Renée Saint-Cyr

Actress Renée Saint-Cyr's career was defined by her roles as sophisticated, upper-crust characters in romantic drama films of the 1930s and 1940s. Saint-Cyr made her film debut in 1933 in "The Two Orphans," a film about the lives of two sisters during the French Revolution. Born Raymonde-Renée Vittoré, she adopted the stage moniker Saint-Cyr for this film, a name taken supposedly from a dog she particularly liked. Saint-Cyr went on to play many aristocratic women, such as a princess in "The Last Millionaire" and Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, a member of the Medici family, in "The Pearls of the Crown." Although she took on many dramatic roles, she was able to demonstrate her comedic skills in "Strange Boarders" and "Rose Scarlatte," among others. Following her success in films including "The Fantastic Symphony," "Marie-Martine," and "If Paris Were Told to Us," Saint-Cyr began in the 1960s to work almost exclusively in films directed by her son, Georges Lautner, such as "The Monocle" and "My Other Husband." Collaborations with her son continued until she retired in the 1990s. In 2003, she received the Légion d'Honneur and was named Commandeur de l'Ordre National du Mérite, less than a year before her death in 2004.