- Was among the most successful French screen actress of the '40s along with her friends Danielle Darrieux and Michèle Morgan.
- Teresa Wright was bridesmaid at her wedding to William Marshall in Santa Barbara.
- Her relationship with second husband William Marshall secretly began when he was still married to Michèle Morgan. At around the same time, Michèle was having an affair with her Fabiola (1949) co-star Henri Vidal (whom she later married) and William took advantage of this to gain custody of the son he had had with her, Mike Marshall. Mike consequently spent part of his childhood with William and his then-wife Micheline, who helped raise him alongside her daughter Tonie Marshall. Michèle never bore any hard feelings towards Micheline and always credited her with taking very good care of Mike as a second mother figure.
- Jean Renoir and François Truffaut are the French filmmakers she most regrets never having worked with.
- During the war, she lived for two years at the Grand Hôtel in Cannes, as did many other actors who wanted to keep working. At the time, the hotel's manager was the father of her then boyfriend Louis Jourdan.
- Her father, Robert Chassagne, was an industrialist and stockbroker. Mother Yvonne Bacelier was an art lover and occasional painter. Micheline credits her with having passed on to her the love for artistic subjects. Robert didn't share the same interests but, after a bankruptcy, he relocated to the US under a new name, leaving the family behind and clearing the path for Micheline to pursue her acting career.
- Went to Hollywood in the late '40s at the advice of her American husband William Marshall, who promised her that he would do everything possible to help her career. She later stated that she didn't like any of her American roles.
- Member of the ADMD (The World Federation of Right to Die Societies) Honorary Committee. She signed a document in 2009 in favor of the legalization of euthanasia.
- Became good friends with Françoise Fabian while working with her in a stage production of Georges Feydeau's "A Flea in the Ear" in the late '60s. They were so inseparable at the time that François Truffaut nicknamed them "Les Petites Marguerites" after Vera Chytilová's Daisies (1966) (which was released in France with that title).
- In her autobiography "Le temps et rien d'autre", Françoise Fabian tells an anecdote about working with Micheline in a stage production of Georges Feydeau's "A Flea in the Ear". The two actresses had such electric chemistry and enjoyed doing the play so much that they had to be careful not to look each other in the eyes during a performance, otherwise they would burst into laughter. During a Swiss tournée, they once arrived at the theatre to find a poster reading "Mesdemoiselles Fabian and Presle are asked to be a bit more serious during the performance".
- Struggled for Jean Gabin to be cast as her co-star in Jean Delannoy's Les jeux sont faits (1947) (to the point of suggesting that she would have worked for free), but Marcello Pagliero was given the role instead. She was later teamed up with Gabin in Delannoy's Le baron de l'écluse (1960).
- Plays a fictional version of herself in daughter Tonie Marshall's Bastard Brood (1996). The film sees Nathalie Baye's Sylvie trying to connect with her despicable father Julius Mandenne (Jean Yanne), a storyline influenced by Tonie's feelings towards her real-life father, William Marshall. Micheline appears in the movie as Sylvie's mother.
- Her birth name is Micheline Chassagne. She took the name Presle from the character she plays in her star-making film Jeunes filles en détresse (1939), Jacqueline Presle. She had been previously credited as Micheline Michel.
- She appeared in movie adaptations of both Raymond Radiguet's novels: Devil in the Flesh (1947) and Le bal du comte d'Orgel (1970).
- She first met her second husband William Marshall at the Savoy Hotel in London, where she was staying before a trip to the US. William was there with his wife , Michèle Morgan, who was shooting The Fallen Idol (1948) and immediately introduced him to her friend Micheline. Michèle once recalled that, after the encounter, she mentioned to William how gorgeous Micheline looked, something "he had already noticed".
- Worried by her strong and rebellious nature, her parents had her spend four of her formative years at the Notre-Dame de Sion nunnery, a very strict religious school. She also studied at the ENSBA (École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts/School of Fine Arts).
- Signed the Manifesto of the 343 to support the legalization of abortion in France.
- Her last name is pronounced Prel. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck thought she should best be credited as "Micheline Prelle" in her American movies because the silent "s" might have generated some pronunciation confusion.
- Out of the three most successful French actresses of her time (the other two being Danielle Darrieux and Michèle Morgan), she was the only one not to have her career remotely damaged by the coming of the French New Wave and subsequent consecration of a new type of actor. Morgan-a frequent target of François Truffaut when he served as a critic of the "Cahiers du Cinéma"--largely fell under the radar in the '60s and made just a handful of minor film appearances after that. With the exception of a key role in Jacques Demy's The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), Darrieux mostly appeared in unremarkable movies in the '60s, was basically absent from '70s cinema and started to put her career back on track only in the '80s. Claude Chabrol cast both actresses in small roles in his Bluebeard (1963) as victims of Charles Denner's murderous title villain, who are later incinerated. Micheline always kept doing solid work and was the object of great admiration from the New Wave directors. Jacques Rivette offered her one of her best roles in The Nun (1966), Alain Resnais provided her with a César-nominated part in I Want to Go Home (1989) and Chabrol offered her a punchy cameo in The Blood of Others (1984). She herself had been one of the first champions of the French New Wave since she had served as a Jury member at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, where she was won over by Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) and Truffaut's The 400 Blows (1959) .
- Offered the role of Countess Anna Staviska in 5 Fingers (1952), but she had to turn it down due to pregnancy. Danielle Darrieux was cast instead.
- When Jacques Rivette approached her for The Nun (1966), she was hoping he would offer her the role of Mme. de Chelles (eventually played by Liselotte Pulver), but he had actually thought of her for the Mme. de Moni part.
- Forced to turn down the role of Mathilde de la Mole in Claude Autant-Lara's The Red and the Black (1954), she eventually played Mme de Rénal in the TV version Le rouge et le noir (1961).
- For various reasons, she initially had some difficulty putting her career back on track when she returned to France after her Hollywood venture. One was that many people felt animosity towards her for having kept working while the Nazis occupied the country. Another was that she had broken the contract she had with Paul Graetz (which had always given her carte blanche when it came to choosing and advising her collaborators) by the time she had signed a fruitless, six-year contract with 20th Century-Fox that hadn't allowed her any say regarding her Hollywood projects. Consequently, it had become increasingly difficult for her to find movies that would give her the same satisfaction and freedom. Fellow stars of the period such as Danielle Darrieux, Michèle Morgan and--to a lesser extent--Jean Gabin all experienced similar difficulties after doing some work in America.
- On the set of Paris Frills (1945), she became close friends with milliner Gabrielle (who had designed the hats for the movie), who passed on to her the love for boxing. Unfortunately, Gabrielle and her boyfriend, a military officer, were aboard a plane that disappeared in an apparent crash, a tragedy Micheline had much trouble recovering from.
- She agreed to appear in The Legend of Frenchie King (1971) under the direction of Guy Casaril mainly to be able to sing a song in a scene with Claudia Cardinale. When Christian-Jaque replaced Casaril as director and re-edited the movie, most of the scene was cut and the song could only be heard for an instant in the background.
- An admirer of Gérard Depardieu, she witnessed his stage debut in "Boudu Saved from Drowning".
- In her autobiography "L'arrière-memoire", she tells about shooting Twilight (1944) in Toulon with Danièle Delorme. They were staying together at the Victoria Hotel and, during breaks from shooting they used to play a game: they liked to go to the clothes shop Dames De France, where Danièle used to steal everything she could put her hands on and hide it in Micheline's purse. One day they were caught by a couple of policemen and, to help her and Danièle's position, Micheline thought of suggesting they contact her friends at the hotel. This remark actually irritated the officers because, unbeknownst to the actresses, the hotel was actually filled Nazi Gestapo officers. Micheline and Danièle spent a couple of hours in a jail cell before being bailed out by director Marc Allégret and Claude Dauphin. One day after the accident, one of the cops brought Micheline flowers on the set. After standing trial for the crime, she was sentenced to a jail period of two months with parole. Her criminal record was deleted a couple of years later.
- Was credited in the ads of Claude Chabrol's Blood Relatives (1978) as one of the main stars (as Micheline Presles) despite not appearing in the movie at all. It's unclear if this was due to confusion with actual cast member Micheline Lanctôt or if it was intentionally done as a box-office draw.
- Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959.
- Had shown an interest in acting since childhood, staging plays with her brother. She got her first official acting experience when, at the urging of her godfather, she auditioned for director Christian Stengel, who was his friend. This led Stengel to cast her in a minor part in Je chante (1938).
- She was awarded the "Victoire du Cinéma Français" for her performance in Sins of Pompeii (1950).
- She was named Best French Actress of 1947 by the press for her performance in Devil in the Flesh (1947).
- Cast as the title heroine in Angel and Sinner (1945) after Viviane Romance declined the role. Thinking her too slender for the part, the producer first sent her on a holiday in the Pyrenees to gain weight.
- She's born in Montparnasse, Paris.
- Acted in a few radio plays before a collaborator of Georg Wilhelm Pabst spotted her at Raymond Rouleau's courses in dramatic arts and arranged for her to have an audition with the director. This led her to play her first relevant role, in Jeunes filles en détresse (1939). Her performance won her the Suzanne Bianchetti Award for the most promising young actress of the year.
- During the shooting of Paris Frills (1945), director Jacques Becker announced to her his plans to win her heart, to which she replied that it was extremely unlikely. Becker's courtship lasted for the entire shooting, but he eventually ended up sabotaging his own interest when he brought her to a cocktail party where she knew her first husband, wine broker Michel Lefort.
- She studied rhythmic dance with Irène Popard. At the urging of Corinne Luchaire, she attended the stage acting courses of Raymond Rouleau (her future co-star in Paris Frills (1945)) and was eventually sent to study with René Simon. At the Simon classes, she befriended fellow students Robert Dhéry, Colette Brosset, Jacqueline Gauthier and Daniel Gélin (her future TV husband in three seasons of Les saintes chéries (1965)).
- Named Best French actress of 1942 by the press for her performance in La nuit fantastique (1942).
- Wanted Gérard Philipe as her co-star in Devil in the Flesh (1947). She later admitted to have fallen in love with him during the shooting of the movie.
- In 1961 she was driving by the La Rotonde theater n Paris when she saw a poster for Jacques Demy's Lola (1961). She was so intrigued by it that she rushed to see the film. When it was over she called her agent, asking him who Demy was and stating that she would have liked to meet him. The director later cast her in three of his movies.
- When she first auditioned for a role in Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Jeunes filles en détresse (1939), she remembers arriving to the appointment furious because she had a cold and her mother had muffled her up with a scarf. Pabst was so amused by her bad mood that he offered her a role in the film and gave her the possibility to choose which one. She chose the leading role of Jacqueline.
- Considered for the role of Madame Emery in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), but she declined it because director Jacques Demy wouldn't have allowed her to do her own singing. Anne Vernon was cast instead.
- She left Les saintes chéries (1965) after three seasons because the show had been so successful she feared people wouldn't remember her for anything else.
- Awarded the "Victoire du Cinéma Français" for her performance in Devil in the Flesh (1947).
- Was the one to suggest the title for her movie Le boucher, la star et l'orpheline (1975).
- A devoted fan of Marlon Brando, whom she has regarded as a genius since she first saw him in the stage production of "A Streetcar Named Desire", the role that made him a star. While under contract with Paul Graetz, she once dined with the producer at his hotel along with Brando. They discussed the idea of having the two actors starring in Claude Autant-Lara's The Red and the Black (1954) in the roles of Julian Sorel and Mathilde de La Mole (eventually played by Gérard Philipe and Antonella Lualdi), but when Micheline--against her better judgment--had to follow the wishes of her husband William Marshall in the US, she broke her contract with Graetz and this collaboration never happened. Other projects she had to turn down with great reluctance were Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) (in Joan Fontaine's role), Occupe-toi d'Amélie..! (1949) (in Danielle Darrieux's role) and the stage play "La Petite Hutte", with which Suzanne Flon scored a great personal success.
- After Viviane Romance and Fernand Gravey backed out of the project, Jean Renoir offered Micheline and her then-boyfriend Louis Jourdan the roles of Floria Tosca and Mario Cavaradossi in a film version of "Tosca" co-starring Michel Simon as Scarpia. Howeer, the film was never made.
- Has never been particularly fond of L'amour d'une femme (1953), which is regarded as one of her best films, mainly for two reasons: she didn't find her character's reasons very believable in the writing and she felt co-star Massimo Girotti was too attractive for his role and his performance would've been more effective had he been allowed to act with his natural Italian accent instead of getting dubbed.
- Played the wife of Claude Piéplu four times, in Blue Helmet (1994), Le voyage de Pénélope (1996), Fallait pas!... (1996) and Good Weather, But Stormy Late This Afternoon (1986). They also appeared in La gueule de l'emploi (1974), Après après-demain (1990), as well as the same segment of The Devil and the Ten Commandments (1962) and the same episode of Merci Bernard (1982).
- At the beginning of the '40s she was engaged to Louis Jourdan, whom she first met during a holiday in St.Tropez in 1938. They were close to getting married at one point but eventually broke up, and not in a good way. Jourdan took this so badly that, when he was reunited with her in Twilight (1944), he refused to speak to her except for when they were in front of the camera. She was initially irritated by this, but eventually ended up laughing at the whole thing.
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