Françoise Dorléac (21 March 1942 – 26 June 1967) was a French actress. She was the daughter of screen actor Maurice Dorléac and Renée Simonot, and the elder sister of Catherine Deneuve. The two sisters starred together in the 1967 musical, The Young Girls of Rochefort. Her other films include Philippe de Broca's movie L'Homme de Rio, François Truffaut's La Peau douce, Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac and Val Guest's Where the Spies Are.

Biography

Slim, pale-skinned and brunette, Dorléac graced several movies before hitting stardom with François Truffaut's melodrama La Peau douce (1964) and the classic spy spoof L'Homme de Rio (1964) with Jean-Paul Belmondo. Known for her spirited, outgoing personality, Françoise proved a carefree screen presence in the comedy films Arsène Lupin contre Arsène Lupin (1962) opposite Jean-Claude Brialy, and Male Hunt (1964).

She appeared as the adulterous wife in Roman Polanski's black comedy Cul-de-sac, and joined Gene Kelly and her sister Catherine, who was a cinematic star by this time, in the candy-coated The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), a colorful homage to the Hollywood musical. Branching out into such non-French movies as Genghis Khan (1965), Where the Spies Are (1965) with David Niven, and Billion Dollar Brain (1967) opposite Michael Caine.

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