Suzanne Flon

Opulent French actress Suzanne Flon, who came from humble beginnings, evolved into a luminous stage and film star whose career lasted five decades. She was born near Paris, the daughter of a railway worker and a seamstress and at school developed an interest in writing poetry. Following high school she worked as an English interpreter at Au Printemps, a large Parisian department store, before finding a position with the famed songbird Édith Piaf as her personal secretary. Ms. Flon's first performance was as a mistress of ceremonies in a musical revue. She continued on stage and eventually developed an association with the noted playwright Jean Anouilh in the early 1940s; she played his heroine Ismene in "Antigone" and played Joan of Arc to great acclaim in "The Lark" in 1953. She also dabbled in avant garde works by Marguerite Duras as well as Shakespeare, Pirandello, Chekhov and Molliere and won a number of stage awards for her efforts. In 1959, she became a member of the Theatre National Populaire and appeared in several plays under the direction of René Clair. Ms. Flon began in films with Captain Blomet (1947) before branching out internationally in the 1950s. She was an elegant standout as a free-spirited couture model who became the object of fascination and desire for the crippled painter Toulouse-Lautrec played by José Ferrer in John Huston's film Moulin Rouge (1952). She also impressed in friend Orson Welles' comedy-thriller Confidential Report (1955) as a listless patrician, and later played Miss Pittl for him in The Trial (1962) [The Trial]. War themes were prominent in her 1960s work. In Thou Shalt Not Kill (1961) [Thou Shalt Not Kill], she won the Venice Film Festival award for her resolute mother whose son resists the World War I draft. In The Train (1964) starring Burt Lancaster, Jeanne Moreau and Paul Scofield she had some excellent scenes as an art curator who becomes a detrimental figure in the Nazi's plans to secretly export masterpieces out of France during the French Resistance. Awards continued to come her way with a number of stylish and sensitive "grande dame" roles. She won bookend César awards for One Deadly Summer (1983) [One Deadly Summer] as Isabelle Adjani's deaf but highly sensitized aunt, and as the mother of Lambert Wilson in La vouivre (1989) [The Dragon]. Her rich and soothing voice was also used frequently for French narratives in numerous documentaries. Ms. Flon continued to appear on stage, film and TV right up until her death of a stomach ailment at age 87 in 2005.