* Films in bold will air on TCM in April

Annabella, an elegant Parisian-born beauty professionally known by that single name, is better remembered today as a wife of Tyrone Power, but she had a prolific career as an actress, becoming a star in France and showing bright promise in Hollywood until too many mediocre vehicles gradually eroded her reputation. Born Suzanne Georgette Charpentier in 1907 (although sources vary on the year), Annabella was cast by Abel Gance in a small role in his epic silent version of Napoleon (1927). Her youthful beauty soon caught the eye of other filmmakers including René Clair, who cast her in his classic musical comedy Le million (1931) and the delightful romance July 14 (1933). She quickly became a famous name in Europe, collaborating with such filmmakers as Pál Fejös and playing opposite such leading men as Charles Boyer, Jean Gabin and Jean Murat, whom she married in 1934. She also appeared on the stages of Berlin and Vienna. In 1936 she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Sacrifice d'honneur (1935).

She then starred in such films as The Baroness and the Butler (1938), a romantic comedy set in Hungary with Annabella as the titled lady and William Powell as the servant she falls for; and Dinner at the Ritz (1937), a mystery made in England costarring David Niven. She played the leading female role opposite Henry Fonda in Wings of the Morning (1937), filmed in England and Ireland. A romance involving the English Derby at Epsom Downs, it was the first feature film to be shot in Technicolor in Europe.

Now under contract to 20th Century Fox, Annabella came to the U.S. to star opposite Tyrone Power and Loretta Young in Suez (1938). She quickly fell in love and divorced Murat in order to wed Power. According to some sources, Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck was annoyed that Annabella had married his top romantic leading man and deliberately stalled her career by not placing her in suitable roles. She returned to France for Hotel du Nord (1938), a story of star-crossed lovers costarring Jean Pierre Aumont. For MGM she filmed Bridal Suite (1939), a comedy set in England and Switzerland in which she plays a pretty hotel manager who falls for playboy Robert Young. The tagline, which seemed to refer to her marriage to Power, read: "You can depend on Annabella...getting her fella!"

She turned to the stage for a time, appearing in several plays including the well-received Jacowbsky and the Colonel on Broadway in 1944, directed by Elia Kazan. She ended her contract at Fox with 13 Rue Madeleine (1947), a WWII espionage thriller in which her role was secondary to James Cagney's as an O.S.S. officer. She divorced Power in 1948 and returned to Europe, where she made five more features before retiring from films in the early 1950s. In 1985 she made a final appearance in the short Elisabeth.

Annabella, whose early marriage to writer Albert Sorre ended with his death, bore a daughter by him named Anne, who was adopted by Tyrone Power and later married actor Oskar Werner. Annabella died in 1996.

by Roger Fristoe