Josette Day

Paris-born Josette Day debuted in films at the age of five, but soon returned to the stage, including a stint as a child dancer in the Paris Opera. She did not return to the screen until she was into her adulthood, and her career took off. She played leads in countless French films, but is probably best known for the role of Beauty in Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946) (French title: “La Belle et la Bête”). She had an affair with Marcel Pagnol. It is to be noted that several English-language sources stated that Day had married and divorced from director Marcel Pagnol; however French sources have discredited this claim. The French newspaper Le Monde ran a correction (on 2 July 1978) of her obituary, stating that the union of Josette Day and Marcel Pagnol “was never consecrated by a marriage.” Day’s career lasted until 1950 when she retired to marry Maurice Solvay, multi-millionaire Belgian industrialist and businessman, who was reported to be “one of the richest men in Europe” during his lifetime.