French movie star Suzy Delair dies

Suzy Delair, a French film actress and music-hall singer best known for her 1940s thrillers directed by HenriGeorges Clouzot and her cheeky screen persona, died March 15 at a retirement home in Paris. She was 102.

The death was reported by the French magazine Le Point.

To French cinema fans, Delair was most closely identified with “Quai des Orfèvres” (1947), Clouzot’s acclaimed police melodrama about an ambitious and recklessly flirtatious singer, her jealous husband and a murder investigation. It was her third film with Clouzot.

Suzette Pierrette Delaire was born on Dec. 31, 1917, in Paris. Her father, ClovisMathieu Delaire, sold equestrian equipment, and her mother, Thérèse (Nicola) Delaire, was a seamstress.

Suzette’s first job was as an apprentice in a millinery shop, but she also began singing in cafes when she was 14.

“He met me when I was a little debutante working with Mistinguett,” the risqué and wildly popular actress and entertainer, Delair told The Times in 2002.

Clouzot attended a performance, heard Delair sing the hit “Valencia” and planned his return.

“The next time he came to the show,” Delair recalled, “he waited for me at the exit, we went for a drink, and that lasted 12 years.” It was a romantic relationship as well as a professional one.

Her final screen appearances were on French television series in the 1980s. She continued to work in operetta.

Of her 35 feature films, one was Italian — Luchino Visconti’s 1960 “Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli” (“Rocco and His Brothers”) — and one was a French-Italian co-production, certainly one of the most unusual items in her filmography: Laurel and Hardy’s last film.