Denise Darcel

Hollywood has always welcomed with open arms exotic, sexy imports to its gallery of glamour girls and serious actresses; look at how Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich and Sophia Loren have been embraced. Buxom and alluring French siren Denise Darcel fell into the secondary ranks of thick-accented, post-WWII hopefuls which would include a wave of other temptations such as Märta Torén, Viveca Lindfors, Corinne Calvet and Bella Darvi. This particularly luscious Parisian was born Denise Billecard on September 8, 1925, one of five daughters born to a baker and his wife. The daughters were raised outside of Paris in a small town for a time, but Denise eventually moved back to Paris after WWII as a young adult and college student (University of Dijon). She was working as a dime store cashier when she entered and won a beauty contest that resulted in a lot of publicity for her as "The Most Beautiful Girl in France". She capitalized on this by developing her own nightclub act and t