Denise Darcel

Who was Denise Darcel?

Denise Darcel was a French actress who also made films in Hollywood.

Born as Denise Billecard in Paris, she was college educated. According to a friend, whom she met in Paris during World War II, she was a passenger in an L-5 Stinson light observation aircraft on VJ Day to see the celebration from the air. The pilot, James Helinger Sr., a US Army Air Corps glider pilot was at the controls, while they flew under several bridges along the Seine and finally, under the Eiffel Tower, with the crowds below.

She was a cabaret singer in Paris after World War II before being spotted by Hollywood. Denise came to the United States in 1947 and became an American citizen in 1952.

Her first film appearance of note was in Battleground. She appeared on Broadway in the musical Pardon Our French in 1950. She made quite an impression in Tarzan and the Slave Girl opposite Lex Barker, then co-starred with Robert Taylor in Westward the Women and Glenn Ford in Young Man with Ideas. In 1953, she was seen in the swimming musical Dangerous When Wet, which starred Esther Williams. Her most important film was Vera Cruz where she played the female lead opposite Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.