Simone Signoret - ©Theda Bara

The name I bring to you in this post is Simone Signoret, a French actress born in Germany who acted in films in France, the United States, England and Italy. She was the first French actress to win an Oscar in 1960, for her performance in “Room at the Top” (1959), playing “Alice Aisgill”. 

In addition to the Oscar, the actress won three BAFTAs: for Best Foreign Actress for the films: “Room at the Top” (1958); “La Croix” (1959) and “The Crystal World” (1966), playing the character “Crystal”; a César Award for Best Actress from the French Film Academy; an Emmy for her participation in the program “Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre”; Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival/Palme d’Or, in 1959.

Considered one of the most popular actresses in French cinema, Simone Signoret, incredibly, does not have a star on the Los Angeles Walk of Fame, despite having won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1960.

Simone Signoret, born: Simone-Henriette-Charlotte Kaminker, on March 25, 1921, in Wiesbaden, Germany, and died on September 30, 1985, in Autheuil-Authouillet, France, at the age of 64.

Simone Signoret was married twice, first to the French filmmaker Yves Allégret (1905-1987), from 1944 to 1949. The couple had two sons: Patrick, who died days after birth, in 1944, and a daughter, also an actress, Catherine Allégret (1946-); and then she married the Italian actor and singer naturalized French Ivo Livi, better known as Yves Montand (1921-1991) from  1951 to 1985, with whom she had no children.