Marpessa Dawn (January 3, 1934 – August 25, 2008), also known as Gypsy Marpessa Dawn Menor, was an American-French actress, as well as a singer and dancer. She is best remembered for her role in the film ''

Black Orpheus ''Black Orpheus'' ( Portuguese: ''Orfeu Negro'' ) is a 1959 romantic tragedy film directed by French filmmaker Marcel Camus and starring Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello. It is based on the play '' Orfeu da Conceição'' by Vinicius de Moraes, ...

'' (1959) by

Marcel Camus Marcel Camus (21 April 1912 – 13 January 1982) was a French film director. He is best known for '' Orfeu Negro'' (''Black Orpheus''), which won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the 1960 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Fi ...

Biography

Born on a farm near

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, of

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

and Filipino heritage,Dean, Loomis
"America's Dawn Comes Up in France"
''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'', March 14, 1960, p. 57. she worked as a laboratory technician in New York before migrating to Europe as a teenager. She began acting in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, with some minor TV roles. Then, in 1953, she relocated to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and while occasionally working as a governess also sang and danced in nightclubs, where she met director

. At the age of 24, she won the role of "Eurydice" in his film ''Black Orpheus''. The film won the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the 1960

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for Best Foreign Language Film. She married Camus, but divorced him soon after and married Belgian actor Georges-Eric Vander-Elst, whom she met when they appeared together in a play at th
American Center in Paris
They had a civil ceremony held in secrecy. Considered a great beauty, she was featured in November 1959 by ''

Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also includes the persimmon tree. A few ''Diospyros'' species, such as macassar and mun ebony, are dense enough to sink in water. Ebony is fin ...

'' and has been hailed as "one of Ebony magazine's prettiest cover girls", along with the likes of

Dorothy Dandridge Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American actress and singer. She was the first African-American film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for '' Carmen Jones'' (1954). Dandridge had a ...

Halle Berry Halle Maria Berry ( ; born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant of 1986 and also placing six ...

, Vanessa A. Williams and

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the C ...

". Dawn remained in Europe, working in French films and television. She also had several theatrical parts, including a starring role in ''Chérie Noire'', a highly successful stage comedy which played for seven years, touring France,

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, and ''Le Jardin des délices'' (''The Garden of Delights''), by Fernando Arrabal, with Delphine Seyrig (1969). Her subsequent career, however, was much less successful. She appeared in a 2005 documentary about

Vinicius de Moraes Marcus Vinícius da Cruz e Mello Moraes (19 October 1913 – 9 July 1980), better known as Vinícius de Moraes () and nicknamed "O Poetinha" ("The Little Poet"), was a Brazilian poet, diplomat, lyricist, essayist, musician, singer, and playwrig ...

, who wrote the original play from which ''Black Orpheus'' was adapted. She and her fellow lead from that film,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian actor Breno Mello, died just 42 days apart in 2008, both from heart attacks. They both starred in the 1959 film ''Black Orpheus''. She was 74 years old at the time of her death in Paris and left five children and four grandchildren.Frank Gray
Obituary of Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello
''The Guardian'', 29 October 2008.

Filmography

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawn, Marpessa 1934 births 2008 deaths Actresses from Pittsburgh American expatriate actresses in France American film actresses American television actresses American actresses of Filipino descent Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 20th-century American actresses 20th-century African-American actresses 21st-century African-American actresses 21st-century American actresses