Tribute by Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication to Simone Valère
Simone Valère is leaving us today, two years after her husband Jean Desailly with whom she embodied a great and magnificent passion for theatre, which reached its peak when they co-hosted the great Parisian stages: Hébertot, Edouard VII, and then La Madeleine.
They both became the inseparable and flamboyant heirs of Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault, with whom they had begun.
An unforgettable performer of the works of her contemporaries, Anouilh, Beckett, Claudel, Giraudoux, Ionesco, Montherlant and Prévert, she tirelessly lent them on stage her voice with its special charm and her bright and intense look, which will remain in our memories.