Katherine Kath (born Rose Marie Lily Faess; 11 August 1920 – 17 November 2012) was a French prima ballerina at the

Theatre du Chatelet Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, who became an actress after suffering from an injury which destroyed her chances of continuing her career.

Biography

Kath was born in

Berck Berck (), sometimes referred to as Berck-sur-Mer in French or Berck-su-Mér in Picard language, Picard ( ''Berck on Sea''), is a Communes of France, commune in the northern French Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Situated on ...

Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...

, France, where she also died, at age 92 in 2012, from undisclosed causes. Until shortly before then, she was living in London, near Fulham Road. She appeared in many international films and television programmes during her acting career. She met British filmmaker

Jack Clayton Jack Isaac Clayton (1 March 1921 – 26 February 1995) was an English film director and producer, known for his skill directing literary adaptations. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for his feature-length debut, Room a ...

in 1952, during the making of ''

Moulin Rouge Moulin Rouge (, ; ) is a cabaret in Paris, on Boulevard de Clichy, at Place Blanche, the intersection of, and terminus of Rue Blanche. In 1889, the Moulin Rouge was co-founded by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, who also owned the Olympia (Par ...

'', in which she portrayed the can-can dancer La Goulue and on which Clayton was the assistant director. Jack was gifted a watercolour of Katherine by Marcel Vertès, who won two academy awards for his work on the film. It was signed "A Jack Clayton tres amicalement". The couple married in 1953, following Clayton's

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

from his first wife, Christine Norden, but the union was shortlived.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* 1920 births 2012 deaths French film actresses French prima ballerinas People from Pas-de-Calais French television actresses 20th-century French actresses {{France-screen-actor-stub