- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- The French Bette Davis
- Height5′ 2½″ (1.59 m)
- When people gave Louis Malle credit for making a star of Jeanne Moreau in Elevator to the Gallows (1958) immediately followed by The Lovers (1958), he would point out that Moreau by that time had already been "recognized as the prime stage actress of her generation." She had made it to the Comédie Française in her 20s. She had appeared in B-movie thrillers with Jean Gabin and Ascenseur was in that genre. The technicians at the film lab went to the producer after seeing the first week of dailies for Ascenseur and said: "You must not let Malle destroy Jeanne Moreau". Malle explained: "She was lit only by the windows of the Champs Elysées. That had never been done. Cameramen would have forced her to wear a lot of make-up and they would put a lot of light on her, because, supposedly, her face was not photogenic". This lack of artifice revealed Moreau's "essential qualities: she could be almost ugly and then ten seconds later she would turn her face and would be incredibly attractive. But she would be herself".
Moreau has told interviewers that the characters she played were not her. But even the most famous film critic of his generation, Roger Ebert, thinks that she is a lot like her most enduring role, Catherine in François Truffaut's Jules and Jim (1962). Behind those eyes and that enigmatic smile is a woman with a mind. In a review of The Clothes in the Wardrobe (1993) Ebert wrote: "Jeanne Moreau has been a treasure of the movies for 35 years... Here, playing a flamboyant woman who nevertheless keeps her real thoughts closely guarded, she brings about a final scene of poetic justice as perfect as it is unexpected".
Moreau made her debut as a director in Lumiere (1976) -- also writing the script and playing Sarah, an actress the same age as Moreau whose romances are often with directors for the duration of making a film. She made several films with Malle.
Still active in international cinema, Moreau presided over the jury of the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dale O'Connor <daleoc@worldnet.att.net> - Her father was a Sorbonne professor of zoology with a famous butterfly collection and she was destined for a career as a botanist but two months before taking her doctorate she had an uncontrollable sneezing attack while on a field trip. A medical examination proved she'd developed allergies to 13 types of pollen. Rather than continually suffering she switched to acting after she'd slipped away from school to see a performance of Comedy Francaise and fell in love with the stage and against her father's wishes started a stage career. At 18 she was the youngest member of the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art.At 19 she made her drama debut in 'A Month in the Country'. She was a member of Comedy Francaise until 1952 then Theatre National Populaire then was in the Boulevard production of 'The Shinning Hour' for two years. Other plays included 'Pygmalion', 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. In 1958 she met film director Louis Malle and made her first film, Elevator to the Gallows (1958) ('Stairs to the Scaffold') and won critical acclaim .- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- SpousesWilliam Friedkin(February 8, 1977 - 1979) (divorced)Jean-Louis Richard(September 27, 1949 - 1951) (divorced, 1 child)
- Unconventional, earthy sexiness
- Emotionally unstable, passionate characters
- Considered by Orson Welles as "the greatest actress in the world".
- Her only son, Jerome, was seriously injured in a car accident during the shooting of Seven Days... Seven Nights (1960); the driver was Jean-Paul Belmondo, her co-star in that film. The then-ten-year-old Jerome survived the accident to become a successful painter.
- In January of 2000 she walked off the set of the TV series ER (1994).
- After the end of her affair with director Louis Malle (1959), she had a long correspondence with Ingmar Bergman, who developed a film project for her, "L'Amour Monstre". The film was never made, because Moreau couldn't learn Swedish and Bergman couldn't learn French.
- Agreed to be paid in silver plates for her work in Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight (1965), because of the limited budget.
- While I'm doing the role, I'm the part. I'm the person. But once I'm finished I'm me.
- I've worked hard. I'm passionate and my world is cinema, acting, theater, creativity, art, painting, books, music, sculpture, landscapes, movements of people in the streets. Everything.
- Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself.
- Don't take care of yourself because you want to stop time. Do it for self-respect. It's an incredible gift, the energy of life. You don't have to be a wreck. You don't have to be sick. One's aim in life should be to die in good health. Just like a candle that burns out.
The life you had is nothing. It is the life you have that is important.
Some people are addicts. If they don't act, they don't exist. - At the beginning of my career, I was seeking something traditional, strict; just to prove to my father that being an actress is not being a whore.
- The Old Lady Who Walked in the Sea (1995) - $400,000
- Viva Maria! (1965) - $200,000
- The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1965) - $70,000
- The Train (1965) - $60,000
- Diary of a Chambermaid (1965) - $50,000
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