Françoise Dorin

Françoise Dorin (23 January 1928 – 12 January 2018) was a French actor, comedian, novelist, playwright and songwriter. She was most successful in the 1970s, authored about 30 plays and more than 25 books as well as writing songs for various artists. Dorin wrote the song N'avoue jamais which was performed by Guy Mardel on behalf of France at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. She was appointed Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur, the Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Grand officier de l’ordre national du Mérite. A street in Paris' 17th arrondissement was voted unanimously by the Council of Paris to be named after Dorin following her death.

Dorin was born in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, on 23 January 1928. She was the daughter of the songwriter René Dorin, and his wife Yvonne Guilbert. Dorin had one brother. Dorin's great-grandmother was a coffee market store owner and this was taken over by her maternal grandfather Athanase Guilbert. She was educated at Cours Hattemer. Dorin was married on 2 October 1958 and later divorced to the actor Jean Poiret and the two had a daughter. She was later remarried to the actor and writer Jean Piat from 1975 to 2018. On the morning of 12 January 2018, Dorin died at l'hôpital de Courbevoie in Hauts-de-Seine.

She made her stage debut at the cinéma-théâtre d'Yvetot in 1946 but she was uncomfortable on stage. After training opposite Roger Hanin and Michel Piccoli for a period of four years as well as working for her father at Théâtre des Deux Ânes for three years when he introduced her to classical literature, her debut doing songwriter reviews came at a production of Aveux les plus doux in 1957 at the Théâtre des Deux-Anes. The following year, Dorin reviewed le Chinois at Théâtre La Bruyère. She wrote the song N'avoue jamais that was performed by Guy Mardel who was France's representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. Dorin authored her first play Comme au théâtre in 1967 under a pseudonym, then proceeded to write La Invoice the year after, and she presented the television programme Paris Club that was broadcast in 1969.