriot, had fled the country in 1940 to join General De Gaulle in England. She took her mother's maiden name for the screen to help hide her Jewish roots.

Signoret's sensual features and earthy nature led to type-casting and she was often seen in roles as a prostitute. She won considerable attention in La Ronde (1950), a film which was banned briefly in New York City as immoral. She won further acclaim, including an acting award from the British Film Academy, for her portrayal of another prostitute, Amélie Élie, in Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1951), which in France became a signature role for her. She appeared in many French films during the 1950s, including Thérèse Raquin (1953), directed by Marcel Carné, Les Diaboliques (1954), and The Crucible (Les Sorcières de Salem; 1956), based on Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

thumb|left|200px|Simone Signoret with [[Laurence Harvey in Room at the Top; the film established her as an international actress.]]

In 1958, Signoret acted in the English independent film Room at the Top (1959), and her performance won numerous awards, including the Best Female Performance Prize at Cannes She earned another Oscar nomination for her work on Ship of Fools (1965); then, after working with Sidney Lumet on The Deadly Affair and The Sea Gull, she returned permanently to France in 1969. Signoret was one of only two women to be interviewed as part of the first iteration of the series, the other being renowned poet Dame Edith Sitwell.

In 1962, Signoret translated Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes into French for a production in Paris that ran for six months at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt. She played the Regina role as well. Hellman was displeased with the production, although the translation was approved by scholars selected by Hellman. Signoret's one attempt at Shakespeare, performing Lady Macbeth with Alec Guinness at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1966 proved to be ill-advised, with some harsh critics; one referred to her English as "impossibly Gallic".

Signoret won acclaim for her portrayal of a weary madam in Madame Rosa (1977) and as an unmarried sister who unknowingly falls in love with her paralyzed brother via anonymous correspondence in ' (1980). She continued to act until her death, working on the miniseries Music-Hall while terminally ill. Both books were best-sellers in France.

Her second marriage was to the Italian-born French actor Yves Montand in 1951, a union which lasted until her death; the couple had no children.

Signoret died of colon cancer in Autheuil-Authouillet, France, aged 64.

Signoret identified as Jewish. She was a supporter of a variety of Jewish causes, including the Zionist movement and the Soviet Jewry movement. She maintained relationships with many Israeli leaders and was critical of antisemitism in the French Communist Party. Because she was of patrilineal Jewish ancestry and was therefore not considered Jewish under traditional halakha, there was no religious ceremony at her funeral.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

| rowspan="4" | 1942

| Bolero

| Une employée de la maison de couture

| Uncredited

| Prince Charming

| Extra

| Uncredited

| '

| Extra

| Uncredited

| The Benefactor

| La sécrétaire du journal

| Uncredited

| rowspan="2"| 1943

| Strange Inheritance

| Extra

| Uncredited

| Goodbye Leonard

| Uncredited

| rowspan="4"| 1944

| The Angel of the Night

| Une étudiante

| Uncredited

| Behold Beatrice

| Liliane Moraccini

| Night Shift

| Uncredited

| Death No Longer Awaits

| La maitresse de Firmin

| 1945

| Box of Dreams

| Uncredited

| rowspan="3"| 1946

| Dawn Devils

| Lily, la cabaretière

| The Ideal Couple

| Annette

| Back Streets of Paris

| Gisèle

| 1947

| Fantômas

| Hélène

| rowspan="3"| 1948

| Against the Wind

| Michele Dennis

| Dédée d'Anvers

| Dédée

| Dilemma of Two Angels

| Marianne

| rowspan="4"| 1950

| Manèges

| Dora

| Swiss Tour

| Yvonne

| '

| Leocadie, the Prostitute

| Gunman in the Streets

| Denise Vernon

| (also released as The Hunted)

| rowspan="2"| 1951

| ...Sans laisser d'adresse

| Uncredited

| Shadow and Light

| Isabelle Leritz

| 1952

| Casque d'or

| Marie 'Casque d'Or'

| BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress

| 1953

| Thérèse Raquin

| rowspan="2"| 1955

| '

| Nicole Horner

| Mother Courage and Her Children

| Yvette, Lagerhure

| (unfinished)

| 1956

| Death in the Garden

| Djin

| 1957

| '

| Elisabeth Procter

| BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress<br />Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Award for Best Actress

| 1958

| Room at the Top

| Alice Aisgill

| rowspan="2"| 1960

| General Electric Theater

| Woman

| Episode: Don't You Remember?

| Adua and Friends

| Adua Giovannetti

| (also released as Hungry for Love)

| rowspan="2"| 1961

| '

| Roberte

| Famous Love Affairs

| Jenny

| (segment "Jenny de Lacour")

| 1962

| Term of Trial

| Anna

| rowspan="3"| 1963

| The Shortest Day

| The Day and the Hour

| Therese Dutheil

| Sweet and Sour

| Madame Geneviève

| rowspan="2"| 1965

| Ship of Fools

| '

| Eliane Darès

| rowspan="2"| 1966

| Is Paris Burning?

| Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre

| Sara Lescault

| Episode: "A Small Rebellion"<br />Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama

| rowspan="2"| 1967

| The Deadly Affair

| Elsa Fennan

| Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress

| Games

| Lisa Schindler

| Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role

| rowspan="2"| 1968

| Mr. Freedom

| Cameo

| Uncredited

| '

| Arkadina, an actress

| rowspan="2"| 1969

| Army of Shadows

| Mathilde

| '

| Léone

| rowspan="2"| 1970

| Mme L. <br /> Lise London

| A Hostage

| Meg

| TV movie

| rowspan="3"| 1971

| Léa

| '

| Clémence Bouin

| Silver Bear for Best Actress

| '

| Veuve Couderc Tati

| rowspan="2"| 1973

| The Burned Barns

| Rose

| '

|Jeanne

| 1975

| Lady Vamos

| 1976

| Police Python 357

| Thérèse Ganay

| 1977

| Madame Rosa

| rowspan="2"| 1978

| '

| Elisabeth Massot

| TV series, 6 episodes

| Judith Therpauve

| 1979

| '

| Mamie

| 1980

| I sent a letter to my love

| Louise Martin

| rowspan="2"| 1982

|L'étoile du nord

| Mme Louise Baron

| Nominated — César Award for Best Actress

| '

| Maupassant's mother

| 1983

| Thérèse Humbert

| 1985

| Des terroristes à la retraite

| Narrator

| 1986

| Music-Hall

| Yvonne Pierre

| Broadcast posthumously

Awards and nominations

{| class="wikitable"

! Year

! Award

! Category

! Nominated work

! Result

| 1959

| rowspan="2"| Academy Awards

| rowspan="2"| Best Actress

| Room at the Top

| align="center"|

| 1965

| Ship of Fools

| align="center"|

| 1971

| Berlin International Film Festival

| Best Actress

| Le Chat

| align="center"|

| 1958

| Room at the Top

| align="center"|

| 1965

| Ship of Fools

| align="center"|

| 1967

| The Deadly Affair

| align="center"|

| 1968

| Best Actress in a Supporting Role

| Games

| align="center"|

| 1959

| Cannes Film Festival

| Best Actress

| Room at the Top

| align="center"|

| 1977

| rowspan="2"| César Awards

| rowspan="2"| Best Actress

| Madame Rosa

| align="center"|

| 1982

| L'Étoile du Nord

| align="center"|

| 1977

| David di Donatello Awards

| Best Foreign Actress

| Madame Rosa

| align="center"|

| 1959

| rowspan="2"| Golden Globe Awards

| rowspan="2"| Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

| Room at the Top

| align="center" rowspan="2"|

| 1965

| Ship of Fools

| 1959

| Jussi Awards

| Best Foreign Actress

| Room at the Top

| align="center"|

| 1957

| Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

| Best Actress

| The Crucible

| align="center"|

| 1959

| Laurel Awards

| Top Female Dramatic Performance

| rowspan="3"| Room at the Top

| align="center"|

| 1959

| National Board of Review Awards

| Best Actress

| align="center"|

| 1959

| New York Film Critics Circle Awards

| Best Actress

| align="center"|

| 1966

| Primetime Emmy Awards

| Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama

| Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre <br>

| align="center"|

Popular culture

Diane Kurys's 2025 feature Moi qui t'aimais is about Signoret and Montand's last years together: Marina Foïs plays Signoret.
A BBC TV film, Madame Montand and Mrs Miller (1992), depicted the relationship between Signoret and Marilyn Monroe during the filming of Let's Make Love, when Monroe had an affair with Yves Montand. Sue Glover wrote the script and Pauline Larrieu played Signoret.
Glover's subsequent stage-play on the same subject, Marilyn, premiered at the Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow in 2011, with Dominique Hollier playing Signoret.
Singer Nina Simone (born Eunice Waymon) took her last name from Simone Signoret.

Simone Signoret

Early life

Career

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Popular culture

See also

Notes

References

Works cited

Further reading

External links