Arletty (born Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat) (May 15, 1898 - July 24, 1992) was a French fashion model, singer, and actress. Arletty was born in Courbevoie, France, to a working-class family. Her early career was dominated by the music hall, later appearing in plays and cabaret. Arletty’s career took off around 1936 when she appeared as leading lady in the stage plays Les Joies du Capitole and Fric-Frac, in which she starred opposite Michel Simon. Arletty was a stage performer for ten years before her French film debut in 1930. In 1945, Arletty appeared in her most famous film role, the part of Garance in Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis. Arletty was imprisoned in 1945 for having had a wartime liaison with a German officer during the occupation of France. She later commented on the experience, "My heart is French but my body is international."After a moderately successful period as a stage actor in later life, an accident in 1963 left her nearly blind, forcing her to retire. One of her final screen appearances was in a small role as an elderly French woman in the 1962 epic The Longest Day. On her passing in 1992, Arletty was cremated, her ashes interred in her hometown at the Nouveau Cimetière de Courbevoie. In 1995 the government of France issued a series of limited edition coins to commemorate the 100th anniversary of film that included a 100 Franc coin bearing the image of Arletty.
