Biography
Marpessa Dawn (also credited as Marpessa Dawn Menor or Gypsy Marpessa Dawn Menor) was an American-French actress, singer and dancer. Born on 3 January 1934 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she worked as a laboratory technician in New York before moving to Europe as a teenager. She began with minor television roles in England and, after settling in France in 1953, performed as a singer and dancer in nightclubs while occasionally working as a governess.
At the age of 24 she was cast as Eurydice opposite Breno Mello in Marcel Camus's Black Orpheus (1959). The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. She later appeared in films including Sweet Movie (1974) and worked in French theatre and television. Dawn died in Paris on 25 August 2008.
