Michèle Morgan

Born in 1920 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Michèle Morgan began working as a film extra at age 15 to pay for drama classes. The young actress soon caught the eye of director Marc Allégret who cast her in the star-making Gribouille (1937). She soon appeared in a succession of roles, most memorably opposite Jean Gabin in Marcel Carné's fatalistic Port of Shadows. Her remote, enigmatic features and gloomy allure had audiences comparing her to a young Greta Garbo.

During the war, she was cast in several Hollywood movies, but she did not stand out among the other female foreign imports of that time, such as Ingrid Bergman. Cast in rather routine sultry roles amid WWII surroundings, she returned to her homeland after a so-so reception in such Hollywood fare as Joan of Paris (1942), with Paul Henreid, Passage to Marseille (1944), opposite Humphrey Bogart, and the noirish The Chase (1946). Michèle was treated much better at home and received the Cannes Film Festival's award for best actress for her touching performance as the blind heroine in La Symphonie Pastorale (1946).

Rialto Pictures