Françoise Giroud

Biography

Françoise Giroud (born Lea France Gourdji; 21 September 1916 – 19 January 2003) was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer, and politician.

Giroud was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to immigrant Sephardi Turkish Jewish parents; her father was Salih Gourdji Al Baghdadi, Director of the Agence Télégraphique Ottomane in Geneva. She was educated at the Collège de Groslay and the Lycée Molière in Paris. She did not graduate from university. She married and had two children, a son (who died before her) and a daughter.

Giroud's work in cinema began with director Marc Allégret as a script-girl on his 1932 adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's play Fanny. In 1936, she worked with Jean Renoir on the set...