:en:Simone Signoret

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,{{cite book | last = Signoret | first = Simone | title = Nostalgia isn't what it used to be | publisher = Penguin Books | location = Harmondsworth, England New York | year = 1979 | isbn = 978-0-14-005181-0 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/nostalgiaisntwha00sign }}{{cite news | title = Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be (Paperback) | work = The Guardian | date = 7 August 2000 | quote = Signoret was descended from Polish/Hungarian Jews }} 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.{{Cite journal | last = Hayward | first = Susan | title = Simone Signoret (1921–1985) — The body political | journal = Women's Studies International Forum | volume = 23 | issue = 6 | pages = 739–747 | doi = 10.1016/S0277-5395(00)00147-3 | date = November–December 2000 }}

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.{{sfn|David|1993|pp=24-26}}{{Cite book|title = Garden of Dreams: The Life of Simone Signoret|last = DeMaio|first = Patricia A.|publisher = University Press of Mississippi|date = January 2014}}

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.{{sfn|David|1993|pp=28-29}} 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.{{cn|date=May 2025}} 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.{{sfn|David|1993|pp=30-31}}

Signoret's sensual features and earthy nature led to type-casting and she was often seen in roles as a prostitute.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/01/movies/simone-signoret-dies-in-france-at-64.html | work=The New York Times | title=Simone Signoret Dies in France at 64 | first=Eric | last=Pace | date=1 October 1985 |url-access=subscription | access-date=25 May 2025}}{{Cite news |date=1 October 1985 |title=Obituary: Simone Signoret, Well-loved French actress |work=The Times |issue=62257 |page=18}}{{sfn|David|1993|p=8}} She won considerable attention in La Ronde (1950),{{sfn|Bouchardeau|2005|pp=65-67}} a film which was banned briefly in New York City as immoral.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1954/01/06/archives/court-sees-banned-film-u-s-justices-view-la-ronde-in-state.html | work=The New York Times | title=Court Sees Banned Film: U.S. Justices View 'La Ronde' in State Censorship Case | date=6 January 1954 |url-access=subscription | access-date=26 May 2025}} 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).{{cite web|url=https://www.bafta.org/awards/film/foreign-actress|title=BAFTA {{!}} Film / Foreign Actress {{!}} Through the Years {{!}} 1953|website=bafta.org|access-date=2025-05-26}} 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.

File:Room at the Top screenshot.jpg 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),{{cite web |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/440778/index.html |title=Room at the Top (1958) |first=Phil|last=Wickham |work=Screenonline |access-date=25 May 2025}} and her performance won numerous awards, including the Best Female Performance Prize at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was offered films in Hollywood, but turned them down for several years,{{sfn|Bouchardeau|2005|p=67}} continuing to work in France and England—for example, with Laurence Olivier in Term of Trial (1962). She earned another Oscar nomination for her work on Ship of Fools (1965), appeared in a few other Hollywood films, and returned to France in 1969.

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 1978, pp. 324–328.

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".Sutcliffe, Tom. [http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Guardian/0,4029,351452,00.html "Sir Alec Guinness".] Film Guardian, 7 August 2000.

Signoret won acclaim for her portrayal of a weary madam in Madame Rosa (1977){{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/03/19/archives/screen-moishe-mizrahis-rosa.html | work=The New York Times | title=Moishe Mizrahi's 'Rosa' | first=Vincent | last=Canby | author-link=Vincent Canby | date=19 March 1978 |url-access=subscription | access-date=25 May 2025}}{{Cite news |date=12 April 1979 |title=An age of decision |first=Eric |last=Shorter |work=The Daily Telegraph |issue=38522 |page=15}}{{sfn|Bouchardeau|2005|p=242}} and as an unmarried sister who unknowingly falls in love with her paralyzed brother via anonymous correspondence in {{Interlanguage link|Chère inconnue|fr|3=Chère inconnue|lt=I Sent a Letter to my Love}} (1980).{{Cite news |date=4 November 1980 |title=Distinctive style in a sturdy retrospective |first=David |last=Robinson |author-link=David Robinson (film critic) |work=The Times |issue=60767 |page=8}}{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/03/movies/moshe-mizrahi-s-i-sent-a-letter-to-my-love.html | work=The New York Times | title=Moshe Mizrahi's 'I Sent a Letter to My Love' | first=Vincent | last=Canby | author-link=Vincent Canby | date=3 May 1981 |url-access=subscription | access-date=25 May 2025}} She continued to act until her death, working on the TV series Music-Hall while terminally ill.{{sfn|Bouchardeau|2005|pp=265-267}}

Signoret's memoirs, Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be, were published in 1976. She also wrote the novel Adieu Volodya, published in 1985, the year of her death.{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-01-mn-19173-story.html | work=The Los Angeles Times | title=French Actress Simone Signoret Dies at 64 | first=Stanley | last=Meisler | date=1 October 1985 | access-date=26 May 2025}}

Signoret first married filmmaker Yves Allégret (1944–1949), with whom she had a son (Patrick) and a daughter Catherine Allégret. Patrick died nine days after his birth. Privately, Signoret blamed the hospital for his death as they had taken Patrick to a chapel for baptism and he shortly thereafter caught a cold and died. Signoret never spoke publicly about his death.{{cite book |last1=Demaio |first1=Patricia A. |title=Garden of Dreams The Life of Simone Signoret |date=2014 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |location=Jackson, Mississippi |isbn=9781604735697 |page=70 |url=https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/G/Garden-of-Dreams |access-date=17 April 2025}}

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.{{sfn|David|1993|p=205}} They were both active in left-wing and humanitarian causes, although as they grew older she gravitated towards the political centre and he to the right.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/10/world/yves-montand-sage-charmer-of-french-film-and-politics-dies-at-70.html | work=The New York Times | title=Yves Montand, Sage Charmer of French Film and Politics, Dies at 70 | first=Alan | last=Riding | author-link=Alan Riding | date=10 November 1991 |url-access=subscription | access-date=25 May 2025}}

Signoret died of colon cancer in Autheuil-Authouillet, France, aged 64.{{sfn|Bouchardeau|2005|pp=266-267}} She was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, and Yves Montand later was buried next to her.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/12/world/paris-journal-beyond-the-grave-dna-haunts-yves-montand.html | work=The New York Times | title=Beyond the Grave, DNA Haunts Yves Montand | first=Craig R. | last=Whitney | date=12 March 1998 |url-access=subscription | access-date=25 May 2025}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/archive/simone-signoret-dead-at-64 |title=Simone Signoret Dead at 64 |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |accessdate=2024-04-29}}

• 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.{{Cite news |date=24 August 1992 |title=Chasing after the manner of women |first=John |last=Lyttle |work=The Independent |issue=1826 |page=12}}
• Glover's subsequent stage-play on the same subject, Marilyn, premiered at the Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow in 2011.{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/mar/01/marilyn-review-citizens-glasgow | work=The Guardian | title=Marilyn - review | first=Mark | last=Fisher | date=1 March 2011 | access-date=25 May 2025}}{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/monroe-miller-montand-signoret-when-golden-couples-meet-2221677.html | work=The Independent | title=Monroe, Miller, Montand, Signoret: When golden couples meet | first=Anna | last=Burnside | date=22 February 2011 | access-date=26 May 2025}}
• Singer Nina Simone (Born Eunice Waymon) took her last name from Simone Signoret.Source: "What Happened, Miss Simone", documentary on Nina Simone's life, 2015

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{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Bouchardeau |first=Huguette |author-link=Huguette Bouchardeau |year=2005 |title=Simone Signoret: Biographie |language=French |location=Paris |url=https://archive.org/details/simonesignoretbi0000bouc |url-access=registration |publisher=Flammarion |isbn=2-08-068749-2}}
• {{cite book |last=David |first=Catherine |author-link=Catherine David (writer) |year=1993 |title=Simone Signoret |location=Woodstock, New York |url=https://archive.org/details/simonesignoret0000davi |url-access=registration |translator-last=Sampson|translator-first=Sally|publisher=Overlook Press |isbn=0-87951-491-4}}

{{Refbegin}}

• DeMaio, Patricia A. "Garden Of Dreams: The Life of Simone Signoret," 2014
• Monush, Barry (ed). The Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors From the Silent Era to 1965. New York: Applause Books, 2003. {{ISBN|1-55783-551-9}}.
• Signoret, Simone. Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978. {{ISBN|0-297-77417-4}}.

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• {{IMDb name|797531}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes person|simone_signoret}}
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• [http://www.the-numbers.com/person/132190401-Simone-Signoret Simone Signoret] at The-Numbers.com

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