Catherine Langeais
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
presenter and actress.
She was born Marie-Louise Terrasse in Valence (Drôme), France, and died in Paris.
François Mitterrand
On 28 January 1938, at the age of fourteen, she was introduced by her brother to the politician and future president of the French Republic François MitterrandFrançois Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
. In March 1940, in spite of her youth, they became engaged, but they separated in January 1942, when the Germans occupied France. During that time he sent her two thousand letters. In 1987, Mitterrand presented her with the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
award for her undeniable imprint on the history of French television.
Television
Initially recruited to present the programmes of the new national television network RTFRadiodiffusion-Télévision Française
Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the French national public broadcasting organization established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war "Radiodiffusion Française" , which had been founded in 1945...
in 1949, Catherine Langeais was probably the most popular lady announcer (speakerine) of French television, from the end of the 1950s through the 1970s. It was she who welcomed BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
viewers in the first international on-line television broadcast, the Franco-British week of July 1952, thanks to the new conversion standard which was to allow, a year later, the international broadcast of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and later the inauguaration of the Eurovision song contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
.
In parallel with introducing programmes, Catherine Langeais took part in diverse light entertainment programmes in the years 1950-1960, such as "C'est arrivé à 36 chandelles" and "La séquence du spectateur" (later renamed "La séquence du téléspectateur"), as well as the cookery programme "Art et magie de la cuisine" at the side of the chef Raymond Oliver
Raymond Oliver
Raymond Oliver was chef and owner of Le Grand Véfour restaurant in Paris, one of France's great historical restaurants. Oliver detested the nouvelle cuisine, preferring the rich ingredients favored by the chefs in his native Gascony....
.
A chronic illness, which she concealed for a long time, made the job difficult but did not prevent her from working until 1955. Patiently, although ill, she continued with her programmes ("A vous de juger", "La séquence du téléspectateur", and some children's programmes). On Sunday 5 January 1975, she emotionally closed the broadcasts of the first channel (ORTF
Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française
The Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1974, with providing public radio and television in France.-Post World War II:...
), which was replaced the next day with the new public company Télévision Française 1 (TF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...
) in which she did no more than the voice-overs of the "La séquence du téléspectateur", while her husband Pierre Sabbagh
Pierre Sabbagh
Pierre Sabbagh was a major personality in French television, as a journalist, producer and director.Pierre Alain Sabbagh was born in Lannion and died in Paris...
was director of programmes for the second channel.
Personal life
She was happily married to the producer and director Pierre SabbaghPierre Sabbagh
Pierre Sabbagh was a major personality in French television, as a journalist, producer and director.Pierre Alain Sabbagh was born in Lannion and died in Paris...
, creator in 1949 of the first daily television news channel in the world. They had no children.
Behind the official image she presented as "la fiancée des français", obsessed with appearance, she was a complex, courageous woman who throughout her life secretly fought an illness. She died in 1998 and was buried in Valmondois
Valmondois
Valmondois is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France.-Local attractions:*Musée des tramways à vapeur et des chemins de fer secondaires français* Musée de la Meunerie-References:** -External links:* * *...
cemetery near Paris.
Biography
A biography was written by her nephew- Terrasse, Jean-Marc, Catherine Langeais, la Fiancée des Français, Paris, Fayard, 2003 ISBN 9782213609621
Filmography
Actress:- Pourquoi viens-tu si tard?Pourquoi viens-tu si tard?Pourquoi viens-tu si tard? is a 1959 French drama film directed by Henri Decoin who co-wrote screenplay with Pierre Roustang, Albert Valentin and Michel Audiard...
(1959) - Tout l'or du monde (1961)
- Par-dessus le mur (1961)
- Un clair de lune à Maubeuge (1962)
- Le Scandale (1967) (uncredited)
As herself:
- La Séquence du spectateur (1953) (narrator in TV series)
- C'est arrivé à 36 chandelles (1957)