Françoise Dorin (23 January 1928 – 12 January 2018) was a French actor, comedian, novelist, playwright and songwriter. She was most successful in the 1970s, authored about 30 plays and more than 25 books as well as writing songs for various artists. Dorin wrote the song ''
N'avoue jamais'' which was performed by
Guy Mardel on behalf of France at the
Eurovision Song Contest 1965. She was appointed
Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur, the
Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is t ...
and the
Grand officier de l’ordre national du Mérite. A street in
Paris' 17th arrondissement was voted unanimously by the
Council of Paris
The Council of Paris (French: ''Conseil de Paris'') is the deliberative body responsible for governing Paris, the capital of France. It possesses both the powers of a municipal council (''conseil municipal'') and those of a departmental counc ...
to be named after Dorin following her death.
Personal background
Dorin was born in the
17th arrondissement of Paris
The 17th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le dix-septième'' (; "the seventeenth").
The arrondissement, known as Batignol ...
,
on 23 January 1928.
She was the daughter of the songwriter
René Dorin
René Dorin (13 November 1891,Luc Antonini, �Françoise Dorin, de la chanson au roman», ''Généalogie Magazine n° 301'', March 2010. La Rochelle – 25 July 1969, Noisy-le-Grand) was a 20th-century French chansonnier, screenwriter and playwrigh ...
,
and his wife Yvonne Guilbert.
Dorin had one brother.
Dorin's great-grandmother was a coffee market store owner and this was taken over by her maternal grandfather Athanase Guilbert.
She was educated at
Cours Hattemer. Dorin was married on 2 October 1958 and later divorced to the actor
Jean Poiret
Jean Poiret, born Jean Poiré (17 August 1926 – 14 March 1992), was a French actor, director, and screenwriter. He is primarily known as the author of the original play '' La Cage aux Folles''.
Early career
Poiret was born in Paris, and f ...
and the two had a daughter.
She was later remarried to the actor and writer
Jean Piat from 1975 to 2018.
On the morning of 12 January 2018,
Dorin died at l'hôpital de Courbevoie in
Hauts-de-Seine
Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a département in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the we ...
.
Career
She made her stage debut at the cinéma-théâtre d'Yvetot in 1946 but she was uncomfortable on stage.
After training opposite
Roger Hanin
Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...
and
Michel Piccoli
Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
for a period of four years as well as working for her father at Théâtre des Deux Ânes for three years when he introduced her to classical literature,
her debut doing songwriter reviews came at a production of ''Aveux les plus doux'' in 1957 at the Théâtre des Deux-Anes.
The following year, Dorin reviewed ''le Chinois'' at Théâtre La Bruyère.
She wrote the song ''
N'avoue jamais'' that was performed by
Guy Mardel who was France's representative at the
Eurovision Song Contest 1965.
Dorin authored her first play ''Comme au théâtre'' in 1967 under a pseudonym,
then proceeded to write ''La Invoice'' the year after,
and she presented the television programme ''Paris Club'' that was broadcast in 1969.
During the 1970s, she authored ''Un sale égoïste'',
''Les Bonshommes'' that same year, ''Vos gueules les mouettes'' in 1971, ''l’Age en question'' in 1972, the musical ''Monsieur Pompadour'' in the same year,
''Le Tournant'' in 1973,
the two-act comedy ''Le Tube'' in 1975, ''l'Autre Valse'' in 1976,
''Si t'es beau, t'es con'' in 1976 and ''Le Tout pour le tout'' in 1978.
This made Dorin one of the most performed authors in France in the 1970s and was most successful during this period.
In 1980, she wrote ''les Lits à une place'' that sold more than a million copies and ''l’Intoxe'' which sold out every evening in Paris.
Dorin went on to author ''les Miroirs truqués'' in 1982, the three-act ''l’Etiquette'' play in 1983, ''les Jupes-culottes'' in 1984,
''la Valise en carton'' in 1986,
L''es Cahiers Tango'' in 1987, ''les Corbeaux et les renardes'' in 1988,
and was a dialogue writer for the film ''A deux minutes près'' in 1989.
Over the course of the following decade, she authored ''Nini patte-en-l'air'' in 1990, ''Et s'il n'en restait qu'une'' and ''Que c'est triste Venise, N'avoue jamais, Faisons l’humour ensemble, Et s'il n'en restait qu'une'' both in 1992, ''Pique et cœur'' and ''Retour en Touraine'' each in 1993, ''La Mouflette'' in 1994, the vaudeville ''Monsieur de Saint-Futile'' two years later, ''les Vendanges tardives'' and the anthology ''Les Plus belles scènes d'amour'' in 1997 and ''the Courte paille'' in 1999.
During the 2000s, Dorin wrote ''the Julottes'' and ''Soins intensifs'' in 2001, ''La Rêve-party'' in 2002, ''Tout est toujours possible'' in 2004, ''Et puis après...'' in 2005,
''le Cœur à deux places'' in 2006, ''En avant toutes!'' in 2007, ''Quand les mouettes nous volent dans les plumes'' with Jean Piat in 2008 and ''Les Lettres que je n'ai pas envoyées'' in 2009. She then authored ''Vous avez quel âge?'' in 2010 and ''Ensemble et séparément'' four years later.
Dorin retired a few years before her death.
She had written songs for
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour ( , ; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, hy, Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրեան, ; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his dist ...
,
Michel Legrand
Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many so ...
,
Régine to
Claude François
Claude Antoine Marie François (; 1 February 1939 – 11 March 1978), also known by the nickname Cloclo, was a French pop singer, composer, songwriter, record producer, drummer and dancer. François co-wrote the lyrics of " Comme d'habitude" ( ...
, from
Dalida
Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti (; 17 January 1933 – 3 May 1987), professionally known as Dalida, was an Italian-French singer and actress born in Egypt. She sang in eleven languages and sold millions of records internationally. Her best known son ...
to
Mireille Mathieu
Mireille Mathieu (; born 22 July 1946) is a French singer. She has recorded over 1200 songs in eleven languages, with more than 122 million records sold worldwide.
Biography and career
Early years
Mireille Mathieu was born on 22 July 1946 in A ...
,
Juliette Gréco
Juliette Gréco (; 7 February 1927 – 23 September 2020) was a French singer and actress. Her best known songs are "Paris Canaille" (1962, originally sung by Léo Ferré), "La Javanaise" (1963, written by Serge Gainsbourg for Gréco) and "Dés ...
,
Line Renaud,
Patachou and
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...
.
Dorin was one of the first women to sit on the board of directors of the
Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques.
Analysis
Dorin's plays were performed more than a thousand times;
she authored approximately thirty plays,
and wrote more than twenty-five books.
Dominique Labarrière, the journalist, described Dorin as having "a precious way of expressing herself" when on television that originated from her father.
Armelle Héliot of ''
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French Newspaper of recor ...
'' wrote of Dorin that she "wants us to laugh until tears" and kept her sense of cabaret" even as "she unashamedly asserts basic truths, even if she cooks her books like a scrupulous cook, even if she is not afraid of the excesses of the heart, even if she admits wanting to please, we guess, beyond the pretty stories that she recounts – and which she sometimes repeats for her comedies – something of a dull melancholy".
Héliot also noted Dorin "could go from a very happy tone to a gloomy mood".
Awards and legacy
She won the Trophée Dussane in 1973,
and was awarded the Grand Prix du Théâtre de la Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques for the play ''l’Etiquette'' in 1984, a prize she shared with
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic ex ...
.
Dorin was made
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur in 2008.
She was also appointed
Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is t ...
in 2000 and
Grand officier de l’ordre national du Mérite in 2012.
In February 2018, the
Council of Paris
The Council of Paris (French: ''Conseil de Paris'') is the deliberative body responsible for governing Paris, the capital of France. It possesses both the powers of a municipal council (''conseil municipal'') and those of a departmental counc ...
unanimously voted to rename a street in the neighbourhood of ZAC Clichy-Batignolles, which is in the city's 17th arrondissement, after her in an attempt to create better gender parity by naming some of the city's streets after women.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorin, Françoise
1928 births
2018 deaths
Actresses from Paris
Writers from Paris
20th-century French women writers
21st-century French women writers
20th-century French dramatists and playwrights
21st-century French dramatists and playwrights
20th-century French novelists
21st-century French novelists
20th-century French actresses
21st-century French actresses
French women dramatists and playwrights
French women novelists
French women comedians
French women songwriters
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres