Simone Kaminker , known as Simone Signoret (1921 – 1985), was a French actress and writer. She notably won a César for best actress for her role in La Vie avant soi .
First roles
Daughter of Georgette Signoret and André Kaminker, journalist of Polish origin, Simone Kaminker, born March 25 1921 in Wiesbaden, Germany, is the eldest of three children. During the Second World War, taking refuge in Brittany with her family, Simone studied in Vannes and was notably taught by Lucie Aubrac. In 1941, she returned to Paris and worked as a secretary for the collaborationist journalist Jean Luchaire. The daughter of the latter, Corinne Luchaire, is an actress and helps Simone to get into the figuration in the cinema. It was during this period that Simone began to use her mother's name as her stage name.
In 1943, after several extra roles, she met Yves Allégret, a director with whom she had a daughter, Catherine, in 1946 and with whom she married in 1948. In 1946, she obtained her first significant role in the film Macadamia by Marcel Blistene; her interpretation earned her the Suzanne-Bianchetti prize for the most promising young actress the following year. In 1948 and 1950, Yves gave Simone two main roles:that of a prostitute in Dédée d’Anvers and that of a manipulative wife in Manèges . In 1949, Simone left her husband for the young singer Yves Montand, whom she married in 1951.
The Oscar for Best Actress
Simone Signoret subsequently obtained other leading roles, was successful and became a star, notably with her role as a prostitute in Casque d'or in 1951 or as a teacher in Les Diaboliques in 1954. She and her husband received many artists and intellectuals of the time in the house, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Serge Reggiani. Close to the Communist Party, the couple went on tour in the countries of the Eastern bloc, but came back disillusioned and distanced themselves from the party.
In 1959, Simone and Yves moved to the United States. The following year, Simone became the first French actress to receive the Oscar for best actress, for her performance as an actress in the film Les Chemins de la haute ville . She then returned to France and played in many films, sometimes political, working in particular alongside Costa-Gavras, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, or even Patrice Chéreau. In 1978, she won the César for best actress by playing Madame Rosa, a former prostitute survivor of Auschwitz who opened a clandestine boarding house, in La Vie avant soi .
From 1981, Simone began to have serious health problems, particularly due to her consumption of alcohol and tobacco. Operated of the gallbladder, it becomes slowly blind but continues in spite of everything its cinematographic career. Suffering from pancreatic cancer, Simone Signoret died at her home in Autheuil-Authouillet on September 30, 1985. She was buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery, where Yves Montand would join her six years later.