# Marpessa Dawn
**Marpessa Dawn** (born Gypsy Marpessa Menor; January 3, 1934 – August 25, 2008) was an American-born actress, dancer, and singer, of African American and Filipino heritage, who played Eurydice in Marcel Camus's 1959 film *Black Orpheus* (*Orfeu Negro*)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0206026/bio) • [2](https://blogs.iu.edu/bfca/). The film won the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award and Golden Globe for best foreign film in 1960, and it remained the high point of a career spent mostly in France[3](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | January 3, 1934, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; birth name Gypsy Marpessa Menor[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0206026/bio) |
| Signature role | Eurydice in *Black Orpheus* (*Orfeu Negro*), directed by Marcel Camus, 1959[4](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/29/theatre) |
| Awards of the film | Palme d'Or, Cannes 1959; Academy Award and Golden Globe for best foreign film, 1960[3](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html) |
| Other films | *Afrique sur Seine* (1955), *The Woman Eater* (1958), *Le Trésor des hommes bleus* (1960), *Bel Ordure* (1973), *Sweet Movie* (1974)[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/marpessa-dawn) |
| Heritage | African American and Filipino[2](https://blogs.iu.edu/bfca/) |
| Died | August 25, 2008, at her home in Paris, of a heart attack, aged 74[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0206026/bio) • [3](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html) |
## Early life and move to Europe
Dawn was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 3, 1934[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0206026/bio). Her mother had named her Gypsy ten years before her birth, a name she kept as part of her full birth name, Gypsy Marpessa Menor[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0206026/bio) • [6](https://villavassilieff.betonsalon.net/IMG/pdf/web_journal_jesuislarchive_ezk_vv-2.pdf). As a teenager she moved to England, where she took small television parts, and then to France, where she worked as a governess and as a dancer and singer in nightclubs[3](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html).
In a 1965 *[Cosmopolitan](https://www.edgepedia.org/cosmopolitan-magazine)* profile of American women in Paris, she described arriving with forty dollars in her pocket, working for a family, serving as a secretary at an Army base in Orléans, and dancing with an [African dance](https://www.edgepedia.org/african-dance) troupe during the four years before her film career began[7](https://electronicsandbooks.com/edt/manual/Old%20Pulp%20Magazines/%21%20new/Cosmopolitan%20-%20April%201965.pdf).
## Black Orpheus
*Black Orpheus* transposes the Greek myth of [Orpheus and Eurydice](https://www.edgepedia.org/orpheus-and-eurydice) to Rio de Janeiro during carnival. Dawn played Eurydice, an innocent country girl drawn into the festivities, opposite Breno Mello, a Brazilian footballer cast as Orpheus, a trolley motorman and guitarist[3](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html). Director Marcel Camus found the adaptation in a play by the Brazilian poet and playwright [Vinicius de Moraes](https://www.edgepedia.org/vinicius-de-moraes) and shot the film in Brazil under difficult conditions, at one point running out of money entirely[8](https://time.com/archive/6613808/cinema-new-wave/).
The film's soundtrack, by the composers Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, included "Manhã de Carnaval" and "A Felicidade" and became renowned in its own right[3](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html). *Time* called the film perhaps the most impressive work yet sent to American shores by the [French New Wave](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-new-wave), and it won the 1959 Grand Prix (Palme d'Or) at Cannes, followed by the Academy Award and Golden Globe for best foreign film[8](https://time.com/archive/6613808/cinema-new-wave/) • [3](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html). A November 1959 profile in *Ebony* magazine called Dawn one of the great screen beauties of her day, comparing her graceful movement to [Audrey Hepburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/audrey-hepburn) and her attack to [Eartha Kitt](https://www.edgepedia.org/eartha-kitt)[2](https://blogs.iu.edu/bfca/).
Dawn's celebrity was helped by her marriage to Camus, the film's French director[4](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/29/theatre). She and Mello appeared together on magazine covers and on a Columbia label [LP record](https://www.edgepedia.org/lp-record) cover[4](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/29/theatre).
## Later career
*Black Orpheus* turned out to be Dawn's only brush with fame on that scale. She appeared in several less successful films and on French television, and she starred in plays, including *Chérie Noire*, a comedy that toured France, Belgium, Switzerland, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco[3](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html). Her screen roles afterward were few and often typed: she played Malika in *Le Trésor des hommes bleus* (1960), a prostitute in the police film *Bel Ordure* (1973), and Mama Communa in Dušan Makavejev's *Sweet Movie* (1974)[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/marpessa-dawn) • [9](https://www.ivoox.com/l-actrice-marpessa-dawn-une-pionniere-reclamee-heritage-audios-mp3_rf_176040901_1.html). According to her daughter, Dhyana Kluth, Dawn stayed in Europe, remarried, and took bit-part roles on stage and in film, mostly in non-English-speaking parts[4](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/29/theatre).
One of her last screen appearances was in the 2005 documentary *Vinicius*, about the bossa nova pioneer Vinicius de Moraes, in which she appeared in a snippet of archive footage from *Black Orpheus*[4](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/29/theatre). A rare television interview with her, recorded for the French program "Nord actualités télé" and broadcast on March 20, 1963, was later released as a supplement on the Criterion Channel[10](https://www.criterionchannel.com/supplements/Tt3D9uQy/marpessa-dawn-on-black-orpheus).
## Standing in African cinema
In Paris, Dawn had appeared in the short film *Afrique sur Seine* (1955), made by a collective of African students in cinema there, and she came to be regarded as a pioneer and a reference point by African filmmakers[9](https://www.ivoox.com/l-actrice-marpessa-dawn-une-pionniere-reclamee-heritage-audios-mp3_rf_176040901_1.html). The Nigerien filmmaker Rahmatou Keïta, who works on the pioneers of African cinema, described her as a great actress whom French cinema failed to use fully, and recalled meeting her at a preview with the filmmaker Sarah Maldoror, herself a pioneer as the first woman of African origin to make a feature fiction film[9](https://www.ivoox.com/l-actrice-marpessa-dawn-une-pionniere-reclamee-heritage-audios-mp3_rf_176040901_1.html).
## Death
Dawn died of a heart attack on August 25, 2008, at her home in Paris[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0206026/bio) • [3](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html). Her death came 42 days after that of Breno Mello, who died on July 14, 2008, in his home town of [Porto Alegre](https://www.edgepedia.org/porto-alegre)[4](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/29/theatre). She was survived by five children and four grandchildren[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0206026/bio).
## References
1. [Marpessa Dawn – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0206026/bio)
2. [Black Film Center & Archive Blog, Indiana University](https://blogs.iu.edu/bfca/)
3. [Marpessa Dawn, 'Black Orpheus' star, 74, The Philadelphia Inquirer](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20080929_Marpessa_Dawn____Black_Orpheus__star__74.html)
4. [Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/29/theatre)
5. [Marpessa Dawn Movies List, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/marpessa-dawn)
6. [Je suis l'archive, Villa Vassilieff / Bétonsalon journal (PDF)](https://villavassilieff.betonsalon.net/IMG/pdf/web_journal_jesuislarchive_ezk_vv-2.pdf)
7. [American Girls in Paris, Cosmopolitan, April 1965 (PDF)](https://electronicsandbooks.com/edt/manual/Old%20Pulp%20Magazines/%21%20new/Cosmopolitan%20-%20April%201965.pdf)
8. [Cinema: New Wave, Time, November 16, 1959](https://time.com/archive/6613808/cinema-new-wave/)
9. [L'actrice Marpessa Dawn, une pionnière réclamée en héritage par le cinéma africain, Reportage Afrique (iVoox)](https://www.ivoox.com/l-actrice-marpessa-dawn-une-pionniere-reclamee-heritage-audios-mp3_rf_176040901_1.html)
10. [Marpessa Dawn on BLACK ORPHEUS, Criterion Channel](https://www.criterionchannel.com/supplements/Tt3D9uQy/marpessa-dawn-on-black-orpheus)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1940s to 1960s › Surnames D to E*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 20, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 20, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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