Denise Darcel (born 8 September 1925) is a retired French actress who made a few films in Hollywood.

Born as Denise Billecard in Paris, she was college educated. According to one of her friends who she met in Paris during WWII, she was a passenger in an L-5 Stinson light observation aircraft on VJ Day (8/14/1945) to see the celebration from the air. The pilot, James Helinger Sr., a US Army Air Corps glider pilot (the friend) was at the controls, while they flew under several bridges along the Seine and finally, under the Eiffel Tower, with the crowds below.

She was a cabaret singer in Paris after World War II before being spotted by Hollywood. Denise came to the United States in 1947 and became an American citizen in 1952.

Her first film appearance of note was in Battleground (1949), where she was the only adult female. She appeared on Broadway in the musical Pardon Our French in 1950. She made quite an impression in Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950) opposite Lex Barker, then co-starred with Robert Taylor in Westward the Women (1952) and Glenn Ford in Young Man with Ideas (1952). In 1953, she was seen in the swimming musical Dangerous When Wet, which starred Esther Williams (1953). Her most important film to date was Vera Cruz (1954) where she played the female lead opposite Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper. She only made one more film after that, Seven Women from Hell (1961).

She appeared as a french woman on the ABC-TV war drama Combat! between 1962-1967. As her film and tv career began to wane, at 41 she became an ecdysiast appearing theatres in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Oakland and Los Angeles. She retired from stripping, after a few years.

She returned to the cabaret circuit, made a few appearances on television and, in 1995 was seen in the revival of the musical Follies in Houston and Seattle.

Married and divorced three times in all, the vivacious Ms. Darcel remains close to her two sons, Chris and Craig. Online music store iTunes recently made Darcel's album "Banned in Boston" available for purchase alongside Lizabeth Scott's album "Lizabeth".

Filmography

To the Victor (1948) (uncredited) as Bar Singer

Thunder in the Pines (1948) as Yvette Cheron

Battleground (1949) as Denise

Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950) as Lola

Westward the Women (1951) as Fifi Danon

Young Man with Ideas (1952) as Dorianne Gray

Dangerous When Wet (1953) as Gigi Mignon

Flame of Calcutta (1953) as Suzanne Roget aka The Flame

Vera Cruz (1954) as Countess Marie Duvarre

The Milton Berle Show (1 episode, 1956)

Tightrope as Terri (1 episode, 1960)

Seven Women from Hell (1961) as Claire Oudry

Naked City as Madeleine Douvay (1 episode, 1962)

Combat! as Annette (1 episode, 1963)