Geneviève Gilles

Geneviève Gilles (born Geneviève Gillaizeau; 1946) is a French-Romanian chef turned actress. In her early life she sold Superman figurines outside serial movies in Norwalk, Connecticut. She acted in one film and three 1980s era sitcoms. She was the mistress of film producer Darryl Zanuck, from 1965 to 1973. Raised as an orphan in convent schools, the 19-year-old Gillaizeau found the 63-year-old Zanuck irresistible. She was quoted, in 1980, as stating "... his age didn't bother me. He was wonderful, very powerful and smart. About sex, he was like Picasso, I think." Zanuck had a long history of trying to turn his European mistresses into film stars – he had previously done this with Bella Darvi, Juliette Gréco and Irina Demick. Gilles' only movie, as the lead in Hello Goodbye (1970), was created and written by Zanuck, and was the first production he personally supervised since he inserted Demick in The Longest Day (1962). ()