Denise Grey

Denise Grey (born Édouardine Verthuy; 17 September 1896 – 13 January 1996) was an Italian-born actress who became a naturalized French citizen.
Biography
Édouardine Grey was born in Châtillon in the Aosta Valley of north-west Italy, close to the French border. The town at the time primarily spoke the Valdôtain dialect. She was naturalized as a French citizen on 13 July 1922. She started working in the film industry in 1915 in the silent film En famille, an adaptation of the novel by Hector Malot, before dedicating herself to theatre work. She went back to working in films, now talkies, in the 1930s. She came to fame in the 1940s with films such as Monsieur Hector (1940), Boléro (1942) or Devil in the Flesh (1947). Old age did not end her career. For example, in 1972, she starred in a French television series called Les Rois maudits. Thanks to the film La Boum, in which she plays "Poupette", the great-grandmother of Sophie Marceau, she gained recognition from a new audience growing up in the 1980s. In 1986, she sang Devenir vieux (Becoming Old).
She was a member of the Comédie-Française between 1944 and 1946 and between 1957 and 1958.
Personal life
She had a daughter: Suzanne Grey, also an actress, who was born on 28 June 1917 and died on 13 December 2005.
Death
She died in 1996, a few months before reaching the age of 100. She rests next to her husband in the cemetery of Arradon (Morbihan).
Selected filmography
Nemrod et compagnie (1916) - Esther Nuno
Les bleus de l'amour (1918) - Mimi Bertin
Honneur d'artiste (1920) - Miss Nicholson
Jeunes filles à marier (1935)
The Lady from Vittel (1937) - Mme Bleu
Trois artilleurs au pensionnat (1937) - Hortense, deuxième institrice
Trois artilleurs à l'opéra (1938) - Paulette
Serge Panine (1939) - Lady Harton
Monsieur Hector (1940) - Maroussia de Dragomir
Montmartre sur Seine (1941) - Moussette
L'oasis dans la tourmente (1942)
Bolero (1942) - Anne-Marie Houiller
Romance à trois (1942) - Loys Erland
The Blue Veil (1942) - Madame Volnar-Bussel
The Honourable Catherine (1943) - Madame d'Ambroisie
Des jeunes filles dans la nuit (1943) - La mère d'Andrée
Vingt-cinq ans de bonheur (1943) - Élisabeth Castille
Retour de flamme (1943) - Madame de Nogrelles
Goodbye Leonard (1943) - Bernardine Léonard - la femme insupportable et dépensière de Félicien
L'aventure est au coin de la rue (1944) - Madame Laurat-Dossin
Majestic Hotel Cellars (1945) - Madame Van Bell
L'extravagante mission (1945) - Mme Brockseller
Madame et son flirt (1946) -La pseudo-cousine Léa
Strange Fate (1946) - Madame d'Evremond
The Ideal Couple (1946) - Antoinette
L'insaisissable Frédéric (1946) - Miss Baxter
On demande un ménage (1946) - Sabine Robinet
Six heures à perdre (1947) - Mme. de Witt
Devil in the Flesh (1947) - Madame Grangier
Four Knaves (1947) - Madame de la Bastide
Coincidences (1947) - Madame Bardolas
Et dix de der (1948) - Betty
Une femme par jour (1949) - La duchesse
Bonheur en location (1949) - Gilde
Rome Express (1950) - Margot
Not Any Weekend for Our Love (1950) - Gabrielle, fille du baron
La ronde des heures (1950) - Madame Méry-Mirecourt
My Friend Sainfoin (1950) - La mère d'Eugénie
Blonde (1950) - Isabelle Truche
Demain nous divorçons (1951) - Mme Tourelle
Les petites Cardinal (1951) - Mme Cardinal
Allô... je t'aime (1952) - Mme Dupuis
Article 519, Penal Code (1952) - Madre di Clara
The Tour of the Grand Dukes (1953) - La baronne
The Father of the Girl (1953) - Isabelle Marinier
Dortoir des grandes (1953) - Mme. Hazard-Habran - La directrice
Julieta (1953) - Mme Valender - la mère de Julietta et Martine
The Pirates of the Bois de Boulogne (1954) - Mme. Grossac
The Sheep Has Five Legs (1954) - Mme Durand-Perrin, la mère
Rasputin (1954) - La princesse Dikvona
Poisson d'avril (1954) - Clémentine Prévost
El torero (1954) - (uncredited)
Service Entrance (1954) - Madame Thévenot
Il seduttore (1954) - Jacqueline's Mother
Fantaisie d'un jour (1954) - Mme. de Cédillon
Spring, Autumn and Love (1955) - La cliente
La villa Sans-Souci (1955)
La rue des bouches peintes (1955) - Winifred
L'auberge en folie (1956) - La grand-mère
Mitsou (1956) - Estelle
Une nuit aux Baléares (1957) - Marguerite Vargas
La peau de l'ours (1957) - Mme Legrand, la belle-mère
On Foot, on Horse, and on Wheels (1957) - Marguerite Martin
Sylviane de mes nuits (1957) - Mme Anita de Santos
Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) - Mrs. Bushell
It's All Adam's Fault (1958) - Jeanne Sandret
Police judiciaire (1958) - Madame Jambert
Le tombeur (1958) - Natacha Olivaro
Mimi Pinson (1958) - La grand-mère
A Dog, a Mouse, and a Sputnik (1958) - Marguerite Martin
Le confident de ces dames (1959) - La comtesse de Corte Bianca
Bombs on Monte Carlo (1960) - Contesse Tamm
Le panier à crabes (1960) - L'impresario
Love and the Frenchwoman (1960) - Danielle's mother (segment "Divorce, Le")
La Bonne Soupe (1964) - Mme Boudard mère
Pas de caviar pour tante Olga (1965) - Mrs. Dumont-Freville
La maison de campagne (1969) - La baronne de Bocquigny
Hello-Goodbye (1970) - Concierge
Mais qui donc m'a fait ce bébé? (1971)
Les Rois maudits (1972, TV Mini-Series) - Mme de Hongrie
La boum (1980) - Poupette
N'oublie pas ton père au vestiaire... (1982) - La dame à la moto
La Boum 2 (1982) - Poupette
En cas de guerre mondiale, je file à l'étranger (1983) - Madame Toussaint mère
Le voleur de feuilles (1984) - Isabelle Debecker
Le gaffeur (1985) - La mère de Gabriel
Les saisons du plaisir (1988) - Emmanuelle de La Grandière Van Bergh
A Fine Romance (1991) - Madame Legris
References
1896 births
1996 deaths
People from Aosta Valley
Italian emigrants to France
Naturalized citizens of France
French stage actresses
French film actresses
French silent film actresses
French television actresses
Troupe of the Comédie-Française
Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite
20th-century French actresses