Simone Simon

French beauty Simone Simon in a 1944 sitting by photographer Ernest Bachrach. Simone was born in Marseille, France on April 23, 1910. She made her screen debut in "Le Chanteur Inconnu" (The Unknown Singer, 1931), and quickly established herself as one of the country's most successful film actresses. In 1932, she was given more important roles and she rose to fame after starring in "Lac aux dames" (Ladies Lake, 1934). After seeing her in this film, head of Fox studios Darryl F. Zanuck brought her to Hollywood in 1935 with a widespread publicity campaign. The studio assigned her to a third billing role in "Girls' Dormitory" (1936). This was followed by the romantic comedy "Ladies in Love" (1936), "Seventh Heaven" (1937) and "Josette" (1938). In the late 1930s, Simone returned to France, dissatisfied with the development of her American film career and the backfiring of its related publicity. There, she appeared in the Jean Renoir film "La Bête Humaine" (The Human Beast) in 1938. With the outbreak of World War II, she returned to Hollywood and worked for RKO Radio Pictures where she achieved her greatest successes in English language cinema with "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1941), "Cat People" (1942) and "The Curse of the Cat People" (1944). After "Mademoiselle Fifi" (1944), she would return to France to act, and appeared in "La Ronde" (Roundabout, 1950). Her film roles were few after this and she made her final film appearance in "The Woman In Blue" in 1973. Simone passed away in Paris, France, on February 22, 2005 from natural causes, aged 95.

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