Jacqueline Pierreux by Truus, Bob & Jan too! Via Flickr: British postcard in the Greetings series, no. B. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Between 1943 and 1980, sexy French film and television actress Jacqueline Pierreux (1923-2005) graced dozens of European films with her presence. However, she mainly played supporting roles in crime films and failed to break through to stardom. Her son, Jean-Pierre Léaud, played Antoine Doinel in François Truffaut's Les quatre cents coups / The 400 Blows (1959) and other classics of the Nouvelle Vague. Jacqueline Léone Madeleine Pierreux was born in Rouen, France, in 1923. She made her credited film debut in occupied France in the adventure film Le Soleil de Minuit / The Midnight Sun (Bernard-Roland, 1943), starring Jocelyne Gaël and Jules Berry. The following year, she married the assistant director and screenwriter of the film, novelist Pierre Léaud. Their son, Jean-Pierre, was born on 5 May 1944. He later became known as François Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel and would be one of the most visible and well-known actors associated with the Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave film movement. Aside from his work with Truffaut, he collaborated with Jean-Luc Godard (nine films), Jean Eustache, Jacques Rivette and Agnès Varda. Pierreux's film career took off after the liberation of France. The proud and beautiful woman played a high-fashion model just as easily as a Pigalle showgirl in French Film Noirs, where she rivalled Dora Doll, Tilda Thamar and Claudine Dupuis. She landed a prominent role in Les démons de l’aube / Dawn Devils (Yves Allégret, 1946) and Vertiges / Dizziness (Richard Pottier, 1947). In the early 1950s, she was busy in both France and Italy and played supporting parts in now forgotten films such as Donne e briganti / The King's Guerrillas (Mario Soldati, 1950) starring Amedeo Nazzari and Le dindon / The Turkey (Claude Barma, 1951). In the spring of 1952, she finally wrapped up performances of the play 'Une nuit à Megève', which, paradoxically, she was performing in Brussels. In Madrid, she starred opposite Carmen Sevilla and Georges Guétary in Plume au vent / Feather in the Wind (Louis Cuny, Ramón Torrado, 1952). And in Paris, she played a streetwalker in Nous sommes tous des assassins / We Are All Murderers (André Cayatte, 1952) with Yvonne Sanson, Raymond Pellegrin, and Marcel Mouloudji. Jaqueline Pierreux was a cheerful woman with a party-loving and optimistic nature. In 1953, a short snippet in the daily press headlined: ‘Cinderella of Paris’: ‘Actress Jacqueline Pierreux, having taken off her shoes to dance in Montmartre last night, lost a black suede high-heeled shoe; Jacqueline asks if anyone has found it...’ According to her whims of the moment, she was known as a platinum blonde, a redhead or with jet-black hair, long or short, adopting the hairstyles of Maria Casarès, Martine Carol, Rita Hayworth or Kim Novak. She played in such films as the comedy Le chasseur de chez Maxim’s / Maxim's Porter (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1953) and the Spy film OSS 117 n’est pas mort / O.S.S. Is Not Dead (Jean Sacha, 1957) with Ivan Desny. Pierreux also appeared in several films in Italy, in Spain and even in England and Germany. However, she never played a leading role in a film. La Nouvelle Vague (The New Wave), which paradoxically brought universal fame to her young son, did not offer her roles. She went to work in Italy. In the early 1960s, she appeared in Totò, Peppino e... la dolce vita / Toto, Peppino and the Sweet Life (Sergio Corbucci, 1961) and the Horror anthology film I tre volti della paura / Black Sabbath (Mario Bava, 1963), hosted by Boris Karloff, in which she delivered the best sketch. In Germany, she acted in Die Dreigroschenoper / The Threepenny Opera (Wolfgang Staudte, 1963). At the end of the decade, she returned to France to appear in a television adaptation of a Commissioner Maigret story, Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (1969), starring Jean Richard. She also appeared in Le Cinéma de Papa / Papa's Movie Theater (Claude Berri, 1971) with Yves Robert. By then, the actress’s career was virtually over. She mainly dubbed actresses in American films for French release versions. Pierreux made a brief comeback appearance in Claude Chabrol’s crime drama Violette Nozières / Violette (1987) with Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran and Jean Carmet. Jacqueline Pierreux died in Salins in 2005, at the age of 82. She is buried in the commune of Merri (Orne), where she owned a house. N.B. Various sources confuse the actress Jacqueline Pierreux with the Belgian producer of the same name, who was born in 1933. Sources: Céline Colassin (d'autres étoiles filantes - French), Virgile Dumez (Ciné Dweller - French), Wikipedia (French and English), and IMDb. And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
