Agnes Souret

Agnes Souret was a French actress, beauty pageant contestant, and figure skater, a woman whose life burned bright and brief. Born Jeanne Germaine Berthe Agnès Souret on January 21, 1902, in Bayonne, France, she came from a family with artistic roots: her father was a lawyer, her mother a professional ballet dancer. As a teenager, she worked as a milliner's assistant. In 1920, a friend persuaded her to enter a local beauty contest. She won, becoming the very first Miss France. The brunette with the slim figure was suddenly hailed as "the most beautiful woman in France." Her face graced the screen in films like House Of The Hanged and The Lily Of Mont Saint-Michel, and she danced at the Follies Bergere in Paris. By 1921, her fame was such that she had to wear disguises in public. Her rise, however, was marked by tragedy. She became engaged to her childhood sweetheart, who committed suicide. A Hollywood studio offered her a lucrative contract; she turned it down. "My brief reign has ended," she said. "There is not money or fame enough in the world to make up for a price a woman must pay when she sells her beauty on the stage and screen." Instead, she channeled her knowledge into a 1922 book, The Famous Book Of Beauty Secrets. She kept dancing, performing in London and Monte Carlo. In the fall of 1928, she left for a tour of Argentina. On September 30, 1928, she died from peritonitis at age twenty-six. She was buried in Espelette, France. Her life was short, but her story remains a striking footnote in early French cinema and beauty pageant history.