Michèle Morgan

She was left a widow in 2006.

She retired in 1999 after a few sporadic 90's TV parts.

She also received an honorary Cesar Award in 1992.

They had unbilled cameos in A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later (1986).

She was made an Officer of the French National Order of Merit in 1975.

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972.

President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1971.

Semi-retired by the 1970's, Michèle's last feature film was a small bit in the Marcello Mastroianni film Everybody's Fine (1990).

Was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1969, raised to Officer in 1994, to Grand Officer in 2009 and received the Grand-Croix in 2013.

After The Diary of an Innocent Boy (1968), she has concentrated on painting, designing ties and writing poems. She established her own tie label "Cravates Michèle Morgan" in the late 1970s.

In 1967, she received the 'Médaille de vermeil de la Ville de Paris' (Paris Vermeil Medal).

Her career sadly took a downturn in the 60's when the French New Wave movement came along and its key directors decided to cut ties with classic French cinema, which many of them had largely despised since the days they had been serving as critics for the 'Cahiers du cinéma'. François Truffaut had historically been a detractor of Michèle's work and the only film she did by a New Wave auteur was Claude Chabrol's Bluebeard (1963) as a victim of Charles Denner's murderous title character who's eventually burned down by him to go up in smoke. Cast in movies of little interest for most of the decade, Michèle eventually decided to focus on other successful artistic activities and appeared in film very sporadically in the following years.

Turned down Jeanne Moreau's role in La Notte (1961).

She was made a Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters in 1960.

Following Vidal's sudden death of a heart at age 40 in 1959, the actress married a third time one year later to well-known French actor/writer/director Gérard Oury.

Her relationship with third husband Gérard Oury began on the set of Le miroir a deux faces (1958), when her marriage to actor Henri Vidal was already falling apart (he died at the early age of 40). Oury had so far enjoyed a very solid relationship with actress Jacqueline Roman, but, ironically, he had always been telling her: 'There's only one person I'd leave you for, and that's Michèle Morgan'.

She was awarded the 'Victoire du cinéma Français' for Best Actress in 1954, 1955 and 1956.

Michèle succeeded much better at home continuing prolifically in such films as The Proud and the Beautiful (1953), The Moment of Truth (1952), Oasis (1955), The Grand Maneuver (1955), Shadow of the Guillotine (1956) (as Marie Antoinette), Menschen im Hotel (1959), Bluebeard (1963), Web of Fear (1964), The Diary of an Innocent Boy (1968) and Cat and Mouse (1975).

After their marriage, she and Henri Vidal starred together in La belle que voilà (1950). Doing this, Michèle felt a sense of uneasiness that she believed negatively affected her performance and swore that they would have never worked together again. They were actually teamed up on two later occasions: in L'étrange Madame X (1951) and Too Late to Love (1959).

Her relationship with second husband Henri Vidal secretly began during the shooting of Fabiola (1949), when her marriage to William Marshall was already falling to pieces. Wishing to gain custody of son Mike Marshall once he and Michèle would have divorced, William hired some private detectives to follow her and eventually managed to have her photographed in bed with Vidal. Michèle therefore lost custody of Mike due to adultery, which is ironic, since William had been doing the same thing the whole time, as his relationship with second wife Micheline Presle had started during his marriage to Michèle. Mike consequently spent part of his childhood with William and his new wife Micheline, who helped raising him alongside her daughter Tonie Marshall. In spite of all this, Michèle never bore any hard feelings towards Micheline and always credited her for taking very good care of Mike as a second mother figure.

Husband William Marshall later married actress Micheline Presle. They first met when he and Michèle were staying at the Savoy Hotel during the shooting of her movie, The Fallen Idol (1948), in London. One day they ran into Micheline, who was staying at the hotel before a trip to the US. Michèle, who was her friend, immediately introduced her to William. William and Micheline later took the boat to America and started their affair. Years later, Michèle recalled with irony how, after the hotel encounter, she had mentioned to William how gorgeous Micheline looked, something "he had already noticed".

Her son Mike Marshall, born in 1944, became an actor in both France and Hollywood. He decided this was the path he wanted to take after Michèle brought him to see the shooting of her movie, The Grand Maneuver (1955), and he set eyes on her co-star, Gérard Philipe.

Was immediately skeptical when she was cast in the Frank Sinatra vehicle Higher and Higher (1943), since she had no prior singing experience and was supposed to take a few lessons as quickly as possible. She thought the project to be therefore doomed from the start. The film was a failure and Michèle herself regards her own performance as a disaster.

Cast in rather routine sultry roles amid WWII surroundings, she received only a modest reception for such US-based films as Joan of Paris (1942) with Paul Henreid; Two Tickets to London (1943) with Alan Curtis; Passage to Marseille (1944) opposite Humphrey Bogart; and the noirish The Chase (1946) starring Robert Cummings.

Married during the war and early post-war years (1942-1949) to American actor/singer William Marshall, Michèle's second husband was handsome Gallic star Henri Vidal and they appeared together in a couple of films, including both the historical drama Fabiola (1949) and romantic drama La belle que voilà (1950), plus The Seven Deadly Sins (1952) (albeit different "sin" segments) and Napoléon (1955).

When she first arrived in Hollywood, she was immediately considered for the role of Lina in Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941), but was passed over since her English wasn't deemed good enough. The role went to Joan Fontaine, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Knowing that she had been rejected for this reason, Michèle understood that she had to work hard to perfect her English and, for an entire year, saw a linguistic coach for several hours a day and improved considerably. In an ironic turn of events, she was later offered the role of Belinda in Johnny Belinda (1948), which producers supposed wouldn't give her any difficulty, since it was a mute one. Taking this as a mockery, Michèle turned down the offer. The part was given to Jane Wyman, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Michèle regards this choice as one of her biggest professional mistakes.

Back in the late 1940's, she received the very first Cannes Film Festival award for "best actress" for her touching performance as the blind heroine in Pastoral Symphony (1946).

She had her first top-billed roles in L'entraîneuse (1939) and La loi du nord (1939). Michèle's eventual fled war-torn France for Hollywood and earned roles based purely on her European prestige. She did not stand out among the other female foreign imports of that time, however, such as Ingrid Bergman.

She went on to appear elegantly opposite Charles Boyer in the drama Orage (1938) directed by Allegret; opposite Jean Gabin in Moth and the Flame (1938) directed by Marcel Carné, as well as both Le récif de corail (1939) and Remorques (1941).

The young actress soon caught the eye of director Marc Allégret, who cast her in Heart of Paris (1937), which clinched her stardom. Her remote, enigmatic features and gloomy allure had audiences comparing her to a young Greta Garbo.

Left home at age 15 with her younger brother Paul to pursue an acting career. After winning an extra role in Meet Miss Mozart (1936) through some casting agencies, the movie's director, Yvan Noé, suggested that she perfect her acting technique by taking lessons. One year later she entered René Simon's course of Dramatic Arts (which a few more extra roles helped paying) and chose the pseudonym of Michèle Morgan.

Her father, a departmental head in an export house of fragrances, found himself unemployed after the crisis of 1929 and relocated the family--which included Michèle and her three younger brothers--from the wealthy Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine to Dieppe (Seine-Maritime) in Upper Normandy. It was at the Dieppe Casino that Michèle began to attend stage shows and became enamored with the idea of acting.

A classic beauty, blonde French actress Michèle Morgan was one of her country's most popular leading ladies for over five decades. Born Simone Renee Roussel on Leap Year Day (February 29) in 1920, she ran away from home as a teenager and studied acting under René Simon, beginning her film career at 16 working as a film extra to pay for drama classes.