MORLAY, GABY

(1893-1964)

Actress. Born Blanche Fumoleau, Gaby Morlay began her career during the silent-film era and established herself as an actress with staying power, building a career that lasted five decades. In 1915, she was hired on atPathé, where she made her name starring oppositeMax Linderin hisMaxfilms. She appeared in such Linder films asLe Vacance de Max(1913),Le 2 août,1914(1914), andMax dans les airs(1914). Morlay was such a hit that she was granted her own eponymous series, including such films asGaby en auto(1917),Pour épouser Gaby(1917), andLe Chevalier de Gaby(1920), all directed by Charles Burguet. She also went on to appear in more than twenty other silent films including René Le Somptier'sLes Épaves de l'amour(1917), Burguet'sAu paradis des enfants(1918),La Mendiante de Saint-Sulpice(1922), andFaubourg Montmartre(1924), Bernard-Deschamps'sL'Agonie des aigles(1922),Louis Feuillade'sLe Fils du flibustier(1922), Pierre Colombier andRoger Lion'sJim la houlette,roi des voleurs(1926), andJacques Feyder'sLes Nouveaux messieurs(1929).

Morlay easily made the transition from silent to sound cinema. In fact, the peak of her career was the period dating from the beginning of sound cinema to the Liberation. Her first speaking roles were in films such as Maurice Tourneur'sAccusée,levez-vous(1930) andMaison de danses(1931),Léonce Perret'sAprès l'amour(1931), and Raymond Bernard's sound remake ofFaubourg Montmartre(1931). She appeared in nearly fifty other films during the period, including Perret'sIl était une fois(1933),Abel Ganceand Fernand Rivers'sLe Maître de forges(1933), Marc Didier'sLe Billet de mille(1934),Marcel L'Herbier'sLe Scandale(1934),Le Bonheur(1934),Nuits de feu(1937),La Mode rêvée(1939), andEntente cordiale(1939), Tourneur'sSamson(1936), Colombier'sLe Roi(1936), Viktor Tourjansky'sLa Peur(1936), Félix Gandéra'sLes Grands(1936),Marc Allegret'sLes Amants terribles(1936) andL'Arlésienne(1942), Jean Dréville'sLes Nuits blanches de Saint-Petersbourg(1937),Sacha Guitry'sQuadrille(1938) andLe Destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary(1942),Georges LacombeandYves Mirande'sDerrière la façade(1939),Léon Mathot'sLe Bois sacrée(1939), Lacombe'sElles étaient douze femmes(1940), Mirande'sParis-New York(1940),Jean Delannoy'sLe Diamant noir(1941), Jean Stelli'sLe Voile bleu(1942) andL'Enfant de l'amour(1944), René Le Henaff'sDes jeunes filles dans la nuit(1943), and Yvan Noé'sLa Cavalcade des heures(1943).

After the Liberation, Morlay was investigated for collaboration with the Nazis.This was less from anything she may have personally done than for the fact that she had long been involved with the politician Max Bonnafous, who served in the Vichy government. Morlay and Bonnafous later married, and her career survived the scandal. She remained an important actress for the remainder of the 1940s and much of the 1950s. Among the films in which she appeared are André Zwaboda'sFarandole(1945), Maurice de Canonge'sDernier métro(1945), Allegret'sLunegarde(1946), Stelli'sMensonges(1946),Henri Decoin'sLes Amants du pont Saint-Jean(1947),Jacqueline Audry'sGigi(1949) andMitsou(1956), Charles Félix-Tavano'sÈve et le serpent(1949),André Hunébelle'sMillionnaires d'un jour(1949) andLes Collégiennes(1957),Max Ophuls'sLe Plaisir(1952), Guitry'sSi Versailles m'était conté(1954),Jean Grémillon'sL'Amour d'une femme(1954),Jean-Paul Le Chanois'sPapa,maman,la bonne et moi. . . (1954) andPapa,maman,ma femme et moi. . . (1956),Robert Vernay'sLes Lumières du soir(1956), Georges Lampin'sCrime et châtiment(1956), Léonide Moguy'sDonnez-moi ma chance(1957), André Berthomieu'sSacrée jeunesse(1958), andPierre Schoendoerffer'sRamuntcho(1959).

In addition to her work in France, Morlay spent a good deal of time, particularly during the 1950s, in Italy, where she made a number of films. Her career did not extend much beyond the 1950s in either country, however. She appeared in only two films in the 1960s, Alex Joffé'sFortunat(1960) and Le Chanois'sMonsieur(1964), which was her final film before dying of cancer.