Marpessa Dawn | 'Black Orpheus' star, 74

Marpessa Dawn, 74, who played the beautiful, melancholic and doomed Eurydice in the classic 1959 movie

Black Orpheus

, died Aug. 25 at her home in Paris.

Ms. Dawn's death followed by 41 days that of her Black Orpheus costar, Bruno Melo, who played the title role.

Directed by Marcel Camus in Brazil and based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orfeu Negro, as it is called in Portuguese, brings together an innocent country girl, played by Dawn, and a trolley motorman and gifted guitarist, portrayed by Melo.

Black Orpheus became renowned for its soundtrack by the bossa nova legends Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfa, with songs like "Manha de Carnaval" and "A Felicidade." It won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for best foreign film in 1960.

Ms. Dawn was born near Pittsburgh. As a teenager, she moved to England, where she had bit parts on television, and later to France, where she worked as a governess and danced and sang in nightclubs.

After her role in Black Orpheus, Ms. Dawn appeared in several less-successful movies and on French television. She also starred in several plays, including Cherie Noire, a comedy that toured France, Belgium, Switzerland, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

- N.Y. Times News Service