Odile Versois

Docile, delicately beautiful, light-haired Parisian actress Odile Versois was born Katiana de Poliakoff-Baidaroff on June 14, 1930, the second of four Poliakoff sisters, all of whom became renowned actresses in their own right. From an artistic family (her father was opera singer Vladimir de Poliakoff), Versois began her career as a child ballerina with the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

She subsequently turned to film acting at age 18 and proved a natural with a major debut in The Last Vacation (1948) [The Last Vacation]. Of the numerous films in which she undertook leading lady parts, she moved audiences most with her portrayals of fragile, often tragic heroines in romantic drama. Her more notable pictures include Paolo e Francesca (1950), Bel amour (1951) [Beautiful Love], the title role in Domenica (1952), Grand gala (1952) and director/actor Robert Hossein's Blonde in a White Car (1958) [Nude in a White Car], which also co-starred sister Marina Vlady -- known for her sultry roles. Versois also provided a lovely distraction in British films of the 1950s in_A Day to Remember (1953)_, David Knight in Chance Meeting (1954) [aka Chance Meeting], Alec Guinness in To Paris with Love (1955), Anthony Steel in Checkpoint (1956) and Room 43 (1958) starring Diana Dors and Herbert Lom.

She matured in taut crime thrillers and lively costume dramas in the 1960s, notably Le rendez-vous (1961) and Cartouche (1962) the latter starring a swashbuckling Jean-Paul Belmondo. She also worked on the French, Belgian, Swiss and North African stages and on television, lending some touching performances toward the end, particularly in the films Églantine (1972) and Le Crabe-Tambour (1977). Dogged by ill health, she was seen less frequently into the 1970s and passed away from cancer a week after her 50th birthday, a gentle, beautiful soul gone before her time.