Françoise Dorin

Françoise Dorin (23 January 1928 – 12 January 2018) was a French actor, comedian, novelist, playwright and songwriter. She was most successful in the 1970s, authored about 30 plays and more than 25 books as well as writing songs for various artists. Dorin wrote the song N'avoue jamais which was performed by Guy Mardel on behalf of France at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. She was appointed Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur, the Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Grand officier de l’ordre national du Mérite. A street in Paris' 17th arrondissement was voted unanimously by the Council of Paris to be named after Dorin following her death.

Dorin was born in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, on 23 January 1928. She was the daughter of the songwriter René Dorin, and his wife Yvonne Guilbert. Dorin had one brother. Dorin's great-grandmother was a coffee market store owner and this was taken over by her maternal grandfather Athanase Guilbert. She was educated at Cours Hattemer. Dorin was married on 2 October 1958 and later divorced to the actor Jean Poiret and the two had a daughter. She was later remarried to the actor and writer Jean Piat from 1975 to 2018. On the morning of 12 January 2018, Dorin died at l'hôpital de Courbevoie in Hauts-de-Seine.

She made her stage debut at the cinéma-théâtre d'Yvetot in 1946 but she was uncomfortable on stage. After training opposite Roger Hanin and Michel Piccoli for a period of four years as well as working for her father at Théâtre des Deux Ânes for three years when he introduced her to classical literature, her debut doing songwriter reviews came at a production of Aveux les plus doux in 1957 at the Théâtre des Deux-Anes. The following year, Dorin reviewed le Chinois at Théâtre La Bruyère. She wrote the song N'avoue jamais that was performed by Guy Mardel who was France's representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. Dorin authored her first play Comme au théâtre in 1967 under a pseudonym, then proceeded to write La Invoice the year after, and she presented the television programme Paris Club that was broadcast in 1969.

During the 1970s, she authored Un sale égoïste, Les Bonshommes that same year, Vos gueules les mouettes in 1971, l’Age en question in 1972, the musical Monsieur Pompadour in the same year, Le Tournant in 1973, the two-act comedy Le Tube in 1975, l'Autre Valse in 1976, Si t'es beau, t'es con in 1976 and Le Tout pour le tout in 1978. This made Dorin one of the most performed authors in France in the 1970s and was most successful during this period. In 1980, she wrote les Lits à une place that sold more than a million copies and l’Intoxe which sold out every evening in Paris. Dorin went on to author les Miroirs truqués in 1982, the three-act l’Etiquette play in 1983, les Jupes-culottes in 1984, la Valise en carton in 1986, Les Cahiers Tango in 1987, les Corbeaux et les renardes in 1988, and was a dialogue writer for the film A deux minutes près in 1989. ...

Source: Article "Françoise Dorin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.