Jeanne Moreau Biography
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- Born Jan. 23, 1928
Jeanne Moreau (French pronunciation:Β β[Κan mΙΚo]; 23 January 1928 β 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director. She won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for Seven Days... Seven Nights (1960) (which she shared with Melina Mercouri for her role in Never on Sunday), the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for Viva Maria! (1965), and the CΓ©sar Award for Best Actress for The Old Lady Who Walked in the Sea (1992). She was also the recipient of several lifetime awards, including a BAFTA Fellowship in 1996, Cannes Golden Palm in 2003 and CΓ©sar Award in 2008. \n', 'Moreau made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the ComΓ©die-FranΓ§aise. She began playing small roles in films in 1949, with impressive performances in the Fernandel vehicle Meurtres? (Three Sinners, 1950) and alongside Jean Gabin as a showgirl/gangster\'s moll in the film Touchez pas au grisbi (1954). She achieved prominence as the star of Elevator to the Gallows (1958), directed by Louis Malle, and Jules et Jim (1962), directed by FranΓ§ois Truffaut. Most prolific during the 1960s, Moreau continued to appear in films into her 80s.\n', 'Moreau was born in Paris, the daughter of Katherine (nΓ©e Buckley), a dancer who performed at the Folies BergΓ¨re (d. 1990), and Anatole-DΓ©sirΓ© Moreau, a restaurateur (d. 1975). Moreau\'s father was French; her mother was English, a native of Oldham, Lancashire, England and of part Irish descent. Moreau\'s father was Catholic and her mother, originally a Protestant, converted to Catholicism upon marriage. When a young girl, "the family moved south to Vichy, spending vacations at the paternal ancestral village of Mazirat, a town of 30 houses in a valley in the Allier. "It was wonderful there", Moreau said. "Every tombstone in the cemetery was for a Moreau". During the World War II, the family was split, and Moreau lived with her mother in Paris. Moreau ultimately lost interest in school at age 16, and after attending a performance of Jean Anouilh\'s Antigone, found her calling as an actor. She later studied at the Conservatoire de Paris. Her parents separated permanently while Moreau was at the conservatory and her mother, "after 24 difficult years in France, returned to England with Jeanne\'s sister, Michelle."\n', '
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