Balin, Mireille (1911–1968)

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Balin, Mireille (1911–1968)

French actress. Born in Monte Carlo on July 20, 1911; died in 1968.

Mireille Balin parlayed her modeling career to become an international star of French films throughout the 1930s. Opposite Fyodor Chaliapin, she played Dulcinea in G.W. Pabst's Don Quixote and first played the femme fatale, opposite Jean Gabin, in Pépé le Moko in 1937 (a part later played by Hedy Lamarr opposite Charles Boyer in the American remake, Algiers). Balin retired in 1947, two years after the liberation of France. Her other films include Vive la Classe (1932), Le Sexe faible (1933), Marie des Angoisses (1935), Jeunes Filles de Paris (1936), Naples au Baiser de Feu (The Kiss of Fire, 1937), Le Vénus de l'Or (1938), Menaces (1940), Macao l'Enfer du Jeu (1940), Dernier Atout (1942), Malaria (1943), and La Dernière Chevauchée (1947).