Biography
Colette Janine Marchand (29 April 1925 – 5 June 2015) was a French prima ballerina and actress. She earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1952 for her role as Marie Charlet in John Huston's Moulin Rouge.
At the peak of her dance career, she was regarded as one of Europe's finest dancers and was known as Les jambes (The Legs), alongside Violetta Elvin, Zizi Jeanmaire, Yvette Chauviré, Janine Charrat, and Margot Fonteyn. Marchand toured internationally as a dancer and performed with many of the top ballet artists of the 1940s and 1950s.
Born in Paris, France, to Alice (née Lioret) and Roger Marchand, she began her career with the Paris Opera Ballet.
She married Jacques Bazire, the musical director of the Roland Petit Ballet. Marchand passed away on 5 June 2015 at the age of 90 and was survived by her sister, Yvonne (Marchand) Le Bras.
Marchand appeared as a première ballerina on Broadway in Roland Petit's Les Ballets de Paris (1949 & 1950). In the 1950 production, she performed the ballet The Boiled Egg, which garnered critical acclaim. In 1951, she played a featured role in the Broadway musical Two on the Aisle, which ran for 276 performances. During the early 1950s on Broadway, she was featured in magazines including Life and appeared on New York City television shows such as the Ford Star Revue, the Colgate Comedy Hour, and the Ed Sullivan Show.
In 1951, she provided her voice for Isidore Isou's Venom and Eternity. The following year, she won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Female for Moulin Rouge and received a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. In 1953, Orson Welles directed her in The Lady in the Ice. Her other film roles were limited, including appearances in Hungarian Rhapsody, Par Ordre du Tsar, and the musical short Romantic Youth (in which she also served as choreographer), all released in 1954.
