Actress and French style icon
Born: February 29, 1920;
Died: December 20, 2016
MICHELE Morgan, who has died aged 96, was a French actress and style icon who starred with Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra and was the first winner of the best actress award at Cannes. She was also first choice for the role in Casablanca that went to Ingrid Bergman but lost out when Morgan's studio RKO demanded too much to loan her to Warner Bros.
Her best-known film was probably 1938's Port of Shadows, in which she starred as the lover of an army deserter played by Jean Gabin. In the film, Gabin tells Morgan "You have beautiful eyes, you know" to which she replies, "Kiss me." It was the beginning of Morgan's reputation as having the "most beautiful eyes in cinema".
Morgan was just 18 years old at the time she made Port of Shadows but the film made a huge impression and attracted the attention of Hollywood. She joined RKO but struggled to find good roles and dismissed many of her films as "those stinkers". However, she did play the girlfriend of an unhappily married butler played by Ralph Richardson in Carol Reed's 1948 film The Fallen Idol, which was nominated for two Oscars.
She had headed for Hollywood in 1940 after Germany invaded France. She was born Simone Roussel in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, but grew up mainly in Dieppe before running away from home to stay with her grandmother and become an actress.
She started working as an extra in the 1930s before landing bigger roles. Her breakthrough was as a young girl accused of a crime of passion in Marc Allegret's 1937 film Heart of Paris. Allegret also cast her in his 1938 film Storm.
After her move to Hollywood, she appeared in Joan of Paris about the French Resistance, which also starred Paul Henreid in his film debut. In 1943, she also appeared in Higher and Higher which featured Frank Sinatra in his first acting role.
The same year Morgan screen tested for Casablanca. She did not win the role, but did go on to appear with Bogart in 1944's Passage to Marseilles, which had the same director as Casablanca, Michael Curtiz, as well as some of the same cast.
Morgan did not enjoy the experience however and was already bored with Hollywood. She had built a house in Los Angeles at 10050 Cielo Drive, which later became famous as the site of the Manson family murders in 1969, and married the American actor William Marshall, but after the marriage ended, she decided to return to France.
Back home, she immediately resumed her career and in 1946 was awarded first best actress award at Cannes for her portrayal of a blind woman in Pastoral Symphony.
Her career continued with Fabiola (1949), The Glass Castle (1950), The Proud and the Beautiful (1953) and Shadow of the Guillotine (1956), in which she played Marie Antoinette before the French New Wave effectively killed off her film career, although she continued to appear occasionally in films and television series. She also launched a silk tie business.
She received many awards during her career, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, France's Legion of Honor in 1969 and an honourary Cesar for her contributions to French cinema in 1992. She also won the Career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1996. She published her autobiography, With These Eyes, in 1977.
In a statement, the French president Francois Hollande said Morgan had personified elegance and grace. He said: "Michele Morgan was more than just a gaze. Her legend left its mark on many generations."
Morgan was pre-deceased by her second husband and her son. She is survived by her six grandchildren.
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