Colette Dereal born 22 September 1927

Colette Deréal, (1927 - 1988), was a French actress and singer.

Colette Deréal was born Colette Denise De Glarélial, September 22, 1927 in a small town of Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole in France.  Her family moved to Marseille a few months after her birth but Colette spent hers adolescence in Juan-les-Pins.

As she grew up, her godmother found that Colette had a lovely soprano voice. At the age of 15 she was introduced to the great master Reynaldo Hahn, who by listening to her, promised her a career in opera, but unfortunately, because of jitters and a bad cold, her time with Hahn was a failure. She decided to turn to the theatre.

At the age of seventeen she went to Paris and enrolled at the René Simon School of Acting. She appeared in many French films and devoted herself to the theatre.  Her first film appearance was in "The kingdom of heaven" alongside Serge Reggiani. This was the beginning of a film career of twenty-four films in France and Hollywood, including "Little 

Boy Lost" with Bing Crosby (1953), "Success Train", an episode of the TV series "Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents" (1955) and "The Happy Road" by and with Gene Kelly (1957). In France she played namely with Jean Gabin, who really appreciated her as a partner.

America offered Colette  a seven-year contract, but homesickness prevailed. Too attached to her roots, she refused and returned to France. She appeared in several episodes of the 1959 TV series "Last five minutes."  In one episode she sang the song "Do not play".  Following strong demand she recorded the song and 100,000 copies were sold in a month.

                             

In 1961, Deréal represented Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961, with the song "Allons, allons les enfants" (Let's go, let's go children). Deréal finished joint tenth place with the Finnish entry "Valoa ikkunassa" (The lights in the window) sung by Laila 

Kinnunen and the Dutch entry "Wat een dag" (What a day) sung by Greetje Kauffeld, receiving six points.

As a singer, she had a huge success (she has recorded  260 songs). "At the Gare Saint-Lazare", "Are more children", "Women with glasses", "Valse de Cambronne," "Do not play", "Telstar" and "See you" which earned her 1962 Academy Grand Prix du Disque Charles Cros, are amongst her greatest hits.

She appeared frequently on the television throughout the 60’s and 70’s then became a journalist at the Tribune de Monaco. She became active in animal welfare and began painting for pleasure.

 Living in La Turbie (Alpes-Maritimes), it gave her the opportunity to meet her great friend, Grace Kelly.  Perhaps nostalgic for her singing career, Colette agreed to perform at the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo and in the name of friendship, to sing again for a privileged few.  Her last appearance was at the Kim Club in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1985.

Colette Deréal died April 12, 1988, struck down by a heart attack.

(Info various mainly from Wikipedia translation)