“I see myself as a girl who is always dreaming of romance, and the man she wants to marry, a girl who dances when she is happy.”
Francoise Dorléac
Françoise Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve‘s talented sister, made her first film when she was just 15.
“A photographer asked if I would model for some fashion pictures and I said ‘fine’. A producer saw my pictures in the press and hired me for a small role for a film during the school holidays.”
After all, acting was a family obession. Her father, Maurice Dorleac, was an actor of stage and screen; her mother, Renee Simonot, was an actress as well; and we all know her younger sister, Catherine Deneuve, a true 60’s icon.
Françoise made sixteen films during her short career, including Roman Polanski’s film Cul de Sac and Francois Truffaut’s tale of adultery La Peau Douce (aka The Soft Skin.
On 26 June 1967, at the age of 25, Françoise died in an horrific accident when she lost control of her rented car on the Esterel-Côte d’Azur freeway. She was traveling to Nice airport to fly to London, where she was filming The Billion Dollar Brain . The car flipped over and burst into flames. Witnesses saw the actress struggle to escape from the vehicle, but she was unable to open the door. Police identified Dorleac from a stub of her check book, her diary and her driving license.
Catherine Deneuve never recovered from the terrible death of her sister. Her early death robbed cinema of “a tried and true talent and incomparably beautiful mademoiselle who showed every sign of taking Hollywood by storm.”
We’d like to pay tribute to her with some of her most beautiful pictures. We will always love you, Francoise!
