Rosay was born Françoise Bandy de Nalèche in Paris, the illegitimate daughter of Marie-Thérèse Chauvin, an actress known as Sylviac. She originally planned to become an opera singer, and in 1917, won a prize at the
Paris Conservatoire and made her debut at the
Palais Garnier in the title role of
Salammbô by
Ernest Reyer. She also sang in
Castor et Pollux by
Rameau and
Thaïs by
Massenet. Her first recorded film was
Falstaff in 1911, and she began to work in
Hollywood from 1929 onwards. In 1917, she married the director
Jacques Feyder, with whom she remained until his death in 1948, having three sons. She appeared in several films under her husband's direction, including
Le Grand Jeu (1933),
Pension Mimosas (1934),
La Kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders) (1935) and
Les Gens du voyage (1937). After the invasion of France in 1940, Rosay, not wanting to work for the Nazis or the collaborationist Vichy regime (like a small number of French actors and actresses, such as
Jean Gabin,
Michèle Morgan and
Louis Jourdan), with Jacques Feyder left France and went to Switzerland where she starred in the film
Une Femme disparaît (1941). Rosay spent the duration of World War II in Switzerland, where she taught acting classes at the Conservatoire de
Genève, She still appeared in films during this time, notably the British
Halfway House (1944) as the refugee French wife of a British sea captain. During her career, she appeared with all the great stars of French cinema, including
Jean Gabin,
Michèle Morgan,
Raimu,
Jeanne Moreau,
Danielle Darrieux,
Micheline Presle,
Paul Meurisse,
Gérard Philipe,
Louis Jouvet,
Michel Simon,
Simone Signoret,
Fernandel, and
Jean-Louis Barrault. In Hollywood, she co-starred with
Charles Boyer,
Maurice Chevalier and
Buster Keaton and worked with directors such as
William Dieterle (
September Affair, 1949),
Martin Ritt (
The Sound and the Fury, 1958),
Ronald Neame (
The Seventh Sin, 1956), and
Peter Glenville (
Me and the Colonel, 1957) with
Danny Kaye. In England she appeared in
The Alien Corn, a segment of the
W. Somerset Maugham anthology film
Quartet. A highly accomplished pianist herself in real life, she played the role of a famous piano virtuoso who gives aspiring pianist
Dirk Bogarde a compassionate but honest and devastating critical appraisal of his likelihood of becoming a great musician – which results in his suicide. She performs in the film
Schubert's
Impromptu in E flat. In 1950 she appeared on stage at
London's Winter Garden Theatre, playing the title role in 'Madame Tic Tac' but it had only a short run. It was not until 1938 that her biological father, Count François Louis Bandy de Nalèche, acknowledged her as his daughter. Her final appearance on film was in the
Maximilian Schell-directed
Academy Award-nominated and
Golden Globe-winner for
Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film of 1974,
Der Fußgänger (English title:
The Pedestrian). She died in
Montgeron, Île-de-France, near Paris. Her grave is located in
Sorel-Moussel, Île-de-France, where she is buried with her husband, movie director
Jacques Feyder. They had three sons. There are streets named after Françoise Rosay in
Limoges,
Montpellier,
Chevry-Cossigny,
Launaguet and
Martigues. == Partial filmography ==