Annabella

Biography: life and films

In the first blush of youth, Annabella was one of the most photogenic of French film stars. Her career may have been short but it could hardly have been more glorious. Originally named Suzanne Georgette Charpentier, she was born in Paris, France, on 14th July 1907. She made her screen debut at the age of 16 in the role of Violine Fleuri in Abel Gance's historical epic Napoléon (1927), reputedly after her father had sent her photograph to a film producer. It was whilst working on this film that Gance gave the aspiring young actress her professional name, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's last poem, Annabel Lee. She then had a minor role in Jean Grémillon's Maldone (1928), but it wasn't until the talkies came along that her career really took off.

It was Annabella's leading role alongside René Lefèvre in René Clair's musical comedy Le Million (1931) that made her an overnight star. In the 1930s, she soon became one of the most popular and busiest of French film stars, and she lent her talents to some of the leading film directors of the day. In Julien Duvivier's La Bandera (1935), she played Jean Gabin's love interest (albeit unconvincingly blacked up to resemble a Moroccan beauty) and in Marcel Carné's Hôtel du Nord (1938), her best known role sees her romantically torn between Jean-Pierre Aumont and Louis Jouvet. Meanwhile, her private life was as sensational as any film plot that came her way. In 1934, after a brief affair with Albert Préjean, she promptly married another actor Jean Murat, with whom she appeared on Anatole Litvak's L'Équipage (1935). The marriage only lasted four years.

In 1937, Annabella made her English language debut in three films made in England, two directed by Harold D. Schuster (Wings of the Morning, Dinner at the Ritz), one by Victor Sjöström's (Under the Red Robe). This greatly facilitated her move to Hollywood the following year, with leading roles in Walter Lang's The Baroness and the Butler (1938) and Allan Dwan's Suez (1938). On the latter film, Annabella was partnered with Tyrone Power, whom she married the year after. The marriage ended in 1948, the year in which the actress returned to France with the hope of resuming her career in her home country. By this time, her star was very much in the descendent and, with few directors interested in working with her, her acting career came to an abrupt standstill in the early 1950s. In her declining years, Annabella lived with the writer Jules Roy. She died from a heart attack in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, on 18th September 1996, aged 89.

Filmography