MICHÈLE MORGAN

21 Dec

(29 February 1929 - 20 December 2016)

Michèle Morgan was a great beauty and a natural asset to the cinema. She began her film career in 1936 in France in small or uncredited roles and was discovered by director Marc Allegret for Heart of Paris. Shortly afterwards, Marcel Carné put her in Quai des brumes with Jean Gabin and Michel Simon, a classic of its kind and one of Morgan’s best films. She worked again with Gabin as well as Raimu, Boyer, Vanel, Renaud, etc, before moving to the US and an RKO contract beginning with Joan of Paris. Apart from her continental exoticism the studio didn’t know what to do with her. She appeared with Sinatra in Higher and Higher but RKO wouldn’t release her to Warner Bros for Casablanca. However, she did get to play opposite Bogart in Passage to Marseille. In Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol, made in London, she had a good role as Ralph Richardson’s secret lover. After more forgettable parts she eventually returned to France where she made Guitry’s Napoleon, Clair’s Summer Manoeuvres, André Cayatte’s Le miroir à deux faces and Chabrol’s Bluebeard. She retired in 1999. Morgan had three husbands: William Marshall, Henri Vidal and Gérard Oury, all actors, as was her only son, Mike Marshall.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

MICHÈLE MORGAN

CARRIE FISHER

ZSA ZSA GABOR