Sylvie

French actress Sylvie made her stage debut at the beginning of the 20th century. She made her first film in 1912, but didn't like the experience and returned to the stage. A highly regarded character player by the '30s, Sylvie returned before the cameras for the 1935 French version of Crime and Punishment. Most of her screen assignments were scene-stealing bits and cameos, with larger roles coming her way in such costume productions as Therese Raquin (1954) and the Kirk Douglas version of Ulysses (1954). At age 81, Sylvie received the best and most popular film assignment of her life as the slightly senile title character in The Shameless Old Lady (1964). In accepting this assignment, Sylvie exercised the usual actress' prerogative of playing a part much younger than herself; the film's Shameless Old Lady was only in her early seventies.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide