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Fifi D'Orsay

Fifi D'Orsay (on April 16, 1904 - December 2, 1983) was a Canadian actress. Born Marie-Rose Angelina Yvonne Lussier in Montreal, Quebec, as a young girl, filled with the desire to become an actress, she went to New York City. There, she found work in The Greenwich Village Follies after an audition in which she sang the song Yes! We Have No Bananas in French. In a burst of creativity, she told the play's director she was from Paris, France where she had worked in the Follies Bèrgere. The show's impressed director hired her, billing her as Mademoiselle Fifi.

While working in the show, she became involved with Ed Gallagher, a veteran actor who joined her in putting together a vaudeville act. After working with Gallagher and others in music halls for a few years, she headed west to Hollywood, California. There, she added the Paris name D'Orsay to the Fifi and began a career in movies, often cast as the naughty French girl from Gay Paris.

While never a superstar, she worked hard at her craft headlining with the likes of Bing Crosby, and Buster Crabbe. For years, she kept alternating her appearances in film with continued performances in vaudeville and when age put an end to the glamour roles, she readily took jobs in television. At the age of sixty-seven, she appeared back on stage in the Tony Award winning Broadway musical, Follies.

Fifi D'Orsay passed away in Woodland Hills, California and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2003.

Fifi D'Orsay Facts

Birth NameMarie-Rose Angelina Yvonne Luss
OccupationActress
BirthdayApril 16, 1904
SignAries
BirthplaceMontreal, Quebec, Canada
Date of deathDecember 2, 1983 (age 79)
Height5' 5½" (1m66)  How tall is Fifi D'Orsay compared to you?

Selected Filmography

Delinquent Daughters
Stolen Jools
What A Way To Go
Buster Crabbe Collection
Nabonga
Wonder Bar
Going Hollywood
Submarine Base
Girl From Calgary
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