Odette Myrtil (born Odette Laure Clotilde Quignarde; June 28, 1898 – November 18, 1978)
was a French-born American actress, singer, and violinist. She began her career as a violinist on the
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic compositio ...
stage in Paris at 14. She expanded into acting and singing and had her first major success at 18 on the London stage in the 1916 musical revue ''
The Bing Boys Are Here''. She was a staple in Broadway productions from 1924 to 1932, after which she returned only periodically to Broadway through 1960. She also appeared on the stages of Chicago, London, Los Angeles, and Paris several times during her career.
From 1923 to 1972, Myrtil appeared as an actress in a total of 28 feature films, most of which were made from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s. Not a leading lady on camera, she specialized in character roles and was often used for her gifts as a singer. She made only one television appearance during her career: in the
Studio One in Hollywood 1953 episode "The Paris Feeling". She worked as a
costume designer
A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume ...
for nine motion pictures from 1944 to 1950.
Life and career
Odette Myrtil was born Odette Laure Clotilde Quignarde, although some sources cite Belza as her surname at birth, in Paris, the daughter of two stage actors. She studied the violin at a boarding school in Brussels and began performing the violin professionally at the age of 13.
In 1915, aged 16, she came to the United States to join the
Ziegfeld Follies
The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as '' The Ziegfeld Follies of the ...
on Broadway as one of the
Ziegfeld Girls.
The following year she came to London, where she was a major success in the
West End
West End most commonly refers to:
* West End of London, an area of central London, England
* West End theatre, a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London, England
West End may also refer to:
Pl ...
show ''
The Bing Boys Are Here''. She spent the next several years appearing successfully on the London stage and in vaudeville productions in major European cities.
In 1923, she returned to New York City as a vaudeville entertainer at the
Palace Theatre, where she had her first major success in America.
She became a staple of the theatre scene in New York City into the early 1930s, often appearing in Broadway musicals that featured her singing and violinist abilities. She had a particular triumph as Odette in
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in ove ...
's 1931 musical ''
The Cat and the Fiddle'', which was written specifically as a vehicle for her. after that, she only made a handful of appearances on Broadway, with her last show being the original production of
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ...
and
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallich ...
's ''
Saratoga'' in 1960.
She spent several years in the early 1950s portraying Bloody Mary in the original run of
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popu ...
's ''
South Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
'', having succeeded
Juanita Hall in the role.
After 1935, her career shifted towards film, although she never left her stage roots. She had a fairly prolific career as a film actress, appearing in mainly mid-sized roles in 25 films from 1936 to 1952. Previously, she only appeared as a dancer in the 1923 film ''Squibs M.P.'' Her first speaking role was as Renée De Penable in ''
Dodsworth'' (1936).
Some of her other film credits are ''
Kitty Foyle'' (1940), ''
Out of the Fog'' (1941), ''
I Married an Angel'' (1942), ''
Yankee Doodle Dandy'' (1942), ''
The Palm Beach Story
''The Palm Beach Story'' is a 1942 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the musical score, including a fast-paced var ...
'' (1942), ''
Uncertain Glory'' (1944), ''
Devotion'' (1946), ''
The Fighting Kentuckian'' (1949), and as Madame Darville in
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
's ''
Strangers on a Train'' (1951). She sang the title song on camera as herself in the 1954 film ''
The Last Time I Saw Paris'' (1954) and again portrayed herself in her last film appearance in the film ''Hot Pants Holiday'' (1972).
Post-acting career
Myrtil resided in
New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The population was 2,612 at the 2020 census. New Hope is located approximately north of Philadelphia, and lies on the west bank of the Delaware River at its confluence with Aquetong Creek. ...
during most of her later life. From 1955 to 1958 she managed The Playhouse Inn, located next door to the
Bucks County Playhouse. From 1961 to 1976 she operated the New Hope restaurant Chez Odette, which later became Odette's Restaurant, a different restaurant under newer ownership.
During her life, Myrtil was married twice: for eight years to vaudeville performer
Robert Adams and later to film director and producer
Stanley Logan.
She died in nearby
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Doylestown is a borough and the county seat of Bucks County in Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Trenton,
north of Center City, Philadelphia,
southeast of Allentown, and southwest of New York City.
As of the 2020 ...
in 1978, aged 80.
Filmography
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Myrtil, Odette
1898 births
1978 deaths
American film actresses
American musical theatre actresses
Actresses from Paris
French emigrants to the United States
Musicians from Paris
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American violinists
20th-century French musicians
Women violinists
People from New Hope, Pennsylvania
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American singers
20th-century French women