71 years ago today, on the first day of spring, March 21, 1942, Francoise
Dorleac was born in war-ravaged Paris; she would live just 25 years more.
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| Catherine (top) and Francoise |
Her father was Maurice Dorleac, a stage and screen actor, and her mother, Renee Deneuve, was
an actress who re-voiced Hollywood films in French (including Judy Garland’s in The Wizard of Oz). Both Maurice and
Renee were prominent performers at the Comedie Francaise. Francoise's younger sister, Catherine Deneuve, was
born in October 1943. With their parents in the
theater, acting did not seem an unusual profession to the girls. Many years later Catherine
would recall, “For us, it was a job like any other.” She and Francoise
grew up sharing a bedroom and a bunk bed, and each would go into “the
family business” at an early age.
Francoise
first performed on the stage at age 10 and made her screen debut at 15 in
the short Mesonges (1957). Later,
supporting herself as a model for the house of Dior, she would study acting at the
Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique. As an in-demand model and actress, Francoise led a wildly busy life from her teens to the end of her life. She appeared on stage (among her roles was "Gigi"), on TV, on magazine covers and in spreads (including Vogue), and on film. Over the
seven years from 1960 – 1967 she was featured in 16 films, most notably:
