Mireille Balin

Mireille Césarine Balin (born Blanche Mireille Césarine Balin; 20 July 1909, in Monte Carlo – 9 November 1968 in Paris)^[1] was a French actress.

Born

Blanche Mireille Césarine Balin

(1909-07-20)20 July 1909

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Died9 November 1968(1968-11-09) (aged 59)

Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Yearsactive1932–1948

Quick facts Born, Died ...

Mireille Balin
Mireille Balin and Fosco Giachetti in The Siege of the Alcazar (1940)
Born	Blanche Mireille Césarine Balin (1909-07-20)20 July 1909 Monte Carlo, Monaco
Died	9 November 1968(1968-11-09) (aged 59) Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France
Years active	1932–1948

Close

Balin was born near Monte Carlo. Her father, Charles Balin, was a French newspaper publisher. Her mother was Italian. Her education came at finishing schools.^[2] She was a policewoman in Paris until friends urged her to take a screen test.^[3]

Balin posed for some advertisements in Paris before she began acting in films.^[2] During the 1930s she became a major star of French cinema with box-office successes like Pépé le Moko (1936). She also attempted an American career, arriving in Hollywood in 1937 with a staff of servants and with 28 trunks containing "most of her worldly possessions.^[2] But she did not adapt to the studio system and eventually returned to France without having made any films in the United States.

During the Nazi occupation of France, Balin became romantically involved with an officer of the Wehrmacht. Following the liberation of France, she was gang raped by a mob and subsequently imprisoned in Fresnes until January 1945.^[1] She attempted a comeback in 1947 with La dernière chevauchée , but the film was not a success.

During the final 10 years of her life she lived in a "charitable home".^[4] Balin died in 1968, aged 59.^[4]