Dora Doll, the daughter of a Russian-Jewish banker who was expelled after the 1917 Revolution, was born in Berlin in 1922. She came to France at the end of the 1930s and aspired to become an actress. She already spoke Russian and German and soon learned French, then Italian and English.
One of her first screen appearances was as Juliette in Henri-Georges Clouzot's Manon (1949). She appeared as Lola in Jacques Becker's Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) and as Genisse in Jean Renoir's French Cancan (1955).
In 1976, she appeared on television in the French series Hôtel Baltimore in the role of Suzy. In 1977, she appeared in Fred Zinnemann's Julia as the woman passenger accompanying Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) when Lily smuggled $50,000 through Nazi Germany for her friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave). In 1982, she played in Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes. In the late 1990s, she played the grandmother Louise Chantreuil in the TV series Tide of Life.
She was married twice. Her first husband was the actor Raymond Pellegrin, who she had a daughter with, Danielle. She was later married to François Deguelt.
In 1993, Dora Doll was awarded the Prix "Reconnaissance des cinéphiles" from Puget-Théniers in honour of her life's work. She was made Knight of France's National Order of Merit in 2000.
Dora Doll died on 15 November 2015 at her home in Gard, France, at the age of 93.
1975 · Reality
