In Remembrance: Simone Simon

     Simone Simon, the French screen beauty best known in the United States for her lead role in the 1942 low budget horror classic Cat People, died on Tuesday, February 22, 2005. She was 93.

     Born in the southern French city of Marseille, April 23, 1911, Simon established a career in modeling and fashion design in Paris before becoming a stage actress. 

     Simon was discovered at a sidewalk café in France and a chance meeting with director Viktor Tourjansky led to her film debut in 1931 in Chanteur Inconnu, Le (The Unknown Singer). 

     She had starred in approximatrely 10 films before coming to the attention of 20th Century-Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck. Zanuck had first seen Simon in Lac Aux Dames (Ladies’ Lake, 1934) and persuaded her to come out to Hollywood. She arrived in the United States in 1936 and was scheduled to appear in the Spanish-American War movie, Message to Garcia, but she became ill and was hospitalized. Instead, Simon’s US debut was in Girls' Dormitory (1936) as schoolgirl Marie Claudel, the object of headmaster Herbert Marshall’s affections.

     Simon starred in various Fox features such as Ladies in Love (1936), Love and Hisses (1937) and the sentimental 1937 remake of the silent classic Seventh Heaven opposite James Stewart. However, none of these films showcased Simon’s acting talents.

      Dissatisfied with the treatment she received from 20th Century Fox, Simon left Hollywood and returned to France. Her first major role came in 1938, when she starred in Jean Renoir’s La Bête Humaine (1938, The Human Beast), a movie based on the works of novelist Emile Zola. Simon had reestablished herself as an international star, but with the World War II invasion of Germany, she was forced her to return to America.

     Back in Hollywood, Simon worked with director William Dieterle at RKO, playing the one of the devil’s seductresses in The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941). Producer Val Lewton offered her a chance to star in his upcoming picture, Cat People (1942). The psychological horror film starred Simon as Irena Dubrovna, a fashion designer who fears that giving into her passions will turn her into a murderous panther. Despite mixed reviews, the low-budget film broke box-office records, saving RKO from bankruptcy by grossing $4 million worldwide and establishing Simon as a star in the United States. She appeared in two other projects for RKO, the Lewton-produced Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) a movie based on two Guy de Maupassant stories, and The Curse of the Cat People (1944), a tepid sequel to the 1942 hit. 

     After Germany was defeated, Simon returned to France and made a handful of films throughout the 1950s. She appeared in Max Ophuls’ enchanting Oscar-nominated film La Ronde (1950, Roundabout). She also starred in Le Plaisir (1951, The House of Pleasure), another motion picture based on Guy de Maupassant’s short stories. In the middle story, (Le Modele), Simon is Josephine, a beautiful model who suffers a great tragedy.

     Simon officially retired in 1956, but made one very last movie appearance in the 1973 film, La Femme en Bleu (The Woman in Blue).

-John L. Gibbon