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person_profile-Fifi D'Orsay

Fifi D'Orsay Died at age: 79

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Fifi D'Orsay

Date of Birth:

Apr 16, 1904

Country of birth:

Canada

Died:

Dec 02, 1983

Biography of

Fifi D'Orsay

    Fifi D'Orsay was born Marie-Rose Angelina Yvonne Lussier in Montreal, Canada, to a father who was a postal clerk. The couple had a large family, with Fifi having 11 siblings. She was educated at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Montreal before graduating and finding work as a secretary. As a young typist she wished to become an actress, and moved to New York City. Once there she found work with the Greenwich Village Follies, after an audition in which she sang "Yes! We Have No Bananas" in French. When asked where she was from, she told the director she was from Paris, France, and that she had worked in the Folies Bergère. The impressed director hired her, billing her as "Mademoiselle Fifi".

    While working in the Follies, she became involved with Ed Gallagher, a veteran actor who was half of the successful Broadway comedy team of Gallagher and Shean. Gallagher and D'Orsay put together a vaudeville act, and he coached her in the art of show business. After touring in vaudeville, she headed to Hollywood and adopted the surname "D'Orsay" (after a favorite perfume). Soon after she began working in films, often cast as the "naughty French girl" from "gay Paris".

    She became a U.S. citizen in 1936, just as her career as a film star came to a sharp halt when she walked out on her contract at Fox Studios and was blacklisted.

    While never becoming a major top-billing name, she found steady work - appearing with such stalwarts as Bing Crosby and Buster Crabbe. For years she worked in both film and vaudeville; pacing her appearances in film with continued performances in vaudeville. When age put an end to the glamour roles, she took jobs in television; including 2 appearances each on ABC's Adventures in Paradise (as a mother superior in the episode "Castaways"), and the CBS legal drama Perry Mason (in the episode "The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather" and in the episode “The Case of the Bountiful Beauty”)- as well appearing in the CBS sitcom Pete and Gladys. She was a contestant on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life, and at the age of sixty-seven she bookended her career with a return to the Broadway stage in the Tony Award-winning musical, Follies.

Photos of

Fifi D'Orsay

Photos ( 3 Photos

Filmography of

Fifi D'Orsay

Found 22 Movies in total

That's Entertainment, Part II

(archive footage) ( Actor )

... 1976

Assignment to Kill

Mrs. Hennie ( Actor )

... 1968

The Art of Love

Fanny ( Actor )

... 1965

What a Way to Go!

Baroness ( Actor )

... 1964

Wild and Wonderful

Simone ( Actor )

... 1964

The Gangster

Mrs. Ostroleng ( Actor )

... 1947

Dixie Jamboree

Yvette ( Actor )

... 1944

Delinquent Daughters

Mimi ( Actor )

... 1944

Nabonga

Marie ( Actor )

... 1944

Submarine Base

Maria Styx ( Actor )

... 1943

Wonder Bar

Mitzi ( Actor )

... 1934

Going Hollywood

Lili Yvonne ( Actor )

... 1933

The Life of Jimmy Dolan

Budgie ( Actor )

... 1933

The Girl from Calgary

Fifi Follette ( Actor )

... 1932

Young as You Feel

Fleurette ( Actor )

... 1931

Women of All Nations

Fifi ( Actor )

... 1931

Mr. Lemon Of Orange

Julie La Rue ( Actor )

... 1931

Those Three French Girls

Charmaine (as Fifi Dorsay) ( Actor )

... 1930

Women Everywhere

Lili La Fleur ( Actor )

... 1930

On the Level

Mimi ( Actor )

... 1930

Hot for Paris

Fifi Dupre ( Actor )

... 1929

... 1929