Darling Légitimus

Darling Légitimus

Born: November 21, 1907
Died: December 7, 1999
in Le Carbet, Martinique
Mathilda Marie Berthilde Paruta (21 November 1907 – 7 December 1999), better known as Darling Légitimus, was a French actress. In 1983, she received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance in the film Sugar Cane Alley.

Born on 21 November 1907 at Le Carbet in Martinique, she spent her early years in Caracas, Venezuela. Mathilda Paruta arrived in Paris, France, at age of 16, wanting to become a dancer. She met Victor-Etienne Légitimus, son of the government deputy, Hegesippe Jean Légitimus, and went on to become his lifelong companion and bear him five children.

Known for a long time as Miss Darling, she later chose to go by the name of Darling Legitimus. She performed as a dancer in La Revue Nègre (1925) with Josephine Baker, and posed for Picasso as well as for sculptor Paul Belmondo, father of Jean-Paul Belmondo, the actor.

During the 1930s, Darling wrote, composed and sang numerous Caribbean songs such as Biguine and Mazurka. She often performed alongside known musicians of the era, including "Pe En Kin Sosso" and his band.

She also performed in plays by Jean Genet (Les Nègres) and Aimé Césaire. She was directed on the big screen by Raymond Rouleau in Les Sorcieres de Salem (The Crucible) alongside Simone Signoret and Yves Montand, and Le Salaire de la Peur (Wages of Fear) by Henri Georges Clouzot, with Sacha Guitry, Jean-Claude Brialy and Bernardo Bertolucci.

In 1983, at the age of 76, she won the Volpi Cup for the best female interpretation of "The Mostra of Venise", also for her role in La Rue Cases-Nègres (Sugar Cane Alley), directed by her compatriot Euzhan Palcy. During her long life, she was acquainted with a great number of famous actors, among them Arletty, Fernandel, Marlon Brando and Pierre Brasseur. She also took part in numerous ORTF (Office de Radio-diffusion de la Television Française) productions, of which a telefilm by Jean-Christophe Averty, Les verts Paturages (The Green Pastures, written by Marc Connelly), was produced.

She died on 7 December 1999 at Kremlin-Bicetre in the Val de Marne near Paris, in France, without any more acting roles after Sugar Cane Alley in spite of hopes of her nomination and rewards.

The writer, Calixthe Beyala and Caribbean actor Luc Saint-Eloy, representatives of "Liberté" collective came up on stage at the César ceremony in 2000, to claim one of the largest presence on French television screens and to pay her a public tribute, since the organizers had "forgotten" to name Darling as one of the previous year's great losses.

Source: Article "Darling Légitimus" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Movies for Darling Légitimus...

Sugar Cane Alley
Title: Sugar Cane Alley
Character: M'Man Tine
Released: September 21, 1983
Type: Movie
Martinique, in the early 1930s. Young José and his grandmother live in a small village. Nearly everyone works cutting cane and barely earning a living. The overseer can fine a worker for the smallest infraction. The way to advance is to do well in school. José studies hard and succeeds in an exam allowing him to attend school in the capital. With only a partial scholarship, the tuition is very costly. José and his grandmother move to Fort-de-France to make José's studies easier...
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The Toilets Were Closed from the Inside
Title: The Toilets Were Closed from the Inside
Character: Rose
Released: January 7, 1976
Type: Movie
A bus conductor gets dressed for work in the morning, goes to the toilet, where he is killed by a bomb. The Commissioner and his fat, bumbling assistant, Inspector Charbonnier are put on the case. After interviewing friends, wives, colleagues, and spying on strangers who might be connected, our heroes trace the assassin down to a mental institution where, it seems, the murder victim has been an inmate for the last three years...
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La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
Title: La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
Released: October 31, 1973
Type: Movie
Young Berthe, deeply moved by a cinema screening of the notoriously sultry Le Dernier Tango à Paris, goes to the address where most of the action takes place, a building overlooking the Bir-Hakeim Bridge metro station. Reality suddenly seems to mimic fiction when she discovers not only an apartment advertised for rent, but also a man prostrate in a corner who seems to be waiting for her. Hoping for the same torrid embrace as in the film, she discovers that he is in fact preoccupied only by the apartment's defects. Attempting to embark on a passionate affair, she learns that the man suffers from libido problems.
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Églantine
Title: Églantine
Released: February 25, 1972
Type: Movie
Léopold, a young schoolboy, returns from boarding school to spend the summer vacations with his family. He is delighted to see his grandmother Eglantine again. The good times spent with all those close to him make him forget the stress of school. But with the start of the new school year fast approaching, Léopold learns of Eglantine's death.
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Le Cri du cormoran, le soir au-dessus des jonques
Title: Le Cri du cormoran, le soir au-dessus des jonques
Released: February 10, 1971
Type: Movie
Alfred Mullanet, an unlucky player who lives on his wife's income, becomes in a few moments the object of interest of two thugs, Kruger and Mister K.
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The Ghostly Rental
Title: The Ghostly Rental
Character: Belinda
Released: April 17, 1965
Type: Movie
At the end of the 19th Century, young Fanning finishes his studies in theology at the University of Cambridge. During a walk through the countryside, the boy, inspired by the lecture of romantic novels, discovers an abandonned house, from which an old man is coming out. He returns to the house regularly without ever seeing its mysterious inhabitant. Fanning finally surprises the old man while he is sitting on a bench at the cemetery and manages to gain his confidence...
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Les verts pâturages
Title: Les verts pâturages
Character: Madame Noé
Released: December 31, 1964
Type: Movie
A French TV movie directed by Jean-Christophe Averty , broadcast on December 24, 1964 . The Old Testament set in Louisiana with an all black cast.
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The Fire Within
Title: The Fire Within
Character: (uncredited)
Released: October 15, 1963
Type: Movie
Although his alcoholism has been treated, Alain still feels he is deeply unwell and does not feel he can leave the detoxification clinic once and for all. His wife, living in New York, continues to pay for his treatment, but no longer contacts him directly. He intends to commit suicide, but first takes a ride to Paris to catch up with old friends.
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The Doll
Title: The Doll
Released: November 7, 1962
Type: Movie
An avant-garde political satire that takes place in a mythical country in South America. The dictator has been replaced by a look-alike revolutionary, and the dictator's wife has been replaced by a robot.
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Women Are Like That
Title: Women Are Like That
Character: Palmyre
Released: September 20, 1960
Type: Movie
American FBI agent Lemmy Caution arrives in France to track down a dangerous spy.
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Title: Discorama
Character: Self
Released: February 4, 1959
Type: TV
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The Witches of Salem
Title: The Witches of Salem
Character: Tituba
Released: April 26, 1957
Type: Movie
Salem 1692. The young Abigail, seduced and abandoned by John Proctor, accuses John's wife of being a witch in revenge. A series of tragic trials soon befall Salem as fear and suspicion blur the lines of reality.
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A Missionary
Title: A Missionary
Released: December 2, 1955
Type: Movie
Dreaming of heroic deeds, a young missionary soon becomes disillusioned.
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Flesh and the Woman
Title: Flesh and the Woman
Character: (uncredited)
Released: June 8, 1954
Type: Movie
In this romance, a jilted lawyer joins the French Foreign Legion to help him forget his faithless love. While in the desert he espies a village beauty who is the exact double of his true-love.
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Tourbillon
Title: Tourbillon
Released: October 2, 1953
Type: Movie
Taking advantage of the shooting of a film, gangsters stage a hold -up. A black man, Selim, is unfairly accused.
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The Wages of Fear
Title: The Wages of Fear
Character: Rosa
Released: April 22, 1953
Type: Movie
In a run-down South American town, four men are paid to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin into the jungle through to the oil field. Friendships are tested and rivalries develop as they embark upon the perilous journey.
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The Road to Damascus
Title: The Road to Damascus
Character: (uncredited)
Released: December 5, 1952
Type: Movie
Saul De Tarse is a Roman soldier who is making rough all over. He arrives at the Golgotha when the apostles remove the cross. He ruthlessly persecutes the Christians, even though they are his own friends.
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Three Feet in a Bed
Title: Three Feet in a Bed
Character: Caroline
Released: April 19, 1950
Type: Movie
In spite of his failures as a peddler, Casimir guaranteed his fiance that this time the vacuum cleaners will work for good. But he's still unsuccessful until he go to the appartment of Paul-Andre, a painter who was engaged by correspondence to a rich south-American woman. That's exactly when she arrive armed with a gun infuriated after she had received a rupture letter from the man she had never seen. She mistakenly took Casimir as her painter lover. Casimir his ready to flee until he learned she owned many hotels, a thousand rooms in fact. "A thousand rooms, a thousand vacuum cleaners", he suddenly think.
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Les trois cousines
Title: Les trois cousines
Released: December 10, 1947
Type: Movie
To receive the inheritance of his uncle, who died in Brazil, Claude, who has no money, must absolutely marry one of his three cousins.
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Le Bateau à soupe
Title: Le Bateau à soupe
Character: (uncredited)
Released: February 19, 1947
Type: Movie
Hervé is a tough sea captain in command of the "Duchesse Anne", a rum-trading ship. But the sea dog hides a tender heart and he allows Marie-Douce, a poor slum girl who dreams of seeing the wide world,on board. To have her accepted by the crew, he passes her off as his niece. A seasoned master like him, wise enough to ban alcohol use on his ship, should have known better : a beautiful girl on the deck cannot but unleash the savage instincts of all those men without women.
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A Friend Will Come Tonight
Title: A Friend Will Come Tonight
Character: (uncredited)
Released: April 9, 1946
Type: Movie
Commander Gerard and his band of guerrillas have found the ideal hideout: a nursing home in the Alps where, along with the mentally ill, are also hiding a Jewish girl and a Swiss doctor who might be a spy for the Germans ...