Trivia: Born in Bethune, France, Simone Simon grew up in Marseille and went to Paris in 1930. She worked for a time as a designer and model before making her screen debut in 1931 in a comedy by Marc Allegret, who made his own debut as a feature filmmaker that same year. Simon displayed an innocent, girl/woman sensuality that anticipated Brigitte Bardot (ironically, also a discovery of Allegret) by several decades, and it wasn't long before she was discovered by the American movie industry. In 1935 she was signed by Fox studios in Hollywood. However, soon after arriving things began to go wrong for her with an abortive attempt to cast her in Message To Garcia with Wallace Beery, during the filming of which she was hospitalized. Girls' Dormitory (1936) became her first American film, but despite the fact that she enjoyed working on it, she didn't get along with her director. After making a handful of subsequent movies, she returned to France in 1938 -- but not before she found herself caught in a minor scandal involving her friend, the late composer George Gershwin. It was Jean Renoir who rescued Simon's career, casting her as the beautiful but predatory female lead in La Bete humaine (1938). That film brought her an invitation from director/producer William Dieterle for the role of Belle in The Devil and Daniel Webster. That movie brought her to the attention of producer Val Lewton, who offered her the leading role in the horror B-movie Cat People (1942). The role of the tormented Irena in Cat People proved to be the high point of Simon's film career, embedding her in the memory of millions of viewers, and she briefly reprised the role in Curse of the Cat People. However, none of her other Hollywood roles took, and she soon found herself confined to B-movies. She returned to Europe after World War II and continued making movies, of which the most notable was Max Ophuls' La Ronde (1952). During her second stint in the United States, which lasted from 1941 thru 1945, it was later revealed that Simon carried on an affair with Dusko Popov, the Yugoslav-born double-agent whose lifestyle and romantic exploits are now believed to have been a key part of the inspiration for future author Ian Fleming's James Bond character.

Trivia: Born in Belgium, Fernand Ledoux inaugurated his distinguished stage career in France. He eventually appeared in over 800 plays and films, and for 22 years was one of the stars of the Comedie Francaise. In films from 1919, he didn't achieve screen stardom until 1938, when he played the brutish, cuckolded husband in Renoir's La Bete Humaine. He later made a handful of English-language cameo appearances in such films as Freud (1962) and The Longest Day (1962), and also essayed the major role of the Chief Clerk in Orson Welles' experimental The Trial. Fernand Ledoux was 85 when he last appeared onscreen; he ultimately lived to be 96.

Trivia: Distinguished French character actor Julien Carette appeared in over 100 films during his 30-year career. Prior to that, he performed in French music halls and in the theater. He is most notable for the work he did in Renoir's films during the late '30s where he usually played a carefree wanderer. In 1966, Carette fell asleep with a lit cigarette and died in the ensuing fire.

Trivia: The son of the painter Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir became one of France's most important and respected filmmakers during the middle of the 20th century. A Philosophy and Math student, Renoir became a cavalryman, but was invalided out of the army before World War I. He subsequently joined the infantry; injured in that service, he became a pilot. Later, he married a model and aspiring actress, and, following the death of his father and the acquisition of an inheritance, set up his own production company to produce movies for his wife. Renoir learned from these early experiences of financing movies and watching other films, and became a director in 1924. He later took directing assignments from other producers as a means of supporting himself, augmented by occasional acting roles. With the advent of sound, Renoir's career was quickly made with a series of profitable films, including La Chienne (1931), a savage and dark drama about a man's self-destruction, which was later remade by Fritz Lang as Scarlet Street. Renoir's subsequent films, including The Lower Depths (1936) and Grand Illusion (1937), were among the finest made in France before the war, and were well acknowledged at the time of their release; the latter became an international hit. However, Rules of the Game (1939), with its strong criticism of French society, struck a raw nerve with critics and the public alike on the eve of World War II, and was quickly withdrawn from distribution and subsequently re-edited. Renoir served in the film unit of the French army at the outbreak of World War II, but was fortunate enough to get to Lisbon and then America after the fall of France. He was later put under contract at 20th Century Fox, where he made the rural drama Swamp Water (1941), a beautiful, lyrical, and poetic story of injustice and vengeance. At RKO, he made the patriotic drama -- and possibly the best the studio ever produced -- This Land Is Mine (1943), and returned to rural American subjects for The Southerner (1945), released by United Artists. Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) was another independent production, while Woman on the Beach (1947), a dark romantic drama, was done for RKO. Renoir's first post-American film (and his first in color), The River (1951), was financed by a Beverly Hills florist, but shot in India. Based upon a story by Rumer Godden, it told of the coming of age of three young women in India and received tremendous international acclaim, but relatively little public attention, although later became one of his most popular films. His next films, The Golden Coach (1952) and French Can-Can (1955), marked Renoir's return to Europe and France, respectively, and to profitable filmmaking. The early '60s saw the restoration and re-release -- to belated acclaim as a masterpiece -- of Rules of the Game. His later films were less successful and more modestly produced, and made extensive use of television techniques, the most popular of which was The Little Theater of Jean Renoir (1969), which was originally made for TV. Throughout his career, Renoir's style embraced a multitude of genres, and its permutations make it almost impossible to characterize. However, his social realism was usually on-target, as La Chienne showed to his advantage and Rules of the Game presented so disturbingly to the French public. Renoir died in 1979.