Suzanne Cloutier
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
French-Canadian blonde actress of the 1950s with flawless, chiseled features and a cool, wide-eyed beauty who, after a brief career as a New York model, was signed by George Stevens' Liberty Films, making her film debut in a small role in the 1946 "women's picture" "Temptation." Cloutier began her stage career the following year joining Charles Laughton's stage company for a season in New York and the Jean Daste Comedie Francise Touring Company in Paris. After starring in Julien Duvivier's French film, "Au Royanume des cieux/Woman Hunt" (1949), Cloutier was chosen by Orson Welles as the eleventh and final actress he hired to play Desdemona in his film version of "Othello" (completed 1952; US release 1955), her performance is finely honed, simple and straight forward, suggesting the beauty and poignant sweetness of the Moor's innocent bride. Cloutier continued her association with Welles, co-starring with him on the Paris stage in his "The Unthinking Lobster" and later helping to put together financing for his film projects "The Other Side of the Wind" (1972) and the never-completed "Don Quixote."
During the 1950s Cloutier starred in such international films as Marcel Carne's "Juliette ou la Clef des Songes" (1950). She played a maid who spends a day at the races with her favorite film star in "Derby Day" (1951) and was featured in "Doctor in the House" (1954).
The focus of her career shifted when she appeared opposite Peter Ustinov on the London stage in "No Sign of the Dove" in 1953, marrying the actor-director-playwright the following year (they divorced in 1971) and starring opposite him on stage and in the 1961 version of his hit comedy "Romanoff and Juliet." Cloutier has subsequently raised their three children; worked on a 1966 UNDP study of tourism in Dakar, Senegal; served as an artistic advisor to various film festivals and produced two musical documentary films.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Art Director (Feature Film)
Art Department (Feature Film)
Art Department (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1946
Film debut in "Temptation"
1946
Put under contract to George Stevens' Liberty Films
1947
Joined the Charles Laughton Company at the Coronet Theatre in New York performing in the classics
1948
Went to Paris and joined the Jean Daste Comedie Francaise Touring Company
1948
Met Orson Welles at the Venice Film Festival; was the 11th and final Desdemona hired by Welles to star in his film, "Othello" (begun in 1948; completed 1952; released in US 1955)
1948
Signed by Welles to a seven-year contract
1949
Played the lead in Julien Duvivier's film, "Le Royanume des Cieux"
1950
Starred opposite Welles in "The Unthinking Lobster" (written by Welles) at the Edouard VII Theater in Paris (date approximate)
1953
First worked with Peter Ustinov on the London stage in "No Sign of the Dove"
1960
Moved back to Paris; worked on Ustinov's films "Billy Budd" and "Lady L" in an uncredited capacity
1966
Went to Senegal for a UNDP study on tourism
1968
Collaborated with producer Michael Butler on the Broadway production of "Hair"
Videos
Movie Clip
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