Biografia
Loleh Bellon, daughter of photographer Denise Bellon and attorney general Jacques Bellon, was the younger sister of film director Yannick Bellon. From an early age, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl—an unusual combination for someone born in the Basque Country—was raised in an environment frequented by actors, directors, writers, and photographers. It was no surprise that she dreamed of becoming an actress, a dream that came true after training with masters like Charles Dullin, Tania Balachova, and Julien Bertheau. Before turning twenty, she made her debut in 1945 almost simultaneously on stage with "Virage dangereux" and in film with Le gardian (1946). Around this time, she married Spanish immigrant Jorge Semprun, who would later gain fame. Notably, after divorcing Semprun, she married another distinguished writer, Claude Roy.
On screen, she was quite active, particularly in two notable films by Louis Daquin—The Mark of the Day (1949) and Skipper Next to God (1951)—as well as Jacques Becker’s masterpiece Casque d'Or (1952). However, after this film, her appearances became infrequent due to her growing passion for the theater. Consequently, she appeared in only a few films after 1952, with the main exceptions being roles in two movies directed by her sister in the 1970s: as Raphaële in Somewhere, Someone (1972) and as Agathe in Jamais plus toujours (1975). Instead, she earned critical and public acclaim for a series of prestigious roles in plays such as William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, staged by Jean Renoir; Jean Giraudoux’s Judith; and Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid, among others.
Her distinguished career was marked by three awards—the Prix des Jeunes Comédiens, the Grand Prix du Théâtre de l’Académie, and the Prix du Théâtre de SACD—along with a dozen television roles, a screenplay for her sister’s film Les enfants du désordre (1989), and the authorship of four plays. Ultimately, her career was defined more by her theatrical achievements than by her work as a film actress.
