Marthe Mercadier died at the age of 92 this Wednesday, September 15, 2021, in Puteaux. Singer, actress in the theater but also in the cinema, her career has marked French popular culture.
It is in a press release published in AFP this Wednesday, September 15, 2021 that Marthe Mercadier’s only daughter, Véronique Néry, announced the death of the star of the boulevard theater. The 92-year-old actress suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. “My mom passed away this morning around 5 am. She had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years. I accompanied her to the end”, can we read. If Marthe Mercadier was not on the boards for a long time, no one has forgotten her and will never forget her. The actress and singer has made a whole generation of spectators dream, making her a known face of 20th century boulevard theater.
It must be said that Marthe Mercadier was unparalleled verve and repartee. His charisma and his authority on stage left no one indifferent. She spent her impressive energy on stage in the 1940s at the Saint-Georges theater. Marthe Mercadier will never leave this passion so lively for playing on stage. Later, even after years without having acted, she will admit this particular affection which she has for the theater. “The theatrics, here is my family of heart”, she said in a biography published in 2011, published by Flammarion. However, Marthe Mercadier has indeed met with success in the cinema as well. We saw him, for example, face Louis de Funès in Flea in the ear by Georges Feydeau. “In the theater, we do our job. In the cinema, we depend on the profession of others”, could we also read in his biography.
Marthe Mercadier: a childhood rocked by the world of entertainment
If the world of entertainment has been so important to Marthe Mercadier, it is undoubtedly thanks to the education she received. Granddaughter of Victor Mercadier, administrator of Sacem, she rubbed shoulders very early with key figures on the scene. At the age of 5, the actress was auditioned by Josephine Baker herself. From childhood, she hangs out in the corridors of theaters, on stage or between two red armchairs where her grandfather’s friends play. Besides Joséphine Baker, among these, we also count Mistinguett and Maurice Chevalier. Just that !
Marthe Mercadier would have wanted to express her frankness and her charisma on stage all her life. Unfortunately, illness prevented her from continuing to walk on the stage, she who dreamed of being on stage every night until the end of her days, even if it meant dying there.