Fifi D'Orsay

Fifi D'Orsay was born Marie-Rose Angelina Yvonne Lussier in Montreal, Canada, to a father who was a postal clerk. The couple had a large family, with Fifi having 11 siblings. She was educated at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Montreal before graduating and finding work as a secretary. As a young typist she wished to become an actress, and moved to New York City. Once there she found work with the Greenwich Village Follies, after an audition in which she sang "Yes! We Have No Bananas" in French. When asked where she was from, she told the director she was from Paris, France, and that she had worked in the Folies Bergère. The impressed director hired her, billing her as "Mademoiselle Fifi". While working in the Follies, she became involved with Ed Gallagher, a veteran actor who was half of the successful Broadway comedy team of Gallagher and Shean. Gallagher and D'Orsay put together a vaudeville act, and he coached her in the art of show business. After touring in vaudeville, she headed to Hollywood and adopted the surname "D'Orsay" (after a favorite perfume). Soon after she began working in films, often cast as the "naughty French girl" from "gay Paris". She became a U.S. citizen in 1936, just as her career as a film star came to a sharp halt when she walked out on her contract at Fox Studios and was blacklisted. While never becoming a major top-billing name, she found steady work - appearing with such stalwarts as Bing Crosby and Buster Crabbe. For years she worked in both film and vaudeville; pacing her appearances in film with continued performances in vaudeville. When age put an end to the glamour roles, she took jobs in television; including 2 appearances each on ABC's Adventures in Paradise (as a mother superior in the episode "Castaways"), and the CBS legal drama Perry Mason (in the episode "The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather" and in the episode “The Case of the Bountiful Beauty”)- as well appearing in the CBS sitcom Pete and Gladys. She was a contestant on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life, and at the age of sixty-seven she bookended her career with a return to the Broadway stage in the Tony Award-winning musical, Follies.

Known For: Acting

Born: Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1904-04-16

Died: 1983-12-02

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1929	They Had to See Paris	Fifi	57
2	1929	Hot for Paris	Fifi Dupre	0
3	1930	On the Level	Mimi	0
4	1930	Women Everywhere	Lili La Fleur	30
5	1930	Those Three French Girls	Charmaine (as Fifi Dorsay)	40
6	1931	Mr. Lemon Of Orange	Julie La Rue	60
7	1931	The Stolen Jools	Fifi D'Orsay	56
8	1931	Women of All Nations	Fifi	26
9	1931	Young as You Feel	Fleurette	0
10	1932	The Girl from Calgary	Fifi Follette	40
11	1933	The Life of Jimmy Dolan	Budgie	60
12	1933	Going Hollywood	Lili Yvonne	55
13	1934	Wonder Bar	Mitzi	61
14	1937	Three Legionnaires	Olga	0
15	1942	Piano Mooner	Maid	0
16	1943	Submarine Base	Maria Styx	42
17	1944	Nabonga	Marie	43
18	1944	Delinquent Daughters	Mimi	40
19	1944	Dixie Jamboree	Yvette	45
20	1947	The Gangster	Mrs. Ostroleng	49
21	1964	Wild and Wonderful	Simone	63
22	1964	What a Way to Go!	Baroness	71
23	1965	The Art of Love	Fanny	53
24	1968	Assignment to Kill	Mrs. Hennie	60
25	1976	That's Entertainment, Part II	(archive footage)	69

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1952	This Is Your Life	Self	64
2	1952	Mr. & Mrs. North		43
3	1953	General Electric Theater	Simone	63
4	1957	Perry Mason	Woman Witness	77
5	1957	Perry Mason	Mrs. Davis	77
6	1959	Adventures in Paradise	Mother Superior	57
7	1959	Adventures in Paradise	Wanda	57
8	1960	Thriller	Toinette	64
9	1960	Pete and Gladys		65
10	1961	The Mike Douglas Show	Self	54
11	1962	The Lucy Show	Madame Fifi	70
12	1962	Combat!	Mrs. Fouquet	77
13	1964	Bewitched		79

Fifi D'Orsay

Film

Television