“Forgotten Hollywood”- The Final Letter of Transit…
Manny P. here… 
Madeleine Lebeau was the last living co-star of the 1942 Oscar winning classic Casablanca. Lebeau had a special interest in the motion picture, as she and her husband, actor Marcel Dalio, who also appears in the movie, had fled Paris as the Nazis marched in. Portraying a woman jilted by Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick Blaine, her tearful image singing the French national anthem, in closeup, is one of the movie’s many emotionally stirring moments. Madeleine Lebeau (right) would later state that her tears were real.
The French-born Lebeau made her Hollywood movie debut supporting Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn. She later appeared in the Errol Flynn movie Gentleman Jim. It was then that she was signed to appear in Casablanca.
Dalio and Lebeau divorced in 1942 and Warner Brothers cancelled her contract. Lebeau appeared in a few more American movies, then returned to France after World War II, where she resumed her film career. She later married Tulio Panelli, one of the writers of Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, in which Lebeau appears. They remained married until Panelli’s death in 2009 at age 100.
Despite make over 20 movies, Lebeau remained best known for Casablanca. With the passing of Joy Page in 2008, she became that film’s only living credited actor. The death of Frank Mazzola last year, who had an uncredited role as a Moroccan boy, left her as the cast member left alive from the movie. Now, they are all gone.
Madeleine Lebeau was 92. Here’s looking at you, kid…
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The County of Los Angeles Public Library system, where I’ll begin my impending Literacy Tour in June, has just added Son of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History to two of their Southern California branches. Pico Rivera and Leland R. Weaver (South Gate) are the 48th and 49th repositories to house my paperback. The number of libraries that carry my entire Forgotten Hollywood Book Series has reached 110 locations, all over the globe.
For a complete list of County of Los Angeles Public Library tour stops, please scroll down below. You are definitely invited to stop by!
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Monday, May 16th, 2016 at 3:37 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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