Juliette Gréco

Juliette Gréco 7 February 1927 23 September 2020 was a French singer and actress Her best known songs are Paris Canaille 1962 originally sung by Léo Ferré La Javanaise 1963 written by Serge Gainsbourg for Gréco and Déshabillezmoi 1967 She often sang tracks with lyrics written by French poets such as Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian as well as singers like Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour Her 60year career came to an end in 2015 when she began her last worldwide tour titled Merci As an actress Gréco played roles in films by French directors such as Jean Cocteau and JeanPierre Melville Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier France to an absent Corsican father Gérard Gréco her mother Juliette Lafeychine 18991978 was from Bordeaux Her lineage hails in part from Greece She did not receive love from her mother in her childhood and suffered from her harsh comments due to being an unwanted child such as You aint my daughter Youre the child of rape She was raised by her maternal grandparents in Bordeaux with her older sister Charlotte After the death of her grandparents her mother took them to Paris In 1938 she became a ballerina at the Opéra Garnier When World War II began the family returned to the southwest of France Gréco was a student at the Institut Royal déducation Sainte Jeanne dArc in Montauban The Gréco family became active in the Resistance and her mother was arrested in 1943 The two sisters decided to move back to Paris but were captured and tortured by the Gestapo then imprisoned in Fresnes Prison in September 1943 Her mother and sister were deported to Ravensbrück while Juliette being only 16 remained in prison for several months before being released After her release she walked the eight miles back to Paris to retrieve her belongings from the Gestapo headquarters Her former French teacher and her mothers friend Hélène Duc decided to take care of her In 1945 Grécos mother and sister returned from deportation after the liberation of Ravensbrück by the Red Army Gréco moved to SaintGermaindesPrés in 1945 after her mother moved to Indochina leaving Gréco and her sister behind Gréco became a devotee of the bohemian fashion of some intellectuals of postwar France Duc sent her to attend acting classes given by Solange Sicard She made her debut in the play Victor ou les Enfants au pouvoir in November 1946 and began to host a radio show dedicated to poetry Her friend JeanPaul Sartre installed her at the Hotel La Louisiane and commented that Greco had millions of poems in her voice She was known to many of the writers and artists working in SaintGermaindesPrés such as Albert Camus Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian thus gaining the nickname la Muse de lexistentialisme Gréco spent the postLiberation years frequenting the SaintGermaindesPrés cafes immersing herself in political and philosophical bohemian culture As a regular at music and poetry venues like Le Tabou on Rue Dauphine she was acquainted with Jean Cocteau and was given a role in Cocteaus film Orphée 1950 Source Article Juliette Gréco from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30