Person Biography:
Denise Darcel was born Denise Billecard on September 8, 1925, in Paris, France. She was one of five daughters born to a baker and his wife. She grew up outside of Paris in a small town before moving back to Paris as a young adult to attend the University of Dijon. After college, she worked as a cashier in a Parisian dime store.
Darcel entered and won a beauty contest, which led to a lot of publicity for her as "The Most Beautiful Girl in France." She capitalized on this by developing her own nightclub act and touring around the Riviera with it, blazing a name for herself.
She came to the United States as the wife of an American Army captain but the marriage soured quickly after about a year. She turned to acting and made her film debut in the war film "To the Victor" (1948). She then appeared in a series of films, including "Thunder in the Pines" (1948),"Battleground" (1949),"Tarzan and the Slave Girl" (1950),and "Vera Cruz" (1954).
Despite providing more sexy cabaret entertainment in films like "Young Man with Ideas" (1952) and "Westward the Women" (1951),Darcel's film career fell away. She never took herself or her image too seriously and was known and admired for her fine sense of humor.
She hosted her own short-lived TV quiz show "Gamble on Love" (1954) and made live appearances on stage, in dinner theaters, and around the nightclub circuit. She appeared in plays and musicals like "Oh, Captain!" (1958),"The Little Hut" (1961),and "Can-Can" (1961).
Darcel married and divorced five times and remained close to her two sons, Chris and Craig. She worked as a Las Vegas casino dealer and died of an aneurysm on December 23, 2011, at the age of 86.
