Françoise Dorléac

Short Biography

Françoise Dorléac (21 March 1942 – 26 June 1967) was a French actress. She was the daughter of screen actor Maurice Dorléac and Renée Simonot, and the elder sister of Catherine Deneuve. The two sisters starred together in the 1967 musical, The Young Girls of Rochefort. Her other films include Philippe de Broca's movie L'Homme de Rio, François Truffaut's La Peau douce, Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac and Val Guest's Where the Spies Are.Biography Slim, pale-skinned and brunette, Dorléac appeared in several movies before hitting stardom with François Truffaut's melodrama La Peau douce (1964) and the classic spy spoof L'Homme de Rio (1964) with Jean-Paul Belmondo. She also appeared in the comedy films Arsène Lupin contre Arsène Lupin (1962) opposite Jean-Claude Brialy, and Male Hunt (1964).She appeared as the adulterous wife in Roman Polanski's black comedy Cul-de-sac, and joined Gene Kelly and her sister Catherine Deneuve, who was a cinematic star by this time, in the candy-coated The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), a colorful homage to the Hollywood musical. Other non-French movie credits included Genghis Khan (1965), Where the Spies Are (1965) with David Niven, and Billion Dollar Brain (1967) opposite Michael Caine.Death Dorléac was on the brink of international stardom when she died on 26 June 1967 in a motor accident. She lost control of a rented Renault 10 and hit a signpost ten kilometres from Nice at the Villeneuve-Loubet exit of the highway La Provençale. The car flipped over, and burst into flames. She had been en route to Nice airport and was afraid of missing her flight. She was seen struggling to get out of the car, but was unable to open the door. Police later identified her body only from the fragment of a cheque book, a diary and her driver's licence.