Marie-Pierre Casey

Marie-Pierre Casey was born on 24 January 1937 in Le Creusot. From the age of nine, she was educated at a boarding school in Charolais with her sister. It was there that she discovered her passion for theatre. Her first role was Doc, the leader of the seven dwarfs in the Grimm brothers' fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, performed for the end of year celebration organised by the nuns.

She studied at the Conservatoire de Lyon and at Cours Simon in Paris, before starting at the cabarets of the Rive Gauche.

In the early 1950s, Marie-Pierre Casey had a small role in the film Forbidden Games directed by René Clément (1952), where she appeared as a shadow.

In 1960, she appeared briefly as a nurse in the film Certains l'aiment froide by Jean Bastia. In 1967, she played a cashier at the Royal Garden in Playtime by Jacques Tati.

In 1970, she appeared in three movies: The Things of Life by Claude Sautet, Children of Mata Hari by Jean Delannoy, and Le Cinéma de papa by Claude Berri.

In 1980, she became known across France for her role in the TV advert for the Johnson cleaning product Pledge (named Pliz in France). In the advert, Casey, dressed as a cleaning lady, sprays the product on a large board table, puts on an apron and proceeds to slide down the table on her stomach. She says "It's better that way, because I wouldn't do that every day", which made the advert a real success amongst television viewers. The role also brought her to the attention of Jean Becker, who noticed her during an advertising awards ceremony and subsequently offered her a role.

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