Darling Légitimus

Mathilda Marie Berthilde Paruta 21 November 1907 7 December 1999 better known as Darling Légitimus was a French actress In 1983 she received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance in the film Sugar Cane Alley Born on 21 November 1907 at Le Carbet in Martinique she spent her early years in Caracas Venezuela Mathilda Paruta arrived in Paris France at age of 16 wanting to become a dancer She met VictorEtienne Légitimus son of the government deputy Hegesippe Jean Légitimus and went on to become his lifelong companion and bear him five children Known for a long time as Miss Darling she later chose to go by the name of Darling Legitimus She performed as a dancer in La Revue Nègre 1925 with Josephine Baker and posed for Picasso as well as for sculptor Paul Belmondo father of JeanPaul Belmondo the actor During the 1930s Darling wrote composed and sang numerous Caribbean songs such as Biguine and Mazurka She often performed alongside known musicians of the era including Pe En Kin Sosso and his band She also performed in plays by Jean Genet Les Nègres and Aimé Césaire She was directed on the big screen by Raymond Rouleau in Les Sorcieres de Salem The Crucible alongside Simone Signoret and Yves Montand and Le Salaire de la Peur Wages of Fear by Henri Georges Clouzot with Sacha Guitry JeanClaude Brialy and Bernardo Bertolucci In 1983 at the age of 76 she won the Volpi Cup for the best female interpretation of The Mostra of Venise also for her role in La Rue CasesNègres Sugar Cane Alley directed by her compatriot Euzhan Palcy During her long life she was acquainted with a great number of famous actors among them Arletty Fernandel Marlon Brando and Pierre Brasseur She also took part in numerous ORTF Office de Radiodiffusion de la Television Française productions of which a telefilm by JeanChristophe Averty Les verts Paturages The Green Pastures written by Marc Connelly was produced She died on 7 December 1999 at KremlinBicetre in the Val de Marne near Paris in France without any more acting roles after Sugar Cane Alley in spite of hopes of her nomination and rewards The writer Calixthe Beyala and Caribbean actor Luc SaintEloy representatives of Liberté collective came up on stage at the César ceremony in 2000 to claim one of the largest presence on French television screens and to pay her a public tribute since the organizers had forgotten to name Darling as one of the previous years great losses Source Article Darling Légitimus from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30