Édouardine Grey was born in Châtillon in the Aosta Valley of north-west Italy, close to the French border. The town was almost totally French speaking at the time. She was naturalized as a French citizen on 13 July 1922. She started working in the film industry in 1915 in the silent film En famille, an adaptation of the novel by Hector Malot, before dedicating herself to theatre work. She went back to working in films, now talkies, in the 1930s. She came to fame in the 1940s with films such as Monsieur Hector (1940), Boléro (1942) or Devil in the Flesh (1947). Old age did not end her career. For example, in 1972, she starred in a French television series called Les Rois maudits. Thanks to the film La Boum, in which she plays "Poupette", the great-grandmother of Sophie Marceau, she gained recognition from a new audience growing up in the 1980s.
She was a member of the Comédie-Française between 1944 and 1946 and between 1957 and 1958.
She had a daughter: Suzanne Grey, also an actress, who was born on 28 June 1917 and died on 13 December 2005.
In 1986, she sang Devenir vieux (Becoming Old). She died in 1996, a few months before reaching the age of 100. She rests next to her husband in the cemetery of Arradon (Morbihan).
Filmography
Actress
1992
La soupière (TV Movie)
1991
A Fine Romance as
Madame Legris
1989
Les pique-assiettes (TV Series)
- Les dessous de table
1988
Les saisons du plaisir as
Emmanuelle de La Grandière Van Bergh
1985
Les temps difficiles (TV Movie) as
Mme Antonin-Faure
1985
Le gaffeur as
La mère de Gabriel
1985
Le petit théâtre d'Antenne 2 (TV Series) as
La duchesse
- Humulus le muet (1985) - La duchesse
1984
Le voleur de feuilles as
Isabelle Debecker
1966
Au théâtre ce soir (TV Series) as
Mme Lambert / Madame Cernaire / Alix / ...
- La vie est trop courte (1984) - Mme Lambert
- Crime à la clef (1979) - Madame Cernaire
- La vénus de Milo (1973) - Alix
- Le mari, la femme et la mort (1970) - Julie Despied
- Constance (1969) - Mme Culver
- Le mari ne compte pas (1969) - La mère
- Le minotaure (1969) - Rirette
- Bon week-end monsieur Bennett (1967) - Sylvia
- J'y suis, j'y reste (1966) - La comtesse
1983
En cas de guerre mondiale, je file à l'étranger as
Madame Toussaint mère
1983
Merci Sylvestre (TV Series) as
Céleste
- L'homme de ménage (1983) - Céleste
1982
The Party 2 as
Poupette
1982
L'esprit de famille (TV Series) as
La grand-mère
1982
N'oublie pas ton père au vestiaire... as
La dame à la moto
1977
Cinéma 16 (TV Series) as
La tante Charlotte / Mamy
- Comme un roseau (1982) - La tante Charlotte
- Esprit de suite (1977) - Mamy
1980
The Party as
Poupette
1979
Les dames de la côte (TV Mini Series) as
Adélaïde Decourt
- La grande tourmente (1916-1917) (1980) - Adélaïde Decourt
- Les vivantes (1914-1916) (1980) - Adélaïde Decourt
- L'escalier des adieux (1913-1914) (1979) - Adélaïde Decourt