Leslie Claire Margaret Caron
(French: was born 1 July 1931) is a French and American
actress and dancer. She is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA
Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy
Awards. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood
cinema.
Caron began her career as a ballerina. She made her film
debut in the musical An American in Paris (1951), followed by roles in The Man
with a Cloak (1951), Glory Alley (1952) and The Story of Three Loves (1953),
before her role of an orphan in Lili (also 1953), which earned her the BAFTA
Award for Best Foreign Actress and garnered nominations for an Academy Award
and a Golden Globe Award.
As a leading
lady, Caron starred in films such as The Glass Slipper (1955), Daddy Long Legs
(1955), Gigi (1958), Fanny (1961), both of which earned her Golden Globe
nominations, Guns of Darkness (1962), The L-Shaped Room (1962), Father Goose
(1964) and A Very Special Favor (1965). For her role as a single pregnant woman
in The L-Shaped Room, Caron, in addition to receiving a second Academy Award
nomination, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture –
Drama and a second BAFTA Award.
Caron's other
roles include Is Paris Burning? (1966), The Man Who Loved Women (1977),
Valentino (1977), Damage (1992), Funny Bones (1995), Chocolat (2000) and Le
Divorce (2003). In 2007, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest
Actress in a Drama Series for portraying a rape victim in Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit.
Caron was born
in Boulogne-sur-Seine, Seine (now Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine), the
daughter of Margaret (née Petit), a Franco-American dancer on Broadway, and
Claude Caron, a French chemist, pharmacist, perfumer and boutique owner. Claude Caron was the founder of the artisanal perfumier Guermantes. While
her older brother, Aimery Caron, became a chemist like their father, Leslie was
prepared for a performing career from childhood by her mother. The family
lost its wealth during World War II and could not provide a dowry for Caron.
"My mother said: 'There's only one profession that leads you to marrying
money and becoming a princess or duchess, and that's ballet.' ... My
grandfather whispered heavily: 'Margaret, you want your daughter to be a
whore?' I heard it. This has always followed me".
Of the lost
fortune, Caron recalled, "My mother died of it". Her mother, who had
grown up in poverty, could not cope with their reduced circumstances. She
became depressed and an alcoholic and, at age 67, killed herself.
Link to Wikipedia: Leslie Caron
