Signoret, Simone, née Kaminker, Simone Henriette Charlotte

Actress

born: 25.03.1921 in Wiesbaden

died: 30.09.1985 in Auteuil-Anthouillet (near Paris)

Signoret was born in the Red Cross Hospital at the Schöne Aussicht. Her parents André and Georgette (née Signoret) had lived in Wiesbaden since the end of the First World War, where her father worked as a translator for the French occupying army. She moved back to France with her parents in 1923. After the occupation of France by German troops in the summer of 1940, the family fled to London due to her father's Polish-Jewish origins. Signoret returned to Paris without him in the same year. Signoret took her mother's innocuous maiden name, worked as a secretary for a daily newspaper and became a member of a group of artists, writers and actors.

From 1942, she appeared as an extra in films. Until the end of the war, she appeared in a number of other productions as a bit-part actress before she was given her first leading role (a prostitute) in Marcel Blistène's "Macadam" in 1946.

Her breakthrough to screen stardom came in 1952 with "Casque d'or" (Gold Helmet). In further successes such as Marcel Carné's "Thérèse Raquin" (1953) and "Les sorcières de Salem" (1957, The Witches of Salem), she was able to prove her versatility and cement her reputation as one of the most important French actresses of the post-war period. In 1959, she won the Oscar for best actress in Jack Clayton's "Room at the Top" (1959), and nothing stood in the way of her Hollywood career. Nevertheless, Signoret remained in France.

She also frequently appeared alongside her husband Yves Montand (1921-1991), to whom she had been married for a second time since 1951, for example in Arthur Miller's play "Witch Hunt", and campaigned with him for political and social causes.

In her autobiography, which was published in 1976 and translated into 16 languages, Signoret mentions that she no longer had any memories of her native city of Wiesbaden and the early childhood years she spent there.