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

• 1973The Pedestrian — Frau Dechamps
• 19723000 Million Without an Elevator — Madame Dubreuil
• 1972Not Dumb, the Bird — Mrs. Morelli-Johnson
• 1969Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille — Louise de Kerfuntel
• 1968Don't Take God's Children for Wild Geese — Léontine Palpicart aka 'La Gâteuse'
• 1967The 25th Hour — Mme Nagy (uncredited)
• 1966L'Âge heureux — Mme Aubry
• 1965Cloportes — Gertrude, supplies specialist in the mafia
• 1965Ruy Blas — La duchesse d'Albuquerque
• 1965Up from the Beach — Lili's Grandmother
• 1964Full Hearts and Empty Pockets — Borgia
• 1962Frau Cheneys Ende — Mrs. Webley
• 1961The Counterfeiters of Paris — Madame Pauline
• 1960Lovers Woods — Madame Parisot
• 1960Stefanie in Rio — Leonora Guala
• 1960The Full Treatment — Madame Prade
• 1960Twentieth Century Theatre: Colombe — Madame Alexandra
• 1959Eyes of Love — Mrs. Montcatel mother
• 1959Riff Raff Girls — Berthe
• 1959The Sound and the Fury — Caroline Compson
• 1959Without Trumpet or Drum — La grand-mère de Marguerite
• 1958Me and the Colonel — Madame Bouffier
• 1958The Gambler — Aunt Antonia
• 1957Interlude — Comtesse Reinhart
• 1957Non sono più guaglione — Vincenzino's mother
• 1957The Seventh Sin — Mother Superior
• 1955Girls of Today — padrona della pensione
• 1955That Lady — Bernardine
• 1954Queen Margot — Catherine de Médicis / Catharine of Medici
• 1953Sul ponte dei sospiri — Lady of Sant'Agata
• 1952He Who Is Without Sin... — La contessa Lamieri
• 1952Smuggler's Ball — Gabrielle Demeuse
• 1952The Seven Deadly Sins — Elisabeth de Pallières, the mother (segment "L'Orgueil")
• 1952Wanda the Sinner — Anna Steiner
• 1951K – Das Haus des Schweigens — Noemi, die Amme
• 1951Nobody's Children — La contessa Canali
• 1951The 13th Letter — Mrs. Gauthier
• 1951The Red Inn — Marie Martin
• 1950One Only Loves Once — Mme Monnier
• 1950September Affair — Maria Salvatini
• 1950The Naked Heart — Laura Chapdelaine
• 1950Women Without Names — The Countess
• 1949The Barton Mystery — Élisabeth
• 1949The Dream Vagabonds — Mireille Dombreval
• 1948Quartet — Lea Makart (segment "The Alien Corn")
• 1948Saraband for Dead Lovers — The Electress Sophia
• 1947La Dame de Haut-le-Bois — Countess Brévannes
• 1946Back Streets of Paris — Mrs. Rose, hotel landlady
• 1945Johnny Frenchman — Lanec Florrie
• 1944Portrait of a Woman — Fanny Helder
• 1944The Halfway House — Alice Meadows
• 1940They Were Twelve Women — La duchesse de Vimeuse
• 1939Serge Panine — Madame Devarenne
• 1938Fahrendes Volk — Madame Flora
• 1938Peace on the Rhine — Francoise Scheffer
• 1938People Who Travel — Flora
• 1938Ramuntcho — Dolorès Detcharry
• 1938The Chess Player — Catherine II
• 1938The Stream — Régina Berry
• 1937Armchair 47 — Gilberte Boulanger
• 1937Bizarre, Bizarre — Margaret Molyneux
• 1937Life Dances On — Marguerite Audié
• 1937My Son the Minister — Sylvie - seine Mutter
• 1937The Robber Symphony — The fortune teller
• 1936Carnival in Flanders — Cornelia
• 1936Jenny — Jenny Gauthier
• 1936The Last Four on Santa Cruz — Nadja Danouw
• 1936The Secret of Polichinelle — Mrs. Jouvenel
• 1935Carnival in Flanders — Madame Burgomaster
• 1935Gangster malgré lui
• 1935Le Billet de mille — Russian Countess
• 1935Marchand d'amour — Clara
• 1935Marie des angoisses — Mme de Quersac
• 1935Maternité — Mrs. Duchemin
• 1935Pension Mimosas — Louise Noblet
• 1935Whirlpool — Madame Gardane
• 1934Coralie and Company
• 1934Tambour battant — The Princess Mother
• 1934The Great Game — Blanche
• 1934The Island — Silvia
• 1934Vers l'abîme — Sylvia
• 1933Abbot Constantine — La comtesse de Laverdens
• 1933All for Nothing — Mrs. Bossu
• 1933La Pouponnière — Mrs. Delannoy
• 1932A Father Without Knowing It — Madame Jacquet
• 1932He — Madame Husson
• 1932The Woman Dressed As a Man — Princess Marie
• 1931Buster se marie — Polly Hathaway
• 1931Casanova Against His Will — Blanche Brissac
• 1931Jenny Lind — Rosatti
• 1931Let Us Be Gay — Madame Boucijon
• 1931Luck — Mme Mougeot
• 1931The Little Cafe — Mademoiselle Edwige
• 1931The Magnificent Lie — Rosa Duchêne
• 1931The Trial of Mary Dugan — La veuve
• 1930Marius à Paris
• 1930Si l'empereur savait ça — Princess Plata d'Ettingen
• 1930Échec au roi — The Queen
• 1929The One Woman Idea — Zuleide, Alizar's Mother
• 1928Madame Récamier — Madame de Staël
• 1928Two Timid Souls — The aunt
• 1927Le bateau de verre — Madame d'Arcy, his wife
• 1926Gribiche — Edith Maranet
• 1925Faces of Children — Assistant Director, Writer
• 1922Crainquebille — Shoe Store Customer

Appearances as themselves (4)

• 2002Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudes — Self (archive footage)
• Midi trente — Self
• Aujourd'hui Madame — Self - Guest
• 1954Les éloquents — Self