Mylène Demongeot, one of the blond sex symbols of French cinema during
the 1950s and 1960s, managed to overcome typecasting and survived a
long hiatus before a stellar comeback in her 70s. She appeared in more
than 70 films, including such classics as the Fantomas trilogy.
She was born Marie-Helene Demongeot on September 29, 1935, in Nice,
France, into a family of actors. Her parents met in Shanghai, China,
and moved to Nice, where she grew up. Her mother, Klaudia Trubnikova,
was a Russian-Ukrainian émigré from Kharkiv, who escaped from the
horrors of the Russian Civil War. Her father, Alfred Demongeot, was of
French-Italian heritage. The family was bilingual and young Mylène was
able to speak Russian and French, but eventually switched to French.
As a young girl she was an outcast: she suffered from ruthless kids
making vicious comments about her eyes (she was cross-eyed until she
had surgery in her teens). She was fond of music and movies, a perfect
escape from the horrors of WWII that devastated Europe during her
childhood. At the age of 13, she went to Paris and continued her
education. She studied piano under the tutelage of
Marguerite Long and Yves Nat. She then
studied dramatic art with
Maria Ventura at Le Cours Simon in
Paris. At 15 she became a model in the atelier of
Pierre Cardin.
At 17, Mylène made her film debut in the supporting role of Nicole in
Kinder der Liebe (1953). Appearing in three or four feature films every
year, she rose to international fame in the late 1950s. She was
together with Gary Cooper for the
opening of the first escalator to be installed in a cinema (at the Rex
Theatre in Paris) on June 7, 1957. She had a memorable seduction scene
opposite Yves Montand in
Die Hexen von Salem (1957). Her first notable leading role was in
Sei schön und halt den Mund (1958)
(aka "Blonde for Danger") in which she played a 17-year-old jewel
smuggler.
Mylène further developed her screen image of a manipulative blond
mistress in her brilliant performance opposite
David Niven in
Bonjour Tristesse (1958), and
became permanently locked in the cliché image of a humorous seductress
after co-starring with Alain Delon in the
1959 comedy Mal diese - mal jene (1959).
Her chance to update her film image came in period films. She played
manipulative and coquettish Andromeda opposite
Steve Reeves in
Die Schlacht von Marathon (1959) and the leading role of Rea opposite
Roger Moore in
Der Raub der Sabinerinnen (1961). Among her best known roles are the
manipulative Milady de Winter in
Die drei Musketiere - 1. Teil (1961)
and Helen in all three of the Fantomas films.
Mylène Demongeot became one of the blond sex symbols in 1950s, 60s
and 70s French cinema. She co-starred with the major French actors of
the time, including Jean Marais and
Louis de Funès, in the
Fantomas (1964) trilogy. Although she
gradually phased out of the stereotypical image of a beautiful
coquette, she still looked pretty convincing as a middle-aged Madame,
which she developed in the 1980s and 1990s. At that time her acting
career came to a pause, as she had been aging gracefully in the South
of France. She was also a producer during that time and was the
co-owner of Kangarou Films, a production company that she founded with
her late husband Marc Simenon. After a
lengthy hiatus, she made a comeback in
36 - Tödliche Rivalen (2004).
She has also appeared in Camping (2006)
and La Californie (2006) by
director/writer Jacques Fieschi, based
on a short story by Georges Simenon.
In addition to her film work, Mylène has also written several books,
the best-known of which would be "Tiroirs Secrets" and "Animalement
vôtre". In the 2000s, she made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of her
mother in Kharkiv, Ukraine. There she planted a commemorative tree and
presented her autobiographical book, "Les Lilas de Kharkov" (The Lilacs
of Kharkiv). In 2006, she was named Commander in the Order of Arts and
Letters for her achievements in acting. She resides in her French
hometown of Nice.
