Gisèle Casadesus.

Gisèle Casadesus entered the world on June 14, 1914, into a Parisian family of musicians. Her father Henri Casadesus was a composer, and her mother Marie-Louise Beetz a harpist. Her family tree includes 38 successful artists, mostly musicians. She trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, winning first prize for comedy at age twenty, and later studied at Cours Simon.

Casadesus joined the Comédie-Française in 1934, becoming its 400th member in 1939. She performed there for 30 years, in works by Molière and Racine alongside Jean Gabin, Jean-Louis Barrault, and Louis Jouvet. In 1943, she appeared in Pierre Billon’s film Vautrin opposite Michel Simon. She later worked with Claude Lelouch in Hommes, femmes, mode d’emploi 1996 and Valérie Lemercier’s Palais Royal 2005. In her 90s, she starred in My Afternoons with Margueritte 2010 and Sous le figuier 2013 at age 99.

Casadesus married actor and director Lucien Pascal, and they had four children: conductor Jean-Claude Casadesus, actress Martine Pascal, composer Dominique Probst, and artist Béatrice Casadesus. She lived in the same Montmartre apartment building where she was born, from 1914 until her death in 2017. Her four siblings and many relatives in the arts included pianist Robert Casadesus.

Casadesus received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1990, an Honorary Molière Award in 2003, and the Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit. She became a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour and an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Her eight-decade career made her a grande dame of French stage and screen. My Afternoons with Margueritte brought her to a new generation of fans worldwide.