Simone Signoret, real name Simone Kaminker was born in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1921. She moved to France as a child and started acting under the Nazi Occupation having adopted her mother's maiden name to disguise her Jewish origins. She gradually began to secure roles in more quality films and won international recognition for her role in Jacques Becker's Casque d'or in 1952. More success followed and she won an Oscar for her part in Room at the Top in 1959. She married the singer/actor Yves Montand in 1951 and continued acting until 1982. She died of cancer in Paris in 1985.
