Annie Fratellini(1932-1997)

The granddaughter of a famous clown and a member of the Fratellini circus family, Annie Fratellini continued the tradition by being a circus artist herself as of the age of fourteen. Later she became the first female circus clown in France and the founder of the first circus school of the country. Not content to be a big top star, she was also a singer and a stage and movie actress. Of course these activities only came second to her burning passion - circus. Nevertheless she can be remembered on the silver screen for at least two roles, that of Mado Petits Pieds, the waitress in Louis Malle's imaginative illustration of Raymond Queneau's Zazie in the Metro (1960) and of Pierre Étaix's wife (which she was also in real life) in his funnily poetic Le Grand Amour (1969). Sure, in latter film, she has a powerful opponent in the charming person of Nicole Calfan, but guess who wins the game in end!