Simone Signoret was a French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest movie stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top (1959). In her lifetime she also received a BAFTA, an Emmy, Golden Globe, Cannes Film Festival recognition and the Silver Bear for Best Actress.
Signoret, her mothers maiden name, was chosen for films in the early 1940s to raise fewer questions with the Nazi authorities than her real surname Kaminker.
The spring and summer of 1960, Signoret and Montand were neighbors in a three-apartment bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel with Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller across the hall and Howard Hughes upstairs. Monroe told her dresser, who wrote a biography, that Miller liked to talk to Signoret because she was so intelligent and that after Signoret went back to France to make a film and Miller went to New York to work on a play that Monroe and Montand did indeed have the affair that was speculated about in the press.
Born at 2:30am-CET
Mother of Catherine Allgret.
First woman to win an Oscar for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" for a non-American film, Room at the Top . Also the first French actress to win a Best Actress Oscar, the second and last one is Marion Cotillard for La mme . Signorets daughter, Catherine Allgret , appeared in "La Vie en Rose" playing dith Piaf s grandmother. Signoret and Cotillard have both played Lady Macbeth.
Was able to speak French, German, and English.
Author of Adieu Volodia, a novel about a group of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and Russia and their children, working in the theatre/film industry in Paris during the years 1926-1945.
Portrayed on a postage stamp issued on 3 October 1998 by the French Post Office.
Buried in Pre-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris with her husband Yves Montand.
The late American singer and composer Nina Simone took her stage name from Signoret.
Published her autobiography "La nostalgie nest plus quelle tait" ("Nostalgia Isnt What It Used To Be") in 1976.
Born to Andr Kaminker (1888-1961), a Polish linguist, and his French wife Georgette Signoret, she had two younger brothers, Alain and Jean-Pierre.
Tutored English and Latin, while working part-time for "Le Nouveau Temps", a newspaper published during the German occupation.
Grandmother of Benjamin Castaldi.
Original choice to co-star with Elvis Presley in Wild in the Country but turned down the offer and the role went to Hope Lange.
Is one of 5 French actors to have won an Academy Award. The others in chronological order are: Claudette Colbert for It Happened One Night , Juliette Binoche for The English Patient , Marion Cotillard for La mme and Jean Dujardin for The Artist (2011/I) .
Is one of 13 French actresses to have received an Academy Award nomination. The others in chronological order are: Claudette Colbert , Colette Marchand , Leslie Caron , Anouk Aime , Isabelle Adjani , Marie-Christine Barrault , Catherine Deneuve , Juliette Binoche , Marion Cotillard , Brnice Bejo , Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert.
Good friends with Delphine Seyrig.
With 3 wins (out of 6 nominations), shes the French actress most recognized by BAFTA.
Gave birth to her 1st child at age 24, a son in 1945, with her then-married lover Yves Allgret , who would go on to be her 1st husband. However her son died at 9 days old.
Was originally cast as Madame Hortense in Alexis Zorbas but she quit the production before filming began. Lila Kedrova , who went on to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, was cast instead.
Gave birth to her 2nd child at age 25, a daughter Catherine Allgret on April 16, 1946. Childs father was her then-married lover [and later 1st husband], Yves Allgret.
For her performance in Room at the Top , she become the first French actress to win a BAFTA and a Best Actress Oscar for the same performance. Marion Cotillard is the second French actress to win both awards for her performance in La mme .
Was the 51st actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Room at the Top at The 32nd Annual Academy Awards on April 4, 1960.
[Actor Philippe Noiret on working with Simone Signoret in a 1983 interview] It was quite an experience because she is a fabulous actress, because she knows absolutely everything about movies, about what an actor can do on the screen. Its a real challenge to have someone like that in front of you. But she is quite hard to work with because she wants to be at the head of everything, and you have to remain very alert because otherwise she can eat you. Alas, it makes things difficult. You have to stay a bit out of her reach because otherwise she might just manage to devour you.
Simone Signoret won an Emmy in 1966 under the category of Single Performance by an actress for the TV movie A Small Rebellion.
Is one of 3 actresses to have won the Best Actress Oscar for playing a character called Alice. The others are Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore and Julianne Moore for Still Alice .
In 1966, she played Lady Macbeth in a British stage production of Macbeth at the Royal Court Thatre opposite Alec Guinness as the title character. She accepted the role on Guinness wishes, as the actor himself had thought that she could convey the sexual magnetism that might hold a husband in thrall. Having promised him that she would take lessons to improve her English, Signoret was however unable to keep the appointments with her coach. The production turned out to be a disaster and Simones performance in particular was legendarily catastrophic, with the Guardian calling her the worst Lady Macbeth ever and critic Alan Brien getting in the famous joke Simone Signoret: A conical bell-tented matron who moves on wheels like a draped Dalek surmounted by a beautiful Medusa head..
Was featured on the poster of the 2013 Csar awards.
Was great friends with her look-a-like Romy Schneider and convinced her to do her last film, La passante du Sans-Souci after the death of her son. Her daughter, Catherine Allgret , starred opposite Schneider in the film Lenfer .
Great friends with Jane Fonda , who credits her with getting Fonda interested in politics.
Her last name is pronounced "Seen-yor-ay".
Played by Jordan Mohr in the stage play "Two Simones: de Beauvoir and Signoret in Hollywood.".
In films as well as life, " said Jack Lang, French minister of culture,September 30, 1985, "Miss Signoret was an unshakeable militant, in the,front rank of all the battles for human rights, under all regimes and,on all horizons. It was faith that sustained her, faith in her ideals,of liberty and progress.
[on Ship of Fools (1965) ] Parts of the film are intentionally,unsubtle as life was unsubtle then - rough, tough, incredible,unbelievable, but true. I have a European attitude toward this picture,I suppose. I think it says more than most, a picture that will be seen,twice.
Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is thread, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years.
Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years.
