Delair, Suzy

(1917- )

   Actress. Born Suzanne Delaire, Suzy Delair apparently wanted to pursue acting from a very young age, although her parents attempted to discourage her. Delair persisted, nonetheless, and began her career as a costume designer for the theater and the cinema. She went on to become a stage actress and music-hall performer, singing and dancing as well as acting, before making her debut in film.

   Delair's first screen appearances were in 1930, when she had a small role in Willy Wolff's Le Caprice de la Pompadour (1930). This role was followed by roles in Henry Roussel's Les Violettes impériales (1932) and Alexander Korda's La Dame de chez Maxim's (1932). The following year, Delair had a supporting role in Maurice Champreux's Touchons du bois (1933) and in Robert Siodomak's Le Sexe faible (1933). Slowly, the roles increased in number and in importance, as Delair appeared in Curtis Bernhardt's L'Or dans la rue (1934), Siodomak's La Crise est finie (1934), René Guissart's Dédé (1934) and Les Soeurs Hortensias (1935), and Jean Boyer's Prends la route (1936).

   The 1940s, and particularly the cinema of the Occupation, were what really made Delair a star. Much credit for her early celebrity goes to Henri-Georges Clouzot, who created the character of Mila Malou for Delair, in George Lacombe's Le Dernier des six (1941). Clouzot had written the original screenplay for Le Dernier des six by adapting a work by Stanislas-André Steeman, but the character of Mila, the somewhat annoying singer/girlfriend of Inspector Wenceslas Wens, was the original creation of Clouzot. Delair as Mila was a hit, and Clouzot reprised the character for her in his own film L'Assassin habite au 21 (1942). Delair would also star in Clouzot's Quai des Orfèvres (1947).

   Apart from her work with Clouzot, Delair starred in a number of other significant films during the decade, including Richard Pottier's Défense d'aimer (1942), Marcel L'Herbier's La Vie de bohème (1942), Jean Dréville's Copie conforme (1947), Gilles Grangier's Par la fenêtre (1948), Henri Jeanson's Lady Paname (1949), and Jean Grémillon's Pattes blanches (1949).

   Delair managed to maintain her star power during the 1950s, appearing in films such as Christian-Jacque's Souvenirs perdus (1950), Léo Joannen's Atoll K (1951), Guy Lefranc's Le Fil à la patte (1955), René Clement's Gervaise (1956), and Boyer's Le Couturier de ces dames (1956). After the mid-1950s, however, she was offered only very occasional roles, such as in Claude Autant-Lara's Les Regates de San Franciso (1960), Marcel Carné's (1962), and Gérard Oury's Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob (1973).

   Over the course of her career, Delair has showed an impressive range as an actress, appearing in everything from comedies to detective films to literary adaptations. A number of films also showcased her lovely singing voice. Despite that, however, Delair abandoned cinema in the late 1970s, because, in her words, people were simply not asking her to work.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins