MILA PARÉLY

Olga Colette Peszynski, known as Mila Parély, was born in the 9th arrondissement of Paris on October 7, 1917 and died in Vichy on January 14, 2012. She was a French actress of Polish origin.

Mila Parély began her career in the cinema in 1932, in a short film. During the 1930s, she participated in a tour of the United States as a singer for bandleader Rudy Vallée. She participated in films until 1953, mostly in French films but there were two British films. She figured notably in Sacha Guitry's Remontons les Champs-Élysées (1938), Jean Renoir's Rule of the Game (1939), Jean Boyer's Circonstances atténuantes (1939), Robert Bresson's Angels of Sin (1943) and Le Plaisir by Max Ophüls (1952) which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction. It was the director's only Oscar nomination.

In the film The Beauty and the Beast by Jean Cocteau (1946), she played the sister of La Belle, probably her most famous performance. She had an affair with and was engaged to Jean Marais, but never married though remained lifelong friends. Cocteau was the companion of the actor, but was also in agreement of their relationship and union. This was described eloquently by Marais in two of his books, Histoires de ma vie (his Memoirs) and L'Inconcevable Jean Cocteau (direct link on eBay France).

She was married in 1947 to the British racing car driver Taso Mathieson, and abandoned her film career in 1953 to devote herself to her husband following a serious car accident. She did pop up on television, with appearances in two episodes (in 1954 and 1958) of a British series, The Vise.

In 1976, she ran the store that Jean Marais opened in Paris at 91 Rue Saint-Honoré. "Jean Marais, potter" was where the Parisian first saw his wonderful pottery.

Mila Parély returned to the cinema in what would be her last film, Daniel Vigne's Comédie d'été (1989), then in Bernard Stora's TV movie La Grande Dune (1991), her penultimate appearance on screen (preceding a short film in 1997).

Her husband died in Vichy in 1991.

She passed away in January 2012. She is buried in cimetière de Vichy.

She was the last survivor from the cast of La Belle et la Bête.

Links: Jean Marais on Mila Parély (French) (Desktop Version Only)