16 Facts About Simone Silva

Simone Silva was an Egyptian-born French film actress who appeared in a handful of British B-movies during the 1950s.

Simone Silva briefly made global headlines following a notorious incident at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival where she posed topless with Robert Mitchum for photographers, causing a sensation when the photographs were flashed around the world.

Simone Silva broke into British films in 1951 with a small uncredited non-speaking part in Lady Godiva Rides Again as a beauty pageant contestant.

Simone Silva appeared onstage in the West End in the 1952 play Meet Mr Callaghan.

In March 1954 Simone Silva travelled to Cannes for the seventh Film Festival in an attempt to get herself noticed.

Simone Silva succeeded, and the festival organisers awarded her the honorary title of "Miss Festival 1954".

Simone Silva was asked to pose for press photographs with Robert Mitchum on a beach of one of the French Riviera's Lerins Islands, near Cannes.

The photocall turned into the story of the festival when Simone Silva removed her top and posed cupping her bare breasts in her hands, while Mitchum played along.

Immediately after the Cannes furor, Simone Silva traveled to the US, hoping to cash in on her new-found notoriety.

Relations with Petker quickly soured, and by November 1954 Simone Silva was hospitalised with severe vomiting, claiming that worry was the root cause of her illness.

Simone Silva accused Petker of failing to pay her salary, while he countered that he had suspended her for gaining a significant amount of weight.

In February 1955, Simone Silva was again in court when she filed suit against a nightclub in Palm Beach, Florida, alleging that they had offered her a contract for seven weeks' work but had reneged at the end of the first week.

Simone Silva made one more screen appearance, a small role in the low-budget crime picture The Gelignite Gang in 1956.

Simone Silva briefly tried stage acting, with little critical success.

Simone Silva attempted to garner publicity by hinting to journalists that she was planning another stunt for the 1957 Cannes Film Festival, but what she planned is unknown as nothing materialised.

Simone Silva was found dead in her London apartment on 30 November 1957, aged 29.