Ginette Leclerc

Ginette Leclerc (1912-1992) was a French actress who starred in the 1930s and 1940s. With her smouldering eyes, her carnal smile and her vulgar voice, Ginette Leclerc was the representation of the vamp from the gutter for years.

Ginette Leclerc was born Geneviève Lucie Menut in Montmartre, Paris, where her parents had a jewelry shop. Wanting to fly free and become a dancer, against her parents’ wishes, she married a dancer, Lucien Leclerc, in 1930; she was only 17 and he 16 years more. Ginette’s marriage didn’t last though and the two divorced in 1939. Afterwards, Ginette Leclerc shared her life for a decade with actor Lucien Gallas. Leclerc had a hard time at the beginning of her career, posing for daring postcards, and playing extras in cinema from 1932, until she was discovered by Jacques Prévert. Clauda Autant-Lara gave her a small role as a cocotte in the film Ciboulette (1933), her real debut. This was followed by the Feydeau adaptation L’Hôtel du libre échange (Marc Allégret 1934), in which Leclerc opposed Fernandel. She was Romilda Pescatore in the adaptation of Pirandello’s The Late Mathias Pascal: L’homme de nulle part (Pierre Chenal 1937) starring Pierre Blanchar. And she was an evil, blackmailing girl in a girls reform school in Prisons sans barreaux/The Baker’s Wife (Léonide Moguy 1938). In 1938 Ginette Leclerc became a popular star thanks to the comedy La Femme du boulanger by Marcel Pagnol. Leclerc was Aurélie Castanier, the baker’s wife, played by Raimu. The film was based on a novella by Jean Giono and was later remade as the musical The Baker’s Wife. In 1938 Leclerc also played in Menaces/Threats (1939) by Edmond Gréville, about a group of hotel guests anguished by the threat of World War II. The film was partly burned a few months after shooting, obliging the crew and cast to retake several scenes. In 1940 the Germans burned the negative. It was reconstructed in 1944 by Gréville, adding an optimistic ending instead of the pessimistic ending of 1939.

Leclerc’s most famous part was that of the sensual, alcoholic Denise in love with the country doctor Rémy Germain (Pierre Fresnay) who receives poison pen letters in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s murder mystery Le Corbeau/The Crow (1943). Another memorable part was in Le Val d’enfer (1943) by Maurice Tourneur, a film that glorified the Vichy values of work, fatherland and family. Leclerc is a two-faced girl who marries a much older man. During the occupation Ginette Leclerc played with Tino Rossi (Fièvres, Jean Delannoy 1942), Jean Tissier (Ce n’est pas moi, Jacques De Baroncelli 1941), Georges Marchal (L’homme qui joue avec le feu, Jean de Limur 1942) and other great actors of that era, but she also ran a notorious cabaret frequented by Germans and pro-Germans. As she also had worked for the German company Continental, Leclerc was forbidden to work for a year after the Liberation. It took until 1948 before she had substantial film roles again, as in the Franco-Italian production Il fiacre N. 13 (Raul André/ Mario Mattoli 1948), Franco-Belgian production La Maudite (Norbert Benoit 1948), the neorealist-like film Un homme marche dans la ville (Marcello Pagliero 1949), Le Plaisir (Max Ophüls 1951), and Gas-oil (Gilles Grangier 1955). Leclerc’s last film role was in La Barricade du point du jour (René Richon 1977), when she was 65. Leclerc played in almost 100 films.

Her long film career didn’t prevent her from acting also in various police TV series, such as Maigret and Les Cinq dernières minutes, changing over the years from prostitute to madam. Leclerc also often played on stage in pieces by such authors as Marcel Achard and Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1984 Leclerc had two collapses in her Paris apartment, which caused a long revalidation. In 1992 Leclerc died of the effects of cancer. She is buried at Paris cemetery of Pantin. Ginette Leclerc said of herself: «I am the actress who walked the sidewalk the longest and who has been assassinated most often. » In 1963 she published her memories, simply entitled Ma vie privée. —Wikipedia