Person biography:
Mylène Demongeot was born Marie-Helene Demongeot on September 29, 1935, in Nice, France, to a family of actors. Her parents met in Shanghai, China, and moved to Nice, where she grew up. Her mother, Klaudia Trubnikova, was a Russian-Ukrainian émigré from Kharkiv, who escaped from the horrors of the Russian Civil War. Her father, Alfred Demongeot, was of French-Italian heritage.
Mylène suffered from being an outcast as a young girl, with kids making vicious comments about her cross-eyed condition, which she later corrected with surgery in her teens. She found solace in music and movies, a perfect escape from the horrors of WWII that devastated Europe during her childhood.
At 13, she moved to Paris and continued her education, studying piano under Marguerite Long and Yves Nat, and dramatic art with Maria Ventura at Le Cours Simon. At 15, she became a model in the atelier of Pierre Cardin.
Mylène made her film debut at 17 in the supporting role of Nicole in Children of Love (1953). She rose to international fame in the late 1950s, appearing in three or four feature films every year. She was known for her memorable seduction scenes opposite Yves Montand in The Crucible (1957) and David Niven in Bonjour Tristesse (1958).
Mylène's screen image as a manipulative blond mistress solidified in her performance opposite Alain Delon in the 1959 comedy Three Murderesses. She played manipulative and coquettish roles in period films, including The Giant of Marathon (1959) and Romulus and the Sabines (1961).
Among her best-known roles are the manipulative Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers: Part I - The Queen's Diamonds (1961) and Helen in all three of the Fantomas films. Mylène became one of the blond sex symbols in 1950s, 60s, and 70s French cinema, co-starring with major French actors of the time, including Jean Marais and Louis de Funès.
After a lengthy hiatus, Mylène made a comeback in 36th Precinct (2004) and has since appeared in Camping (2006) and La Californie (2006) by director/writer Jacques Fieschi.
