Henry de La Falaise

Henry de La Falaise, Marquis de La Coudraye (born James Henri Le Bailly de la Falaise, February 11, 1898 – April 10, 1972), was a French nobleman, translator, film director, film producer, sometime actor, and war hero who was best known for his high-profile marriages to two leading Hollywood actresses. Early life James Henri Le Bailly de la Falaise was born on February 11, 1898, in Saint-Cyr-l'École, France, the eldest son and second child of Louis Venant Gabriel Le Bailly de la Falaise, écuyer (1866–1910), a three time Olympic gold-medallist in fencing and former Army officer. His mother was the former Henriette Lucie Frédérique Hennessy (1873–1965), scion of the Cognac family. After his father died in 1910, his widowed mother married her second husband, Count Antoine Hocquart de Turtot (1872–1954), a cavalry officer and major French horse-racing figure, in 1912. His mother and father had four children together: Louise Le Bailly de La Falaise (1894–1910) Henri James Le Bailly de La Falaise, Écuyer (1898–1972), film director and producer, war hero and translator. Alain Le Bailly de La Falaise, Écuyer (1905–1977). He was the first husband of fashion model Maxime de la Falaise (1922—2009) and the father of fashion muse/designer Loulou de la Falaise. Richard Le Bailly de La Falaise, Écuyer (1910—died at Buchenwald in 1945) His mother had another child with her second husband, de La Falaise's half-sibling Henriette-Hyacinthe-Olympe-Geneviève Hocquart de Turtot (born c. 1913). Title The title held by the head of the family, Marquis de La Coudraye, dating from 1707, was granted, by an 1876 act of succession, to the younger son of Pacôme-François Le Bailly, Seigneur de La Falaise, and his wife, Pauline-Louise-Victoire de Loynes, daughter of the Marquis de La Coudraye. La Falaise inherited the title of Marquis de La Coudraye from his paternal grandfather, Gabriel-César-Henri Le Bailly de La Falaise, who, like his father, died in 1910 (the father died on April 4, the grandfather on August 6).