Elvira Popescu (10 May 1894 – 11 December 1993) was a Romanian-French stage and film actress and theatre director. During the 1930s and 1940s, she starred in a number of French comedy films.

Born in Bucharest, Popescu studied drama at the Music and Drama Conservatory in her native city, under the guidance of Constantin Nottara and Aristizza Romanescu. In 1911 Grigore Brezeanu was making the first Romanian films to deal with fiction. He employed Popesco as well as other leading actors like Nottara and Romanescu. The first two films were called "Fatal Love" and "Spin a Yarn". No copies are known of these films. Popesco made her debut at the National Theatre Bucharest at age 16. In 1912, she played herself in the movie Independența României, directed by Aristide Demetriade.

In 1919 she became artistic director of the Excelsior Theatre. In 1921, Popescu started Teatrul Mic, which she managed in parallel with the Excelsior. In 1923, she starred in the movie Ţigăncuşa de la iatac, directed by Alfred Halm.

At the urging of Louis Verneuil, the French playwright, Popescu moved in 1924 to Paris. Under Verneuil's direction, she played the leading role in Ma Cousine de Varsovie, at the Théâtre Michel (1923). She also played in Tovaritch (1933), La Machine infernale (1954), Nina (1949), and La Mamma (1957). Later on, she was director of Théâtre de Paris (1956–1965), and Théâtre Marigny (1965–1978).[5] At age 84, she played again in La Mamma.

Elvira Popescu also played in movies, such as La Présidente (Fernand Rivers, 1938), Tricoche et Cacolet (Pierre Colombier, 1938), Ils étaient neuf célibataires (Sacha Guitry, 1939), Paradis perdu (Abel Gance, 1940), Austerlitz (Abel Gance, 1960),[6] and Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960).

Shortly after her debut in 1910, Popescu married comedian Aurel Athanasescu and they had a daughter named Tatiana. After a few years, she divorced, and married Ion Manolescu-Strunga, Minister of Industry and Commerce (who was to die in Sighet prison in the 1950s). Her third husband was Count Maximilien Sébastien Foy (born in Paris on 17 April 1900, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 11 November 1967).

She died in Paris at age 99, and was interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Source: Article "Elvira Popescu" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Sociétaire du théâtre national de Bucarest en 1914, elle joue dans quelques films muets, avant de monter sur la scène parisienne où, dès 1924, l'authenticité de sa veine comique et son accent font rapidement d'elle un « monstre sacré » du théâtre de boulevard. Interprète privilégiée de Louis Verneuil pour qui elle joue, entre autres, Ma cousine de Varsovie, elle triomphe également dans Tovaritch (Jacques Deval, 1933), La Machine infernale (1954), mais aussi dans des pièces de Henri Bernstein et d'André Roussin : Nina (1949), La Mamma (1957) et La Voyante (1971).

Directrice du théâtre de Paris (1956-1965), puis du théâtre Marigny, elle a, au cinéma, une carrière moins remarquée : La Présidente (Fernand Rivers, 1938), Tricoche et Cacolet (Pierre Colombier, 1938), Ils étaient neuf célibataires (Sacha Guitry, 1939), Paradis perdu (1938) et Austerlitz (Abel Gance, 1959), Plein soleil (René Clément, 1960), etc.

Elle est une des reines du théâtre de boulevard durant les années 1960/1970.

À l'âge de quatre-vingt-quatre ans, Elvire Popesco reprend encore son rôle de La Mamma qu’André Roussin lui avait écrit en 1957.

Remariée en septembre 1939 avec Maximilien Sébastien Foy (1900-1967), elle devient ainsi baronne puis comtesse Foy et tient salon dans la propriété de Mézy-sur-Seine (la villa Paul Poiret, qu'elle rachète en 1934), fréquenté par le Tout-Paris.

Elvire Popesco est inhumée au cimetière du Père-Lachaise (division 85), à Paris.

Une salle du théâtre Marigny et la salle de cinéma de l'Institut français de Roumanie porte son nom