Françoise Rosay
Acting • Born 1891-04-17 – Died 1974-03-28
Biography
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.
Filmography
107 credits
Marie des angoisses
Movie • 1935
Mme de Quersac
Carnival in Flanders
Movie • 1935
Madame Burgomaster
Ramuntcho
Movie • 1938
Dolorès Detcharry
The Red Inn
Movie • 1951
Marie Martin
Tambour battant
Movie • 1934
The Princess Mother
Jenny Lind
Movie • 1931
Rosatti
Whirlpool
Movie • 1935
Madame Gardane
Two Timid Souls
Movie • 1928
The aunt
The 13th Letter
Movie • 1951
Mrs. Gauthier
The 25th Hour
Movie • 1967
Mme Nagy (uncredited)
He
Movie • 1932
Madame Husson
Saraband for Dead Lovers
Movie • 1948
The Electress Sophia
The Woman Dressed As a Man
Movie • 1932
Princess Marie
Johnny Frenchman
Movie • 1945
Lanec Florrie
My Son the Minister
Movie • 1937
Sylvie - seine Mutter
La Pouponnière
Movie • 1933
Mrs. Delannoy
The Seventh Sin
Movie • 1957
Mother Superior
The Trial of Mary Dugan
Movie • 1931
The widow
All for Nothing
Movie • 1933
Mrs. Bossu
Coralie and Company
Movie • 1934
Vers l'abîme
Movie • 1934
Sylvia
Le Billet de mille
Movie • 1935
Russian Countess
Maternité
Movie • 1935
Mrs. Duchemin
Gangster malgré lui
Movie • 1935
Marchand d'amour
Movie • 1935
Clara
The Secret of Polichinelle
Movie • 1936
Mrs. Jouvenel
Cloportes
Movie • 1965
Gertrude, supplies specialist in the mafia
September Affair
Movie • 1950
Maria Salvatini
Don't Take God's Children for Wild Geese
Movie • 1968
Léontine Palpicart aka 'La Gâteuse'
Life Dances On
Movie • 1937
Marguerite Audié
Jenny
Movie • 1936
Jenny Gauthier
Nobody's Children
Movie • 1951
La contessa Canali
La Dame de Haut-le-Bois
Movie • 1947
Countess Brévannes
The Counterfeiters of Paris
Movie • 1961
Madame Pauline
The Dream Vagabonds
Movie • 1949
Mireille Dombreval
Bizarre, Bizarre
Movie • 1937
Margaret Molyneux
Back Streets of Paris
Movie • 1946
Mrs. Rose, hotel landlady
The Full Treatment
Movie • 1960
Madame Prade
Me and the Colonel
Movie • 1958
Madame Bouffier
The Stream
Movie • 1938
Régina Berry
That Lady
Movie • 1955
Bernardine
The One Woman Idea
Movie • 1929
Zuleide, Alizar's Mother
Interlude
Movie • 1957
Comtesse Reinhart
Riff Raff Girls
Movie • 1959
Berthe
The Naked Heart
Movie • 1950
Laura Chapdelaine
The Robber Symphony
Movie • 1937
The fortune teller
The Magnificent Lie
Movie • 1931
Rosa Duchêne
The Chess Player
Movie • 1938
Catherine II
Carnival in Flanders
Movie • 1936
Cornelia
Fahrendes Volk
Movie • 1938
Madame Flora
Frau Cheneys Ende
Movie • 1962
Mrs. Webley
Girls of Today
Movie • 1955
padrona della pensione
Pension Mimosas
Movie • 1935
Louise Noblet
Madame Récamier
Movie • 1928
Madame de Staël
The Little Cafe
Movie • 1931
Mademoiselle Edwige
K – Das Haus des Schweigens
Movie • 1951
Noemi, die Amme
Full Hearts and Empty Pockets
Movie • 1964
Borgia
Armchair 47
Movie • 1937
Gilberte Boulanger
Lovers Woods
Movie • 1960
Madame Parisot
The Great Game
Movie • 1934
Blanche
L'Âge heureux
Movie • 1966
Mme Aubry
He Who Is Without Sin...
Movie • 1952
La contessa Lamieri
They Were Twelve Women
Movie • 1940
La duchesse de Vimeuse
Eyes of Love
Movie • 1959
Mrs. Montcatel mother
The Seven Deadly Sins
Movie • 1952
Elisabeth de Pallières, the mother (segment "L'Orgueil")
Die Insel
Movie • 1934
Silvia
Peace on the Rhine
Movie • 1938
Francoise Scheffer
Portrait of a Woman
Movie • 1944
Fanny Helder
Without Trumpet or Drum
Movie • 1959
La grand-mère de Marguerite
Stefanie in Rio
Movie • 1960
Leonora Guala
One Only Loves Once
Movie • 1950
Mme Monnier
Queen Margot
Movie • 1954
Catherine de Médicis / Catharine of Medici
The Halfway House
Movie • 1944
Alice Meadows
Not Dumb, the Bird
Movie • 1972
Mrs. Morelli-Johnson
Abbot Constantine
Movie • 1933
La comtesse de Laverdens
Wanda the Sinner
Movie • 1952
Anna Steiner
Women Without Names
Movie • 1950
The Countess
People Who Travel
Movie • 1938
Flora
Smuggler's Ball
Movie • 1952
Gabrielle Demeuse
Gribiche
Movie • 1926
Edith Maranet
Crainquebille
Movie • 1922
Shoe Store Customer
Sul ponte dei sospiri
Movie • 1953
Lady of Sant'Agata
The Sound and the Fury
Movie • 1959
Caroline Compson
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
Movie • 1969
Louise de Kerfuntel
The Pedestrian
Movie • 1973
Frau Dechamps
Non sono più guaglione
Movie • 1957
Vincenzino's mother
A Father Without Knowing It
Movie • 1932
Madame Jacquet
Les éloquents
Movie • 1954
Self
Le bateau de verre
Movie • 1927
Madame d'Arcy, his wife
Serge Panine
Movie • 1939
Madame Devarenne
The Barton Mystery
Movie • 1949
Élisabeth
The Gambler
Movie • 1958
Aunt Antonia
Casanova wider Willen
Movie • 1931
Blanche Brissac
Let Us Be Gay
Movie • 1931
Madame Boucijon
Up from the Beach
Movie • 1965
Lili's Grandmother
Luck
Movie • 1931
Mme Mougeot
3000 Million Without an Elevator
Movie • 1972
Madame Dubreuil
Échec au roi
Movie • 1930
The Queen
Si l'empereur savait ça
Movie • 1930
Princess Plata d'Ettingen
Marius à Paris
Movie • 1930
Quartet
Movie • 1948
Lea Makart (segment "The Alien Corn")
Ruy Blas
Movie • 1965
La duchesse d'Albuquerque
Twentieth Century Theatre: Colombe
Movie • 1960
Madame Alexandra
Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudes
Movie • 2002
Self (archive footage)
Buster se marie
Movie • 1931
Polly Hathaway
Midi trente
TV • 1972
Self
Aujourd'hui Madame
TV • 1970
Self - Guest