Alice Sophie Cocéa or Cocea (28 July 1899 – 2 July 1970) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

n-born French actress and singer.''"Countess Anna de Noailles"'' Anthology, 2011 She was the sister of

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

journalist and novelist N. D. Cocea, and the aunt of actresses Dina and Tantzi Cocea.

Biography

Alice Cocéa was born in

Sinaia Sinaia () is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. It is situated in the historical region of Muntenia. The town was named after the Sinaia Monastery of 1695, around which it was built. The monastery, in turn, is named aft ...

, Prahova County, the daughter of

Romanian Land Forces The Romanian Land Forces ( ro, Forțele Terestre Române) is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Lan ...

general Dimitrie Cocea. She had a sister, Florica (married Bressy), and a brother, Nicolae (the future N. D. Cocea). She was married in 1926 to Count Stanislas de la Rochefoucauld, Duke of Bisaccia; the marriage ended in divorce in 1931. In 1932 her fiancé, Lieutenant Victor Point, a French explorer and nephew of

Philippe Berthelot Philippe Berthelot (October 9, 1866 – November 22, 1934) was an important French diplomat, son of Marcellin Berthelot and Sophie Berthelot. He was a republican (as opposed to monarchists and the far-right leagues at the time). Born in Sèvr ...

, killed himself when Cocéa declined to marry him; he died after shooting himself in the mouth. They had been involved for three years, and she had promised to become his wife once her divorce from Rochefoucauld had been settled. Cocéa announced her retirement shortly after Point's death, stating that she would join a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

. She did not return to the screen until the 1960s. She was the mistress of Roger Capgras, a shady figure who rose from being a vegetable dealer to head of a major newspaper during the

Nazi Occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 ...

and later a fascist-leaning theatrical figure. During World War II, Cocéa was arrested as a Nazi collaborator and later released. Her memoirs, ''Mes amours que j'ai tant aimées'' ("The Loves I So Loved"), were published in 1958. She died in Boulogne-Billancourt 12 years later.

Filmography

* '' My Childish Father'' (1930) * '' Let's Get Married'' (1931) *'' Delphine'' (1931) *''Atout coeur'' (1931) * '' Nicole and Her Virtue'' (1932) *''Greluchon délicat'' (1934) *''Le joueur'' (1962) *''Striptease'' (1963) *''La ronde'' (1964)

External links

References

Romanian film actresses French film actresses People from Sinaia Romanian expatriates in France French people of Romanian descent 1899 births 1970 deaths 20th-century French actresses {{france-film-actor-stub