Renée Adorée

Renée Adorée (1898 – 1933) was a French actress who had appeared in Hollywood silent movies during the 1920s.

Born Jeanne de la Fonte in Lille, she was the daughter of circus artists and by age five was performing with her parents. In her teens, she began acting in minor stage productions and toured Europe with her troupe. She was performing in Russia when World War I broke out and fled to London.

 From London she went to New York City, where she continued to work in the theatre until the opportunity arose to work in the motion picture business.

In 1920, given the exotic name Renée Adorée (French for "reborn" and "adored," both in the feminine form) by the studio, she appeared in her first motion picture.

 Renée Adorée in "The Pagan"

In The Mating Call a 1928 film produced by Howard Hughes, Adorée had a very brief nude skinny-dipping scene that caused a significant commotion at the time, but I also found this "much worse" picture of her in the semi nude.

 By the end of 1930, Adorée had appeared in forty-five films, the last four of them talkies. That year she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, Adorée lived only a few years longer.

Adorée died there, a few days after her 35th birthday, on October 5, 1933 in Tujunga, California.