Madeleine LeBeau

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Madeleine LeBeau was born Marie Therese Ernestine in Bourg-la-Reine, France, on February 22, 1921, she married actor Marcel Dalio as a 17 year old in 1938 (it was his second marriage). They met while doing a play together. The following year, she appeared in her first movie, the French drama, Jeunes filles en détresse (Girls in Distress).

In June of 1940, LeBeau and Dalio left Paris ahead of the invading German army and reached Lisbon. It took them two months to get visas to Chile. However, when their ship stopped in Mexico they were stranded because the visas they had purchased turned out to be forgeries (along with around 200 other passengers). Eventually they were able to get temporary Canadian passports and come to the United States.

Lebeau made her Hollywood debut in Hold Back the Dawn in 1941 with Charles Boyer and Olivia DeHaviland. The following year, she received a good role in the Errol Flynn movie Gentleman Jim (biography of famed Irish boxer James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett).

Later that year, at age 21, she received the role of Yvonne, Rick’s jilted mistress, in Casablanca. Warner Bros. signed her to a $100 a week contract for 26 weeks (to be in a number of films. On June 22, while she was filming her scenes in Casablanca, her husband Marcel Dalio (who played Emil the croupier in the film) filed for divorce in Los Angeles on the grounds of desertion. Shortly before the release of the movie, Warner Bros. terminated her contract.

After Casablanca she appeared in two more American films. The first was a large role in the war drama Paris After Dark in 1943 with her former husband Marcel Dalio. The following year, LeBeau had a smaller role in Music for Millions.

After the end of World War II, LeBeau returned to France and continued her acting career. In 1947, she appeared in Les Chouans (The Royalists). In 1950, LeBeau traveled to Great Britain to appear in a movie with Jean Simmons called Cage of Gold.

She would appear in 20 more movies in France including Une Parisienne in 1957 with Charles Boyer and Brigitte Bardot. One of her last French movies was the Federico Fellini film 8½ in 1963 (Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film). LeBeau last two movies were Spanish productions in 1965.