Mireille Balin
Mireille Balin and Fosco Giachetti in The Siege of the Alcazar (1940)
Born
Blanche Mireille Césarine Balin

(1909-07-20)20 July 1909
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Died9 November 1968(1968-11-09) (aged 59)
Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France
Years active1932–1948

Mireille Césarine Balin (born Blanche Mireille Césarine Balin; 20 July 1909, in Monte Carlo – 9 November 1968 in Paris)[1] was a French-Italian actress.

Balin was born near Monte Carlo. Her father, Charles Balin, was a French newspaper publisher. Her mother was Italian. Her education came at finishing schools.[2] She was a policewoman in Paris until friends urged her to take a screen test.[3]

Balin posed for some advertisements in Paris before she began acting in films.[2] Considered one of the finest actresses of French cinema in the 1930s, she was discredited by her fraternization with the Nazis. During Nazi occupation of France, she became romantically involved with an officer of the Wehrmacht and at the end of war she was imprisoned in Fresnes until January 1945. She retired from film in 1947.[1]

Balin arrived in Hollywood in 1937 with a staff of servants and with 28 trunks containing "most of her worldly possessions.[2]

During the final 10 years of her life she lived in a "charitable home".[4] Balin died in 1968, aged 59.[4]

Filmography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Balin, Mireille (1911–1968)." Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages, edited by Anne Commire and Deborah Klezmer, vol. 1, Yorkin Publications, 2007, p. 123. Gale eBooks. Accessed 11 Aug. 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Harrison, Paul. "Mireille Balin, European Beauty, Being Groomed to Match Hollywood Pattern". The St. Louis Star and Times. NEA. p. 26. Retrieved 15 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Policewoman Becomes Actress". The San Francisco Examiner. American Weekly, Inc. 26 March 1933. p. 64. Retrieved 15 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 "Mireille Balin, 59, Is Bead; French Actress in the '30's". The New York Times. Reuters. 10 November 1968. p. 88. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.