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.

Alain Delon - ©Theda Bara

The name I bring to you in this post is that of the French-Swiss actor and businessman Alain Delon, who after going through long periods of depression, passed away on the 18th, in France.

The actor made hundreds of films and his greatest success was the film: “Plein Soleil” (1960) playing the character “Tom Ripley”. In (1999) the film was adapted for the American cinema with the title: “The Talented Mr. Ripley”.

Although he was widely recognized in Hollywood, Alain Delon, because he was a foreigner, does not have a star on the Los Angeles Walk of Fame.

The actor has never been nominated for an Oscar, but he won the Honorary Palme d’Or in 2019, the most important award of his career.

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon, was born on November 8, 1935, in Sceaux, France, and died on August 18, 2024, in Douchy-Montcorbon, France, at the age of 88.

Alain Delon was known as an incorrigible womanizer. But the great love of his life was the French actress and model Mireille D’Arc (1938-2017). The intensity of these relationships continued even after the actor got married and separated. Delon publicly declared that Mireille D’Arc was the woman of his life. Another love outside of marriage was with the French-German actress Rosemarie Magdalena Albach, known as Romy Schneider (1938-1982). His marriage on paper and in church was with the French actress Nathalie Delon (1941-2021). Nathalie died at the age of 79, having been Mrs. Delon for only 5 years, from 1964 to 1969. The couple had one son, the American-born French actor Georges Alain Anthony Delon (1964-). The actor also has two children with Dutch journalist Rosalie van Breemen (1966-), French-Dutch actress Anouchka Delon (1990-) and French model Alain-Fabien Delon (1994-).