Édith Jéhanne (born Édithe Jeanne Cosson, 9 February 1899 – 14 June 1949) was a French film actress of the silent and early sound era.
Biography Édithe Jeanne Cosson was born in 1899 in Châteauroux, Indre, to Jean Baptiste Léonce Louis Cosson, a locksmith, and Thérèze Tartière, a seamstress.Birth certificate no. 49, 10 February 1899, Châteauroux, Archives de l'Indre. The family had seven children including the future painter (1897–1976), and Elodie Cosson (1901–1954), who was the future daughter-in-law of the poet Paul Valéry and an actress under the name Sylvia Grey.
Édith Jéhanne discovered cinema as a teenager. It was while visiting her sister on the set of The Secret of Rosette Lambert in 1920 that she was reportedly discovered by the film's director, Raymond Bernard. She began her film career immediately, appearing in Raymond Bernard's Triplepatte (1922) and Henri Fescourt's . She chose her two first names, spelled differently, as her stage name.
Throughout her career, ambiguity surrounded her personality. Biographical information about her is scarce, and often—probably intentionally—inaccurate. For example, it is sometimes stated that she was born in 1902. A 1926 article in Cinéa mentions the origin of her stage name but states that she was born in Berry, near Nohant-Vic. Other sources mention, without further details, that she was the younger sister of actress Sylvia Grey. In 1923, the two sisters appeared on the cover of the magazine Mon Ciné.
In 1927, she made what were arguably her most important films, Raymond Bernard's The Chess Player and Georg Wilhelm Pabst's The Love of Jeanne Ney.
In December 1927, she married Henri Jules Louis Bouyer, director of a dental school.Acte de mariage no. 1391 of 15 December 1927, Paris 5th arrondissement, Archives de Paris, 5M 279 (vue 2) She played her last roles shortly afterwards, in 1929.
In his memoirs, Raymond Bernard believed he remembered that Édith Jéhanne had died shortly after the advent of talking pictures. In fact, she died in 1949, in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer.
Critical assessment Reviews of Jéhanne were often laudatory, presenting her as a promising artist.
She played the titular character and lead in The Love of Jeanne Ney, for which a contemporary critic commented
However, some modern critics have felt her performance in the film was overshadowed by that of Brigitte Helm, who had appeared in Metropolis earlier that year.
Christine Leteux wrote of her performance in Tarakanova (1930):
Filmography 1922: (dir. Henri Fescourt) 1922: Triplepatte (dir. Raymond Bernard) 1924: Le Miracle des loups (dir. Raymond Bernard) 1927: The Chess Player (dir. Raymond Bernard) 1927: The Love of Jeanne Ney (dir. Georg Wilhelm Pabst) 1928: (dir. Jean Milva) 1930: Tarakanova (dir. Raymond Bernard) 1930: (dir. Léonce Perret)
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