Arletty (COMÉDIENNES)
31 Rue Raynouard, 75016 Paris, France

Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat, known professionally as Arletty, was a French actress, singer, and fashion model. As an actress she is particularly known for classics directed by Marcel Carné, including Hotel du Nord (1938), Le jour se lève (1939) and Children of Paradise (1945). She was found guilty of treason for an affair with German Luftwaffe officer Hans-Jürgen Soehring, during World War II. One of her final screen appearances was in a small role as an elderly French woman in The Longest Day (1962).

Jean Garretto (PRODUCTEURS ET PRESENTATEURS DE L’O.R.T.F.)
4 Av. Alphonse XIII, 75016 Paris, France

In 1968, radio producers Jean Garretto and Pierre Codou created the concept of France Inter weekends under the name of TSF, which would become L’Oreille en coin. The radio program was made up of several broadcasts that went out on France Inter during Saturdays (afternoons) and Sundays (morning and afternoon) between March 1968 and July 1990. The show’s theme song (from 1972) was Big Fat Man, a composition by Alain Boublil under the pseudonym Jim Wild Carson.

Claude Rostand (PRODUCTEURS ET PRESENTATEURS DE L’O.R.T.F.)
7 Rue Chernoviz, 75016 Paris, France

Music critic Claude Rostand studied literature and law at the Sorbonne while also taking lessons privately in piano, harmony, counterpoint and composition at the Paris Conservatory. He is well known by readers of Le Monde, Le Figaro, and the magazine Carrefour for his knowledgeable insights on contemporary music, particularly 19th and 20th century avant-garde music. In 1961 he became vice-president of the ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) and later in the sixties made a film about Erik Satie for Baden-Baden television.

Gordana Pechitch (DANSEUSES)
23, rue Raynouard, Paris

During the 1960s dancer Gordana Pechitch appeared in stage productions at home and abroad. At the start of the decade she was one of the high-kicking top hat wearing dancers who accompanied Marlene Dietrich at L’Olympia in 1962. Later in 1964, she swapped the Paris stage for Broadway when she supported Patachou in revue show Folies Bergère. It ran for 5 months in New York City, and included premier performers such as Georges Ulmer and Nicole Croisille on the bill.

Jean Fontaine (PRODUCTEURS ET PRESENTATEURS DE L’O.R.T.F.)
4 Rue des Eaux, 75016 Paris, France

Jean Fontaine started in public radio after WW2, first as an announcer, then as a presenter and producer of the variety show Prestige de la musique (formerly Discoparade). The programme often brought together conductors, vocalists and instrumental soloists who were not well known in France but who would later become stars, powerful performers such as Placido Domingo and Montserrat Caballe. These concerts took place in Paris, at the Salle Pleyel and around the Orchestre national and the Philharmonique (of ORTF then Radio France).

Anne Béranger (COMÉDIENNES)
4 Rue Charles Dickens, 75016 Paris, France

French-Egyptian choreographer, actress and singer Anne Beranger burst onto Paris’ creative scene in the 1950s. Her first success was in the theatre, in Raymond Vincy and Jean Valmy’s J’y suis, j’y reste at the Théâtre du Gymnase. She quickly transferred to film and TV, but these were largely in supporting roles, although regular readers of this website will be pleased to hear she chalked up an appearance in the ubiquitous cop drama Les Cinq Dernières Minutes. As an all rounder, Béranger showcased her vocal talents in the operetta La Quincaillière de Chicago, and her soprano voice soared alongside the piano of Setrak Yavruyanher in Cocteau and Poulenc’s La Voix humaine. Recordings of both these works were released. Perhaps Béranger will be best remembered for the contemporary dance company she founded in 1969, which survived beyond her death in 1983.

René Urtreger – Piano
7 Rue des Eaux, 75016 Paris, France

One of the greats of French jazz piano, Rene Urteger would appear alongside some of the most iconic international players on the scene, including Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Lester Young, Stephane Grappelli and Lionel Hampton. His work will resonate with a generation of film lovers as he appeared on the improvised soundtrack for Louis Malle’s 1958 masterpiece Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows). In 1960, he won the Django Reinhardt prize for the album HUM (Humair, Urtreger, Michelot), and a year later was awarded the Prix Django Reinhardt.

Edmond Agabra (REALISATEURS DE CINEMA & TV)
1 Rue des Eaux, 75016 Paris, France

Romanian born Edmond Agabra started in the film industry as an assistant director to Henri Decoin on a number of his films throughout the 1950s. He made his debut as a director in his own right during the 60s with the desert adventure film El secreto de los hombres azules. It starred Lex Barker and Marpessa Dawn, in her first film appearance after her award winning appearance in Marcel Camus’ Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus).

Fabienne del Rez (COMEDIENNES)
1 Rue des Eaux, 75016 Paris, France
An early appearance in actress Fabienne del Rez’s career was at the Théâtre de la Commune d’Aubervilliers in Jean-Pierre Chabrol’s Ma déchirure (1968). The theatre was relatively young, a former venue for hosting balls, meetings, and boxing matches; it had been transformed into a community theatre in 1960 by Gabriel Garran. On screen Fabienne del Rez would fill supporting roles in the film Vas-y maman (1978) and a couple of episodes of Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret, with Jean Richard as the lead.

Colette Gérard (COMEDIENNES)
30 Av. du Président Kennedy, 75016 Paris

The career of actress Colette Gérard was a short-lived one. Straddling both theatre and TV be was neatly contained in the decade of the 1960s. Although she made her theatre debut in 1961 in Edgard et sa bonne, it wasn’t until the mid 60s that the bright lights of Paris beckoned, with appearances in Assassins associés at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, and La Perruche et le Poulet at Le Vaudeville. Alongside the theatre she played modest roles on TV, and yes you guessed it, that included an episode of Les cinq dernières minutes in 1967.

Marcel Dalio (COMÉDIENS)
30 Av. du Président Kennedy, 75016 Paris

French character actor Marcel Dalio first gained international renown with major roles in Jean Renoir’s masterworks Grand Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939). Although those two films established Dalio as a major star in his native France, there were difficult times ahead for the Romanian-Jewish actor after the Nazis took control of Paris in WW2. Dalio fled Europe for the United States, taking stereotypical roles as a Frenchman in American-made films. He participated in 19 films during this period, including One Night in Lisbon (1941), and Casablanca (1942). After the war ended, he returned to France and worked on ten French films and a British film too. In the mid-fifties, he appeared in four American films, earning more substantial parts in comedic romps such as “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1953) and the Audrey Hepburn-starred “Sabrina” (1954).

Blanchette Brunoy (COMÉDIENNES)
36 Av. du Président Kennedy, 75016 Paris

Actress Blanchette Brunoy appeared in over 90 film and television productions between 1936 and 1998. She is best-remembered for her roles in such films as Jean Renoir’s La Bête Humaine (1938) and Marcel Carné’s La Marie du port (1950). After studying at the Paris Conservatory, she was hired by Paulette Pax at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre (Nationale 6, 1935), followed by Jean Cocteau’s Les Chevaliers de la table ronde at the same venue. In the 1960s her appearances on television outweighed those in the cinema, with the obligatory role in every Parisian actors favourite show, Les cinq dernières minutes.

Mireille Darc (COMEDIENNES)
25 Av. du Président Kennedy, 75016 Paris, France

Model and actress Mireille Darc starred in the lead role of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film Weekend. Darc debuted in Claude Barma’s television drama Du côté de l’enfer (aka, La Grande Brétèche, 1960), and her first leading role came in another production for French television, Jean Prat’s Hauteclaire (1961). In total she acted in 56 films, often playing roles of liberated women. She was the companion of Alain Delon for fifteen years and several times his partner on screen.