Marie Laforêt

Marie Laforêt achieved broad popularity throughout the 1960s and 1970s as a French pop singer, yet she first established herself as a film actress during the opening and middle years of the earlier decade. Born Maïténa Doumenach on October 5, 1939, in Soulac-sur-Mer, Aquitaine, France, to parents of Armenian heritage, she entered cinema in 1960 through René Clément’s drama Plein Soleil, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. That production introduced Laforêt to acting audiences and simultaneously transformed Alain Delon into a screen star. In the aftermath of this debut she received successive role offers, among them Saint Tropez Blues (1961) and La Fille aux Yeux d'Or (1961). Performing the title song “Saint Tropez Blues” on camera from the first of those films effectively opened her path into singing, while the second picture earned her the nickname the Girl with the Golden Eyes. Adopting a folksinger approach, she began recording in 1963 for the Disques Festival label, releasing among her earliest notable tracks a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Her first full-length album, self-titled and drawn from material already issued, appeared in 1964. Further self-titled albums followed through the rest of the 1960s, each likewise assembled from previously released EP tracks. In the 1970s Laforêt largely stepped away from acting to concentrate on recordings issued by the Polydor label. Among her major successes of the period were “Viens, Viens” (1973) and “Il a Neigé sur Yesterday” (1977). Apart from Viens, Viens (1973), most of her albums during these years again carried self-titled designations. Paralleling the earlier shift from acting to music, she returned to the screen in the 1980s and set music aside. Later decades brought a succession of best-of compilations, generally spotlighting either her 1960s Festival output or her 1970s Polydor recordings.