Alice Cocéa

Alice Cocéa was born in Sinaia, Prahova County on 28 July 1899. She was a daughter of Romanian Land Forces General Dimitrie Cocea. Among her siblings were sister, Florica (who married Bressy), and a brother, Nicolae D. Cocea, a socialist journalist and novelist who was the father of actresses Dina and Tantzi Cocea.

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Although born in Romania, Cocéa came to France as a young teen before making her professional debut on the stage.{{cite book |last1=Gänzl |first1=Kurt |title=The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre: A-Gi |date=2001 |publisher=Schirmer Books |isbn=978-0-02-865572-7 |page=401 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OBkKAQAAMAAJ |access-date=19 June 2024 |language=en}} She worked before, during, and after her marriage to Count Stanislas but announced her retirement shortly after her fiancé's death in 1932, stating that she would join a convent. She worked as the manager of the Théâtre des Ambassadeurs,{{cite book |last1=Krauss |first1=Kenneth |title=The Drama of Fallen France: Reading la Comédie sans Tickets |date=1 February 2012 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-8579-8 |page=8 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Drama_of_Fallen_France/9qGPIx0B-hkC&pg=PA8 |access-date=19 June 2024 |language=en}} before returning to the screen in the 1960s.{{cite book |last1=Baxter |first1=John |title=The Golden Moments of Paris: A Guide to the Paris of the 1920s |date=1 March 2014 |publisher=Museyon Inc |isbn=978-0-9846334-7-0 |page=107 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Golden_Moments_of_Paris/ZhBMBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 |access-date=19 June 2024 |language=en}}

During World War II, Cocéa was arrested as a Nazi collaborator,{{cite book |last1=Worthen |first1=Hana |title=Humanism, Drama, and Performance: Unwriting Theatre |date=13 October 2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-44066-4 |page=199 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Humanism_Drama_and_Performance/G-4CEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA199 |access-date=19 June 2024 |language=en}} and later released.{{cite book |last1=Bobkowski |first1=Andrzej |title=Wartime Notebooks |date=1 January 2018 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-17671-1 |page=372 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Wartime_Notebooks/9ep1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA372 |access-date=19 June 2024 |language=en}} Her memoirs, Mes amours que j'ai tant aimées ("The Loves I So Loved"), were published in 1958.{{cite book |last1=Cocea |first1=Alice |title=Mes amours que j'ai tant aimées |date=1958 |publisher=Flammarion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfxQAQAAIAAJ |access-date=19 June 2024 |language=fr}}

She was married in 1926 to Count Stanislas Édouard François Marie de La Rochefoucauld (1903–1965), only son and heir apparent of Édouard de La Rochefoucauld, Duke of Bisaccia. His father opposed the marriage, going so far as to seeking a court order preventing them from marrying, but the French Court ruled in the young couples favor.{{cite news |title=DUKE ENDS ALLOWANCE; HALTS SON'S WEDDING; Young Count de la Rochefoucauld Now Seeks a Job to Support French Actress. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/11/28/archives/duke-ends-allowance-halts-sons-wedding-young-count-de-la.html?searchResultPosition=2 |access-date=19 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=28 November 1925}}{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special Cable to THE NEW YORK |title=French Court Overrules Ducal Objection To Wedding of Young Heir and an Actress |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/10/28/archives/french-court-overrules-ducal-objection-to-wedding-of-young-heir-and.html?searchResultPosition=3 |access-date=19 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=28 October 1925}}{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Wireless To the New York |title=PARISIAN ACTRESS WEDS AN ARISTOCRAT; Alice Cocea, Star in 'Fifi,' Marries Count de la Rochefoucauld Despite Paternal Protests. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/01/03/archives/parisian-actress-weds-an-aristocrat-alice-cocea-star-in-fifi.html?searchResultPosition=1 |access-date=19 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=3 January 1926}} They marriage ended in divorce in 1931,{{cite news |title=French Countess Asks Divorce. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/04/24/archives/french-countess-asks-divorce.html?searchResultPosition=1 |access-date=19 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=24 April 1931}} and Count Stanislas later married Princess Jeanne of San Felice de Viggiano (a granddaughter of Prince Paul de Bauffremont and Countess Valentine de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay), in 1947.{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Georges |title=Histoire et généalogie de la maison de La Rochefoucauld |date=1975 |publisher=G. Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_tP61PoCdIC |access-date=19 June 2024 |language=fr}}

In 1932 her fiancé, Lt. Victor Point, a French explorer and nephew of Philippe Berthelot, killed himself in Agay (a village in Saint-Raphaël in the French Riviera) when Cocéa declined to marry him; he died after shooting himself in the mouth. They had been involved for three years, and she had promised to become his wife once her divorce from Rochefoucauld had been settled.{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special Cable to THE NEW YORK |title=LIEUT. POINT KILLS HIMSELF IN BOAT; French Explorer Dies in Jealous Row With Mile. Cocea, Light Comedy Actress. SHE WILL ENTER CONVENT With Citroen-Haardt Tractor Cars Naval Officer Braved Mongol Bandits and Gobi Desert. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/08/09/archives/lieut-point-kills-himself-in-boat-french-explorer-dies-in-jealous.html?searchResultPosition=2 |access-date=19 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=9 August 1932}}

She was reportedly the mistress of Roger Capgras, who rose from being a vegetable dealer to head of a major newspaper during the Nazi Occupation and later a fascist-leaning theatrical figure.

She died in Boulogne-Billancourt on 2 July 1970.

• My Childish Father (1930)
• Let's Get Married (1931)
• Delphine (1931)
• Atout coeur (1931)
• Nicole and Her Virtue (1932)
• Greluchon délicat (1934)
• Le joueur (1962)
• Striptease (1963)
• La ronde (1964)

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• {{IMDb name|id=0168427|name=Alice Cocéa}}

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Category:Romanian film actresses

Category:French film actresses

Category:People from Sinaia

Category:Romanian expatriates in France

Category:French people of Romanian descent

Category:1899 births

Category:1970 deaths

Category:20th-century French actresses

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