Annie Fargé

Annie Fargé (15 April 1934 – 4 March 2011) was a French actress who worked for a few years on U.S. television and was named "most promising new star in a situation comedy" in 1961 when she played the title role in CBS's Angel.

Especially in Europe, she was often credited as "Annie Fargue".

Born in Belgium as Henriette Goldfarb, she escaped the country with her family before the Nazi occupation.

She wanted to become an actress; her mother opposed the idea, but relented when Fargé was accepted at the Conservatoire National.

Fargé traveled to New York and later married dancer Dirk Sanders.

The couple had a daughter, Leslie Tabuteau, who was born shortly before Angel began filming in April 1960 and eventually became a French TV producer.

Broadway producer Joshua Logan is said to have discovered Fargé and had her take English lessons.

At the time of casting for the television series, Fargé was an understudy in the Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong.

She was signed for the Angel role by producer Jess Oppenheimer on the basis of CBS executive Robert Lewine's recommendation.

Oppenheimer did not elect to do a screen test.

The Angel pilot did not impress the network, but when Lewine screened it for sponsors S. C. Johnson and General Foods, both sponsors were sufficiently impressed to tell the network executive to put the show on the air or they would cancel their sponsorship of all CBS programs.

Fargé played Angelique "Angel" Smith, the scatterbrained French wife of American architect John Smith, played by Marshall Thompson.

Doris Singleton was her sympathetic neighbor Susie, and Don Keefer was Susie's husband George.

The show was filmed at Desilu Studios.

The series ran for 33 episodes.

After Angel folded due to low ratings, Fargé appeared as a guest star in a few other series, including The Rifleman, as Jennifer Morrison, and Adventures in Paradise.

Fargé divorced her husband and returned to France in the mid-1960s.

Her last television appearance was in a 1964 episode of Perry Mason, "The Case of the Betrayed Bride", as she played the role of defendant Marie Claudet.

Upon her return to France, Fargé became a theatrical producer (Hair, Godspell, Oh! Calcutta!, Jesus Christ Superstar) and was associate producer for the 1981 John Huston film Escape to Victory.

She later became the manager of French singer Michel Polnareff.

Fargé died of cancer in Neuilly-sur-Seine, aged 76, on 4 March 2011.