A life dedicated to the cinematic art that is dying out. Micheline Presle died on Wednesday February 21, 2024 at the venerable age of 101. The actress, revealed by the film The Devil in the body in 1936, died peacefully at the National House of Artists in Nogent-sur-Marne, in Val-de-Marne. The announcement was confirmed by his son-in-law, Olivier Bomselhas BFM TV, after a first declaration to theAFP. Micheline Presle, born August 22, 1922 in Paris, left behind a prolific career that spanned nearly nine decades. François Truffaut, the famous filmmaker, described it as “the greatest actress in the world”a tribute immortalized in his critical collection The films of my life in 1975. The exact circumstances of his death remain unknown at this stageand the funeral of the great lady of French cinema will be held “in privacy”.
Micheline Presle, the actress with more than 150 films
Micheline Presle began her career in the 1930s. After a first success in 1939 with the film Young Girls in Distress, she has quickly won over audiences with his artistic versatility. During the Occupation period, she starred in iconic films such as the count of Monte Cristo (1943) and Children of Paradise (1945), thus contributing to the history of French cinema. Over the decades, she has worked alongside prestigious directors such as Max Ophüls, René Clément and Maurice Tourneur. His fame also crossed national bordersplaying alongside international stars like Rock Hudson in The Seventh Veil (1945) and Gary Cooper in The challenge (1960). In addition to his exploits in the cinema, where she has appeared in more than 150 films, Micheline Presle shone on the stage of the theater. Her contribution to the film industry was rewarded on several occasions, notably by the Best Actress Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, for her role in The Lovers of Montparnasse. She had also appeared in two of her daughter’s films, Tony Marshall, to whom she had passed on her passion for cinema. As a reminder, the director died in March 2020, at the age of 68.