Mona Goya

Mona Goya (1909–1961) was a blonde Mexican-born French film actress who rose to fame in the 1930s. She acted in French but also in British and American films.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 151. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 43. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Lavish Production

Mona Goya was born Simone Isabelle Marchand in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico in 1909 and was fluent in both French and Spanish. She arrived in Paris in the mid-1920s and gave herself the stage name of Goya, as a tribute to her favourite painter.

She probably debuted in the cinema in Germaine Dulac's late silent film Princesse Mandane (1928) with Edmonde Guy and Edmond Van Duren. Feminist director Dulac shows a more commercial and populist approach here than the avant-garde and experimental style for which she is better known. The film reworks Pierre Benoit's novel, L'Oublié, but while Benoit's novel was a more straightforward tale of adventure and derring-do, Dulac transposes the film's opening scenes to the mundane urban setting of a factory and constructs a parable about the delights and dangers of fantasy and escapism.

In the same year, Mona Goya also acted in various other films, such as the period piece Madame Recamier (Tony Lekain, Gaston Ravel, 1928) with Marie Bell, and she had a small part in Marcel L'Herbier's lavish production L'Argent/Money (1928), starring Marie Glory, Brigitte Helm, and Pierre Alcover.

Goya's career really set off with the arrival of sound film around 1930. She played an upper-class woman who falls in love with a fisherman in the British film The Lady from the Sea (Castleton Knight, 1930) with a young Ray Milland.

She also acted opposite Charles Boyer in Revolte en prison (Pál Fejös, George W. Hill, 1930) - the French version of the MGM drama The Big House (George W. Hill, 1930), and in the Georges Biscot comedy Hardi les gars!/Bold guys (Maurice Champreux, 1931).


French postcard for Campari. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 614. Photo: Ufa.

Brigitte Bardot

Mona Goya acted opposite Victor Boucher in La Banque Némo/Nemo's Bank (Marguerite Viel, 1934), and with Gabriel Gabrio in the French-German musical Cavalerie légère/Light Cavalry (Werner Hochbaum, 1935).

In the late 1930s she often acted opposite Fernandel such as in La porteuse de pain/The Bread Peddler (Renée Sti, 1934), François Ier/Francis the First (Christian-Jaque, 1937), Josette (Christian-Jaque, 1937), and Ernest le rebelle/Ernest the Rebel (Christian-Jaque, 1938).

In the immediate post-war years she was often paired with Bourvil such as in Pas si bête/Not so stupid (André Berthomieu, 1946) and Blanc comme neige/White Like Snow (André Berthomieu, 1948).

In the 1950s, she had supporting parts in Gibier de potence/Gigolo (Roger Richebé, 1951) and Les amants de Bras-Morts/The Lovers of Bras-Mort (Marcello Pagliero, 1951) both starring Nicole Courcel. Opposite Brigitte Bardot, she acted in Le portrait de son père/His father's portrait (André Berthomieu, 1953) and Babette s'en va-t-en guerre/Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959)).

All in all, Goya acted in some 80 films, mostly French productions. Between the mid-1940s and late 1950s, she also acted on stage. Mona Goya died of cancer in 1961, at Clichy-la-Garenne. For a while, she was married to actor Fernand Fabre, but they divorced.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 68. Photo: Studio Piaz, Paris.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 190. Photo: Carlet.

Sources: Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 3 July 2024.