Ghislaine Elizabeth Marie Thérèse Perreau-Saussine (born 1941), known professionally as Gigi Perreau, is an American film and television actress.
Family Ghislaine Elizabeth Marie Thérèse Perreau-Saussine was born in 1941. Her elder brother Gerald (stage name Peter Miles) and, to a lesser extent, her younger sisters Janine and Lauren, also had a measure of success in film and on television. Gigi and Gerald appeared together in the 1948 film Enchantment. She and Janine portrayed sisters in 1951's Week-End with Father.
Career Perreau achieved success as a child actress in a number of films. She got into the business quite by accident. Her older brother Gerald was trying out for the part of the title character's son in Madame Curie (1943). Because their mother could not find a babysitter, she took Gigi along. The two-year-old, who could speak French, got the (uncredited) part of Madame Curie's daughter Ève (while Gerald would have to wait a year to make his film debut in Passage to Marseille).
She also played the daughter of Claude Rains and Bette Davis's characters in the 1944 film Mr. Skeffington (1944). In Shadow on the Wall (1950), she starred as the sole witness to a murder. As the "top child movie actress for 1951", the then ten-year-old was given the keys to the city of Pittsburgh by its mayor, and later Pennsylvania governor, David L. Lawrence. She was the youngest person to be so honored.
Her top-child-star status was recognized in a November 11, 1951, ceremony in Hollywood. Phillip McClay, president of the Screen Children's Guild, presented Perreau with a miniature golden skillet, representing the first Small Fry Award.
Perreau played the rebellious teen daughter of Fredric March in 1956's The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. However, her film career lost momentum as she became an adult, so she turned to television. In 1959, she played a friend of character Mary Stone (Shelley Fabares) on ABC's The Donna Reed Show, and had a supporting role in the sitcom The Betty Hutton Show on CBS, with her brother Gerald. In 1960, Perreau and Robert Harland performed as Sara Lou and Lin Proctor, a young couple from the east who have eloped and are heading west, in the ABC western series Stagecoach West episode "The Land Beyond", with Wayne Rogers and Robert Bray. Also in 1960, Perreau was cast as Julie Staunton in the episode "Flight from Terror" of the ABC adventure series The Islanders, set in the South Pacific. She was cast in two episodes, "Don Gringo" (1960) and "The Promise" (1961), of the Nick Adams ABC western series The Rebel. In 1961, she played Mary Bettelheim in the episode "The Twelfth Hour" of the ABC/Warner Brothers television crime drama The Roaring 20s. She was cast in a recurring role on ABC's Follow the Sun series from 1961 to 1962 as a secretary, Katherine Ann "Kathy" Richards. She guest-starred on The Rifleman in 1960 and 1961. She made two guest appearances on Perry Mason: in 1958 as title character and defendant Doris Bannister in "The Case of the Desperate Daughter" and in 1964 as nurse Phyllis Clover in "The Case of the Sleepy Slayer." In 1964, she also co-starred as Lucy, a beleaguered homesteader, on an episode of Gunsmoke titled "Chicken". In 1970, she appeared on the sitcom The Brady Bunch in the episode "The Undergraduate", portraying a math teacher who becomes the object of puppy love by Greg Brady, one of her students. On December 17, 1974, she appeared as Iris Cooley on Adam-12.
In the 2000s, she provided her voice in the animated films Fly Me to the Moon (2008), A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures (2010) and Crash: The Animated Movie (2017), and acted in Time Again (2011).
Personal life Perreau, 19, married 35-year-old business executive Emil Frank Gallo on October 1, 1960, in Hollywood; it was the first marriage for both parties. Perreau had two daughters and two sons.
Affiliations As of 2010, Perreau was a member of the board of directors of both the Donna Reed Foundation for the Performing Arts and the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum and is the vice-president of the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California. She was a drama teacher for Meghan Markle. She was a guest of ITN at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018.
Honors On February 8, 1960, Perreau was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in television.
On March 14, 1998, she was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements within the entertainment industry as a child actress.
Filmography Year Title Role Note1943 Madame CurieÈve Curie Uncredited1944 Two Girls and a Sailor Jean as a child Uncredited Mr. Skeffington Fanny at age 2 As Ghislaine Perreau The Seventh Cross Annie Roeder Uncredited The Master Race Baby As Ghislaine Perreau Dark Waters GirlUncredited1945 God Is My Co-Pilot Robin Lee ScottUncredited Voice of the Whistler Bobbie Yolanda and the Thief Gigi As Ghislaine Perreau1946 To Each His Own Virgie Ingham Uncredited High Barbaree Young Nancy Uncredited Alias Mr. Twilight Susan As Gi-Gi Perreau1947 Song of Love Julie Green Dolphin Street Veronica1948 The Sainted Sisters Beasley girl Uncredited Enchantment Lark as a Child 1949 Family Honeymoon Zoe Roseanna McCoy Allifair McCoy Song of Surrender Faith Beecham My Foolish Heart Ramona 1950 Shadow on the Wall Susan Starrling Never a Dull Moment Tina For Heaven's Sake Item 1951 The Lady Pays Off Diane Braddock Reunion in Reno Margaret 'Maggie' Angeline Linaker Week-End with Father Anne Stubbs 1952 Has Anybody Seen My Gal Roberta Blaisdell Bonzo Goes to College Betsy 1955 There's Always Tomorrow Ellen1956 The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Susan Hopkins Dance with Me, Henry Shelley 1958 The Cool and the Crazy Amy Wild Heritage 'Missouri' Breslin 1959 Girls Town Serafina1961 Look in Any Window Eileen Lowell Tammy Tell Me True Rita1967 Hell on Wheels Sue Journey to the Center of Time Karen White1977 High Seas Hijack Patricia Haber English version2008 Fly Me to the Moon Amelia Voice, uncredited2010 A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures Whale Voice2011 Time Again Old Lady 2017 Crash: The Animated MovieGrandma Swift Voice
Television credits Year Series Episode Role Notes 1958Perry Mason "The Case of the Desperate Daughter" Doris Bannister1959Alfred Hitchcock Presents "Graduating Class" Gloria Barnes aired December 271960Rawhide "Incident at Poco Tiempo" Sister Joan1960The Rifleman "Heller" Daughter Heller1961The Rifleman "Deathtrap" Daughter Vicky1965My Three Sons "Be My Guest" Polly1966Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. "Arrivederci, Gomer" Rosa Lombardi Season 2, Episode 191970The Brady Bunch "The Undergraduate" Linda O'Hara
References
Bibliography
Best, Marc (1971). Those Endearing Young Charms: Child Performers of the Screen. South Brunswick and New York: Barnes & Co., pp. 209–214.
External links
2019 Gigi Perreau interview, Mansfield News Journal, accessed August 30, 2019