Simone Valère

Discretely beautiful and charming Simone Valère (1923-2010) was primarily a famous French stage actress, but she also appeared in more than forty films from 1941 to 1993. She often worked together with her husband, Jean Desailly.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 115. Photo: Teddy Piaz.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 81. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Marriage after 48 years

Simone Valère was born Simone Jeannine Gondolf in 1923 in Paris, France. Her parents divorced and she spent a large part of her youth with an aunt in Arnouville.

At the age of 17, she made her first film appearance in Premier rendez-vous/Her First Affair (Henri Decoin, 1941) starring Daniëlle Darrieux.

In 1942, Simone made her stage debut at the théâtre Hébertot in Paris in the play 'Mademoiselle Bourrat'. The play was situated in a village called 'Valère' and she took this as her stage name.

Simone Valère met Jean Desailly on the set of the film Le Voyageur de la Toussaint/The traveler of the Toussaint (Louis Daquin, 1943), while he was working for the Comédie-Française and married to Nicole Desailly (pseudonym of Ginette Nicolas).

Valère and Desailly started to live together in 1950 on tour in Brazil. 48 years later, they married in Paris.


French postcard by Editions d'Art BelFrance (EAP), Paris, no. 900. Photo: Sirius-Gaumont. Simone Valère in Le cavalier noir/The black rider (Gilles Grangier, 1945).


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni, no. 26710. Photo: Simone Valère and Jean Desailly in Jocelyn (Jacques de Casembroot, 1952), based on "the immortal poem by A. de Lamartine". Sent by mail in 1953.

One of the most famous couples in French theatre

Simone Valère and Jean Desailly participated in the theatrical revival of the post-war period as part of the Renaud-Barrault company. There she performed in plays by Shakespeare, Kafka, Marivaux, Giraudoux, Molière, Ionesco, and she starred in the operetta 'Vie Parisien' by Offenbach.

Later she and Desailly founded the company Valère-Desailly. With Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault, they were one of the most famous couples in French theatre. Simone Valère and Jean Desailly performed 450 times their favorite play, 'L'Amour fou ou la first surprise', by André Roussin.

Valère also worked for the cinema in such films as La revanche de Roger la Honte/The Revenge of Roger (André Cayatte, 1946), and Violetas imperiales/Imperial violets (Richard Pottier, 1952) with Luis Mariano and Carmen Sevilla.

She played the princess in the allegorical tragicomedy La Beauté du diable/Beauty of the Devil (René Clair, 1950), based on Goethe's 'Faust' adaptation. Set in the early 19th century, it is about an ageing alchemist, Henri Faust (Gérard Philipe), who is given the chance to be eternally young by the devil Mephistopheles (Michel Simon).

Other highlights were Le Franciscain de Bourges/Franciscan of Bourges (Claude Autant-Lara, 1968), starring Hardy Krüger, Un flic/A Cop (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972), and L'Assassinat de Trotsky/The Assassination of Trotsky (Joseph Losey, 1972) starring Richard Burton and Alain Delon.

Her last film was Équipe de nuit/Night crew (Claude d'Anna, 1990). She made her last screen appearance in the Mini series La cavalière/The horsewoman (Philippe Monnier, 1993). She was married to Jean Desailly till his death in 2008.

Simone Valère died in 2010 in Roinville-sous-Dourdan, Essonne, France. She was 87.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 106.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 168. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and French), and IMDb.