Biography for
Leslie Caron More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

1 July 1931, Boulogne-Billancourt, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France

Birth Name

Leslie Claire Margaret Caron

Nickname

Carly Jane

Height

5' 1½" (1.56 m)

Mini Biography

Actress and dancer. Gene Kelly got her to the movies for the film An American in Paris (1951) in 1951. Got a world-wide reputation for her roles in Lili (1953) (1953) and Gigi (1958) (1958).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Oliver Heidelbach

Mini Biography

French ballet dancer Leslie Caron was discovered by legendary MGM star Gene Kelly during his search for a co-star in one of the finest musicals ever filmed, the Oscar-winning An American in Paris (1951). Her gamine looks and pixie-like appeal were ideal for Cinderella-type rags-to-riches stories. Combined with her fluid dancing skills, she became one of the top foreign musical talents of the 1950s...and her triple-threat talents as a singer, dancer and actress sustained her long after the musical film's "golden age" had passed.

Leslie Claire Margaret Caron was born on July 1, 1931. Her father, Claude Caron, was a French chemist, and her American-born mother, Margaret Petit, had been a ballet dancer back in the States during the 1920s. Leslie herself began taking dance lessons at age 11 until the Nazi occupation forced her and her brother to flee to Cannes with her grandparents. She later returned to Paris and attended the Convent of the Assumption. Continuing her dance training at the National Conservatory, she became a 16-year-old member of the Ballet des Champs-Élysées where she greatly impressed her teachers. Cast in the ballet "La Recontre" in 1948, Gene Kelly saw her in the production and was entranced. Luckily for her, he remembered that performance two years later when he returned to Paris in search for a dancing unknown to introduce in his newest musical film.

Put under an MGM contract, Leslie also appeared in one dramatic film but it was held in abeyance until the release of the George Gershwin-inspired An American in Paris (1951). Kelly and newcomer Caron's touching performances and elegant and exuberant footwork (especially in the "Our Love Is Here to Stay" and "Embraceable You" numbers and the dazzling 17-minute ballet to the title song) had critics and audiences enthralled and it won several Oscar awards, including "Best Picture". While her dramatic mettle was tested as a New Orleans nightclub entertainer opposite Ralph Meeker's boxer in Glory Alley (1952) and as a French governess in The Story of Three Loves (1953), it was as the toothsome, child-like urchin who falls for a cruel carnival puppeteer in Lili (1953) that finally brought her to Academy Award attention. The film, which went on to inspire the Tony-winning Broadway musical "Carnival," earned Leslie not only an Oscar nomination, but the British Film award for "Best British Actress". At her waif-like best once again in the musical Daddy Long Legs (1955), this time Leslie was paired with the other male dancing film legend, Fred Astaire. The story, which unfolded in an appealing Henry Higgins/Eliza Dolittle style, was choreographed by Roland Petit, who founded the Ballet des Champs-Élysées, Leslie's former dance company.

While she gave poignant life to the ugly-duckling-turned-swan tale The Glass Slipper (1955) opposite Britisher Michael Wilding's Prince Charming and touchingly played a ballerina in love with a WWII soldier (John Kerr) in Gaby (1956), a rather so-so remake of the far-superior "Waterloo Bridge", it took another plush musical classic, Gigi (1958), to remind audiences once again of Leslie's unique appeal. When MGM could not sign megastar Audrey Hepburn, who played the title role in the 1951 Broadway version, the part was given to Leslie, who had also performed the role successfully on stage in 1956. The musical received nine Academy Awards, including best picture, but Leslie herself was shamefully overlooked as a nominee.

A few more forgettable film roles came and went until she returned triumphantly in a non-musical adaptation of a highly successful 1954 stage musical. Fanny (1961) was blessed with gorgeous cinematography, a touching script and the continental flavor of veterans Maurice Chevalier, Salvatore Baccaloni and Charles Boyer. As its centerpiece, the child-like Leslie (at age 30!) was mesmerizing as a young girl with child, deserted by her sailor/boyfriend (Horst Buchholz). Even more adult in nature, she played a pregnant woman abandoned again, this time a French refugee, in the shattering drama The L-Shaped Room (1962), which earned her a second British Film Academy trophy and a second Oscar nomination.

On stage Leslie earned applause in another Audrey Hepburn vehicle, "Ondine," in 1961. While the mid-1960s and 1970s saw her film career take a downhill detour amid a number of nothing-special comedies opposite the likes of Rock Hudson, Cary Grant and Warren Beatty, and in mediocre foreign pictures, she began seeking out work on American TV. In the 80s appeared in stage production of "On Your Toes" and "One for the Tango".

Her private life has been more turbulent than expected. She is divorced from the late meat packing heir and musician Geordie Hormel; from avant-garde Royald Shakespeare director Peter Hall, by whom she had two children, Christopher and Jennifer; and from her Chandler (1971) producer Michael Laughlin. Many years down the road she subsequently married the director of Chandler (1971), Paul Magwood, but that marriage too would not survive.

One of the few MGM post-musical stars to enjoy a formidable dramatic career, and is still continuing today on an infrequent basis, she has more recently been spotted in such popular crossover foreign films as Chocolat (2000), and in Kate Hudson's romantic comedy/drama Le divorce (2003). At age 75 Leslie won her first Emmy Award with her very moving portrayal of an elderly woman and closeted rape victim in a 2006 episode of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit".

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Michael Laughlin	(1 January 1969 - 1980) (divorced)
Peter Hall	(6 August 1956 - 5 February 1965) (divorced) 2 children
Geordie Hormel	(23 September 1951 - March 1954) (divorced)
Paul Magwood	(? - ?) (divorced)

Trivia

Was president of the jury at the 'Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin' in 1989.

Born of a French father and an American mother

For Peter Hall's 30th birthday her present was - simply - a Rolls Royce.

When she told Fred Astaire that she wanted to create her own costumes for Daddy Long Legs (1955), he responded: "OK, but no feathers, please". Astaire recalled the exasperation he had with one of Ginger Rogers' elaborate gowns in a dance scene in Top Hat (1935). Some ostrich feathers broke loose from Ginger Rogers' gown and mischievously floated in mid air around Astaire's face. The shedding dress episode was recreated to hilarious effect in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer played by Judy Garland.

Her talent as a dancer had been already noticed in 1946 by the then married Gene Kelly and Betsy Blair in a Roland Petit's ballet on the theme of Orpheus, but they could not meet her at the end of the show because Caron's mother used to take her immediately away.

She and her daughter, Jennifer Hall, co-starred on an episode of "The Love Boat" (1977), in the parts of mother and daughter.

Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1980

Once romantically linked (1995-1996) to handsome "Laredo" actor Robert Wolders who married older actress Merle Oberon and was the companion of older actress Audrey Hepburn until her death in 1993. Leslie is five years older than Wolders.

Grew up with the nickname Carly Jane by her family and close friends.

Has two children: Christopher (born 1957) and Jennifer (born 1958).

Her first marriage to musician, composer and meat-packing planet heir (Hormel Foods) Geordie Hormel ended after a few years, and at the height of her fame because of career preferences. Her second marriage to famed stage director Peter Hall also ended in divorce, with his naming Warren Beatty, her co-star in Promise Her Anything (1965), as co-respondent. The London court ordered Beatty to pay court costs.

She was nominated for a 1975 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Guest Artist for her performance in the play, "13 Rue De L'Amour," at the Arlington Park Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

One of the few actresses to have danced with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in the movies, other actresses that have also done this includes Judy Garland, Cyd Charisse, Vera-Ellen, Debbie Reynolds, and Rita Hayworth.

Personal Quotes

"I'm not a ballerina. I'm a hoofer."

[on Warren Beatty] Anyone who has come close to Warren has shed quite a few feathers. He tends to maul you.

Even now I feel furious with myself because whenever there's a camera pointed towards me my MGM training makes me smile. I don't like it. You can see it on all the people who came from that era because there was no question of them not smiling for the camera. Even Katharine Hepburn -- and God knows she was a dramatic actress -- if the camera is on her she smiles.

I got what I have now through knowing the right time to tell terrible people when to go to hell.

Where Are They Now

(1997) Owns and operates an inn located at Villeneuve sur Yonne about 100km South of Paris. The name of the inn is La Lucarne aux Chouettes which loosely translates to 'The Owl's Nest'.

(April 2005) Wisconsin

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