20th-century French actresses

Yvonne_de_Bray

Yvonne de Bray (12 May 1889 – 1 February 1954) was a French stage and film actress. She was born Yvonne Laurence Blanche de Bray in Paris and died there.
In 1939, she and her partner Violette Morris invited Jean Cocteau to stay with them at their houseboat docked at Pont de Neuilly where he wrote the three-act play Les Monstres sacrés. She was a successful stage actress but it was Cocteau who introduced her as a film actress in his 1943 film, L'Éternel retour.

Anicée_Alvina

Anicée Alvina, also known as Anicée Schahmaneche (born Anicée Shahmanesh or Anicee Schahmane (Persian: انیسه شاهمنش; 28 January 1953 – 11 November 2006) was a French singer and actress.

Germaine_Sablon

Germaine Sablon (19 July 1899 at Le Perreux-sur-Marne – 17 April 1985 at Saint-Raphael) was a French singer, film actress and a WWII French Resistance fighter.
She starred in some 15 films between 1920 and 1956.

Polaire

Émilie Marie Bouchaud (14 May 1874 – 14 October 1939), better known by her stage name Polaire, was a French singer and actress, who became internationally known. She performed also in the United States and London, and in films.
She was notable for her wasp waist which, achieved through corsetry, reportedly measured less than 16 inches (41 cm). She was also known for her eccentric stage presence, which generated mixed receptions.

Florelle

Florelle (born Odette Élisa Joséphine Marguerite Rousseau, 9 August 1898 – 28 September 1974) was a French soprano singer and actress. She gained fame as Polly Peachum in the French film The Threepenny Opera, after which she had numerous other film roles. In the 1940s, she retired from the stage, but continued to make film appearances during the war.

Gaby_Deslys

Gaby Deslys (born Marie-Elise-Gabrielle Caire, 4 November 1881 – 11 February 1920) was a French singer and actress during the early 20th century. She selected her name for her stage career, and it is a contraction of Gabrielle of the Lillies. During the 1910s she was exceedingly popular worldwide, making $4,000 a week in the United States alone ($125,629 in 2022 dollars ). She performed several times on Broadway, at the Winter Garden Theater, and performed in a show with a young Al Jolson. Her dancing was so popular that The Gaby Glide was named for her.Renowned for her beauty, she was courted by several wealthy gentlemen including King Manuel II of Portugal. She eventually made the leap to silent films, making her only U.S. film Her Triumph with Famous Players–Lasky in 1915. She would make a handful of films in France before her death. In 1919 she contracted Spanish influenza and underwent several operations trying to cure a throat infection caused by the disease. She died from complications of the infection in Paris in 1920, at the age of 38.

Caroline_Paulus

Caroline von Paulus (born 1 March 1959) is a French actress, fashion model and singer, better known by her stage name Bambou. She was the partner of the French singer Serge Gainsbourg from 1981 until his death in 1991. Their son Lucien 'Lulu' Gainsbourg was born in 1986.