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Mylène Demongeot, originally uploaded by Truus, Bob & Jan too!.

Beautiful Myléne Demongeot (1936) became in 1957 one of the blond sex symbols of the French cinema when she seduced Yves Montand in Les sorcières de Salem. The coquettish French actress would go on to co-star in the three Fantômas adventures and many other European films of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Ín the 1980’s she also became a producer. She was born as Marie-Helene Demongeot into a family of actors. She studied dramatic art with Marie Ventura and at the age of 17 she made her film debut in a supporting role in Les enfants de l'amour (1953, Léonide Moguy). With appearances in three or four feature films every year, she rose to international fame in the late 1950’s. She had a memorable seduction scene in Les sorcières de Salem (1957, Raymond Rouleau), based on the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Her first notable leading role was in Sois belle et tais-toi (1958, Marc Allégret), where she played a 17-year-old jewel smuggler. She further developed her screen image of a manipulative but humorous blond mistress opposite David Niven in Bonjour tristesse (1958, Otto Preminger), and opposite Alain Delon in the comedy Faibles femmes (1959). Many of her screen assignments were along the ooh-la-la lines of her Swedish maid in the British Upstairs, Downstairs (1959, Ralph Thomas). She played opposite Steve Reeves in the sword and sandal epic La battaglia di Maratona (1959, Jacques Tourneur), with Rosanna Schiaffino and Elsa Martinelli in La notte brava (1959, Mauro Bolognini) based on a script by Pier Paolo Pasolini, again with Elsa Marinelli in the comedy Un amore a Roma (1960, Dino Risi) and with Roger Moore in Il ratto delle sabine (1961, Richard Pottier).

Among her best known film-works are the role of manipulative Milady de Winter in the adventure Les trois mousquetaires (1961, Bernard Borderie) and the role of Helen in the Fantômas trilogy (1964-1967, André Hunebelle), co-starring with Jean Marais and Louis de Funès. Although she gradually fazed out of her stereotypical image of a beautiful French coquette, she still looked pretty convincing in the image of a mid-aged Madame, which she developed in the 1980’s in films like Tenue de soirée (1986, Bertrand Blier). On tv she starred in the detective series Il professore (1988-1989, Steno) and in The Man Who Lived at the Ritz (1988, Desmond Davis). She also was the co-owner of the Kangarou Films production company, which she founded with her late husband, director Marc Simenon, the son of Georges Simenon. They produced a number of films in the 1980's like Signé Furax (1981, Marc Simenon). She made a comeback in 36 Quai des Orfevres (2004, Olivier Marchal) and Victoire (2004, Stephanie Murat). Her latest films were Camping (2006, Fabien Onteniente), La Californie (2006, Jacques Fieschi), based on a short story by Georges Simenon and Sous les toits de Paris (2007, Hiner Saleem). Demongeot is currently residing in Nice in the south of France. She is named Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters for her achievements in acting.

Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Hal Erickson (All Movie Guide), Wikipedia, Perfect People and IMDb

German postcard by Kruger, nr. 902/76.