Zizi Jeanmaire

Renée Marcelle Jeanmaire, known professionally as Zizi Jeanmaire, was born on 29 April 1924 in Paris, France, to Marcel Jeanmaire and Olga Renée, née Brunus. Her nickname derived from her mother's childhood term of endearment, "mon Jésus," which over time became "mon Zizi." A French ballet dancer, actress, and singer, Jeanmaire maintained an active Broadway presence from 1949 to 1981, appearing in productions including The Girl in Pink Tights, Can-Can, Zizi, Contre-Pointe, and The Bat.

At the Paris Opera Ballet, Jeanmaire met Roland Petit when both were nine years old. Petit would later become her husband, her choreographer, and her most sustained creative collaborator, producing more than 60 shows with her over the course of her career. Jeanmaire danced at the Theater Sarah Bernhardt in 1944 during the Soirées de la danse, joined the Nouveau Ballet de Monte Carlo as a ballerina in 1946, and performed during the final season of Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in London in 1947. By 1949, she had become the star of Petit's Ballets de Paris.

That same year, Jeanmaire created what would become her most celebrated role: the title character in the ballet Carmen, set to a musical arrangement of Bizet's opera. The production premiered at the Prince's Theatre in London on 21 February 1949, and for the role Jeanmaire cut her hair to a boyishly short length that was widely imitated. The ballet subsequently transferred to Broadway for an extended run and was repeated the following season. In 1950, she made her debut as a chanson singer in Petit's Croqueuse de Diamants, and a chanson composed for the production by Raymond Cheneau won a Grand Prix du disque.

Jeanmaire extended her work into film during the early 1950s, appearing in the 1952 Hollywood musical Hans Christian Andersen alongside Danny Kaye and Farley Granger, in which she played the role of Doro. In 1954, she returned to Broadway to star in the musical The Girl in Pink Tights. That same year she married Petit, and in 1955 their daughter Valentine was born; Valentine would go on to become a dancer and actress. Jeanmaire appeared in the 1956 film adaptation of Cole Porter's Anything Goes with Bing Crosby, playing Gaby Duval, and continued her work in dance with Petit's La Rose des vents in 1958 and Cyrano de Bergerac in 1959.

Beginning in 1961, Jeanmaire built a parallel career in revues at the Alhambra Theatre in Paris. Among her signature numbers was "Mon truc en plumes," performed in a costume designed by Yves Saint Laurent, who became her primary designer for both stage and personal wardrobe and a personal friend. The number featured twelve young men carrying pink feather fans and was reprised across multiple subsequent revues. Her other Broadway credits during this period included Can-Can, Zizi, and Contre-Pointe. Her cultural prominence extended beyond the stage; she is referenced by name in Peter Sarstedt's song "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" and in Steve Harley's "Nothing Is Sacred."

Jeanmaire died in Switzerland on 17 July 2020, at the age of 96.