Elvira Popescu

Elvira Popescu 10 May 1894 11 December 1993 was a RomanianFrench stage and film actress and theatre director During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in a number of French comedy films Born in Bucharest Popescu studied drama at the Music and Drama Conservatory in her native city under the guidance of Constantin Nottara and Aristizza Romanescu In 1911 Grigore Brezeanu was making the first Romanian films to deal with fiction He employed Popesco as well as other leading actors like Nottara and Romanescu The first two films were called Fatal Love and Spin a Yarn No copies are known of these films Popesco made her debut at the National Theatre Bucharest at age 16 In 1912 she played herself in the movie Independența României directed by Aristide Demetriade In 1919 she became artistic director of the Excelsior Theatre In 1921 Popescu started Teatrul Mic which she managed in parallel with the Excelsior In 1923 she starred in the movie Ţigăncuşa de la iatac directed by Alfred Halm At the urging of Louis Verneuil the French playwright Popescu moved in 1924 to Paris Under Verneuils direction she played the leading role in Ma Cousine de Varsovie at the Théâtre Michel 1923 She also played in Tovaritch 1933 La Machine infernale 1954 Nina 1949 and La Mamma 1957 Later on she was director of Théâtre de Paris 19561965 and Théâtre Marigny 196519785 At age 84 she played again in La Mamma Elvira Popescu also played in movies such as La Présidente Fernand Rivers 1938 Tricoche et Cacolet Pierre Colombier 1938 Ils étaient neuf célibataires Sacha Guitry 1939 Paradis perdu Abel Gance 1940 Austerlitz Abel Gance 19606 and Purple Noon René Clément 1960 Shortly after her debut in 1910 Popescu married comedian Aurel Athanasescu and they had a daughter named Tatiana After a few years she divorced and married Ion ManolescuStrunga Minister of Industry and Commerce who was to die in Sighet prison in the 1950s Her third husband was Count Maximilien Sébastien Foy born in Paris on 17 April 1900 died in NeuillysurSeine on 11 November 1967 She died in Paris at age 99 and was interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery Source Article Elvira Popescu from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30