Leslie Caron


Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French-American actress and dancer who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. Her autobiography, Thank Heaven, was published in 2010 in the UK and US, and in 2011 in a French version. Veteran documentarian Larry Weinstein's Leslie Caron: The Reluctant Star premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 28 June 2016.
Caron is best known for the musical films An American in Paris her film debut, Lili, Daddy Long Legs, and Gigi, and for the nonmusical films Fanny, The L-Shaped Room, and Father Goose. She received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. In 2006, her performance in won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series. She is fluent in French, English, and Italian. She is one of the few dancers or actresses who have danced with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Rudolf Nureyev.

Early years

Caron was born in Boulogne-sur-Seine, Seine, the daughter of Margaret, a Franco-American dancer on Broadway, and Claude Caron, a French chemist, pharmacist, perfumer, and boutique owner. While her older brother Aimery Caron became a chemist like their father, Leslie was prepared for a performing career from childhood by her mother.

Career

Caron started her career as a ballerina. Gene Kelly discovered her in the Roland Petit company "" and cast her to appear opposite him in the musical An American in Paris, a role in which a pregnant Cyd Charisse was originally cast. This role led to a long-term MGM contract and a sequence of films which included the musical The Glass Slipper and the drama The Man with a Cloak, with Joseph Cotten and Barbara Stanwyck. Still, Caron has said of herself: "Unfortunately, Hollywood considers musical dancers as hoofers. Regrettable expression."
on the set of Gigi
She also starred in the successful musicals Lili, with Mel Ferrer; Daddy Long Legs, with Fred Astaire, and Gigi with Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier.
In 1953, Caron was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Lili. For her performance in the British drama The L-Shaped Room, she won the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress and Golden Globe awards, and was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar.
In the 1960s and thereafter, Caron worked in European films, as well. Her later film assignments included Father Goose, with Cary Grant; Ken Russell's Valentino, in the role of silent-screen legend Alla Nazimova; and Louis Malle's Damage. Sometime in 1970, Caron was one of the many actresses considered for the lead role of Eglantine Price in Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks, losing the role to British actress Angela Lansbury.
In 1967, she was a member of the jury of the 5th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1989, she was a member of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.
Caron has continued to act, appearing in the film Chocolat. During the 1980s, she appeared in several episodes of the soap opera Falcon Crest as Nicole Sauguet. She is one of the few actresses from the classic era of MGM musicals who are still active in film—a group that includes Rita Moreno, Margaret O'Brien, and June Lockhart. Her other later credits include Funny Bones with Jerry Lewis and Oliver Platt; The Last of the Blonde Bombshells with Judi Dench and Cleo Laine; and Le Divorce, directed by James Ivory, with Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts.
On 30 June 2003, Caron traveled to San Francisco to appear as the special guest star in , a retrospective concert staged by San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon Company. In 2007, her guest appearance on earned her a 2007 Primetime Emmy Award. On 27 April 2009, Caron traveled to New York as an honored guest at a tribute to Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe at the Paley Center for Media.
For her contributions to the film industry, Caron was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 8 December 2009 with a motion pictures star located at 6153 Hollywood Boulevard. In February 2010, she played Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, which also featured Greta Scacchi and Lambert Wilson.
In 2016, Caron appeared in the ITV television series The Durrells as the Countess Mavrodaki.

Personal life

In September 1951, Caron married American George Hormel II, a grandson of the founder of the Hormel meat-packing company. They divorced in 1954. During that period, while under contract to MGM, she lived in Laurel Canyon, in a Normandie style 1927 mansion, near the country store on Laurel Canyon Blvd. One bedroom was all mirrored for her dancing rehearsals.
Her second husband was British theatre director Peter Hall. They married in 1956 and had two children: Christopher John Hall in 1957 and Jennifer Caron Hall, a writer, painter, and actress, in 1958. Her son-in-law, married to Jennifer, is Glenn Wilhide, the producer and screenwriter.
Caron had an affair with Warren Beatty. When she and Hall divorced in 1965, Beatty was named as a co-respondent and was ordered by the London court to pay the costs of the case.
In 1969, Caron married Michael Laughlin, the producer of the film Two-Lane Blacktop; they divorced in 1980.
Caron was also romantically linked to Dutch television actor Robert Wolders from 1994 to 1995.
From June 1993 until September 2009, Caron owned and operated the hotel and restaurant Auberge la Lucarne aux Chouettes, located in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, located about south of Paris. Unhappy with the lack of work in France, Caron left Paris for England in 2013.
In her autobiography, Thank Heaven, she states that she obtained American citizenship in time to vote for Barack Obama for president.

Awards and nominations

YearTitleRoleNotes
1951'Lise Bouvier
1951'Madeline Minot
1952Glory AlleyAngela Evans
1953'MademoiselleSegment: "Mademoiselle"
1953LiliLili DaurierBAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress
Nominated–Academy Award for Best Actress
1955'Ella
1955Daddy Long LegsJulie Andre
1956GabyGaby
1958GigiGigiLaurel Award for Top Female Musical Performance
Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical
1958'Mrs. Dubedat
1959'Ann Garantier
1960AusterlitzMlle de Vaudey
1960'Mardou Fox
1961FannyFannyLaurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance
Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
1962Guns of DarknessClaire Jordan
1962'Jane FossetBAFTA Award for Best British Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated–Academy Award for Best Actress
1962Three Fables of LoveAnnieSegment: "Les deux pigeons"
1964Father GooseCatherine
1965'Dr. Lauren Boullard
1965Promise Her AnythingMichele O'Brien
1966Is Paris Burning?Françoise Labé
1967Il padre di famigliaPaola, la moglie di Marco
1970MadronSister Mary
1971ChandlerKatherine Creighton
1976Surreal EstateCéleste
1977'Véra
1977ValentinoAlla Nazimova
1978CrazedNicole
1979GoldengirlDr. Sammy Lee
1980All StarsLucille Berger
1981Chanel Solitaireuncredited
1982ImperativeMother
1984Dangerous MovesHenia Liebskind
1990Courage MountainJane Hillary
1990GunsWaitress
1992DamageElizabeth Prideaux
1995Funny BonesKatie Parker
1995Let It Be MeMarguerite
1999'Regine De Chantelle
2000ChocolatMadame AudelNominated–Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2003Le DivorceSuzanne de Persand

YearTitleRoleNotes
1959ITV Play of the WeekThérèse TardeEpisode: "The Wild Bird"
1968Off to See the WizardEllaEpisode: "Cinderella's Glass Slipper: Part 1"
1973CarolaCarola JanssenTV film
1974QB VIIAngela KelnoMiniseries
1978Docteur Erika WernerErika WernerTV series
1980'PenelopeTV film
1981Mon meilleur NoëlLa NuitEpisode: "L'oiseau bleu"
1982Tales of the UnexpectedNathalie VareilleEpisode: "Run, Rabbit, Run"
1982'KlaudiaTV film
1983Cinéma 16AliceEpisode: "Le château faible"
1984Master of the GameSolange Dunas
1986'Mrs. DuvallEpisode: "The Christmas Cruise"
1987Falcon CrestNicole Sauget3 episodes
1988Lenin: The TrainNadiaTV film
1988The Man Who Lived at the RitzCoco ChanelTV film
1994Normandy: The Great CrusadeOsmont, Mary-Louise
1996'Madame de Saint Marne
1996'Czarina Aleksandra Romanov 3 episodes
2000'MadeleineTV film
2001Murder on the Orient ExpressSra. Alvarado
2006'Lorraine DelmasEpisode: "Recall"
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
2013JoJosette LenoirEpisode: "Le Marais"
2016–2018The DurrellsCountess Mavrodaki6 episodes

Theatre

Books by Leslie Caron
Articles by Leslie Caron
Articles by Leslie Caron