Anne Vernon
- Actress
Gallic Actress Anne Vernon, who was born Edith Antoinette Alexandrine
Vignaud in Saint-Denis, France, on January 24, 1924, is not well known
outside of Europe. Following graduation from the Paris Ecole des Beaux
Arts, she found work as a model and apprenticed with an advertising
designer. Developing an interest in acting, she subsequently toured
with a French theatre group before embarking on a movie career.
Glamorous leading lady roles came her way beginning in 1948,
particularly in light post-war romantic souffles and farcical comedies
where she sweetly played ingénues both English-speaking (Warning to Wantons (1949)) and
non-English speaking (Edward and Caroline (1951)). Capable of tense dramatic roles as
well, she made only one Hollywood film during her career, playing
second femme lead in the film noir Shakedown (1950) with Howard Duff and Peggy Dow.
Audiences might recognize her from the British films Terror on a Train (1953) [aka
Terror on a Train] as bomb defuser Glenn Ford's wife, and the mild comedy
The Love Lottery (1954), as part of a love triangle with David Niven and Peggy Cummins. For the
most part, however, Anne stayed on French/Italian soil appearing
opposite such dashing leading men as Daniel Gélin, Vittorio Gassman and Jean Marais. In
the 1960s she matured into chic, maternal roles, most noticeably as
Catherine Deneuve's cautious, concerned mother in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) [The Umbrellas of
Cherbourg]. Surprisingly, she also had a role in the notorious
soft-core lesbian flick Therese and Isabelle (1968). Following some TV work in the early
1970s, Anne gently phased out her career.