Maud Molyneux

Maud Molyneux (27 March 1948 – 16 September 2008) was a pioneering transgender French actress, journalist, costume designer, and activist whose multifaceted career spanned over three decades. Born in France, she first emerged on the radical scene of the early 1970s as a member of the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire (FHAR), where she helped shape the discourse on gay and trans rights. Together with Patrick Bertaux and Paquita Paquin she co‑founded the avant‑garde Gazolines movement, a collective that blended performance art, political protest, and gender subversion, positioning her as a visible figure in the burgeoning queer counter‑culture. In the mid‑1970s she transitioned into journalism, writing incisive interviews for Façade magazine and regular columns for the daily Libération, where she covered television, fashion, literature (under the pseudonym Dora Forbes) and cinema (as Louella Intérim). Her writing was celebrated for its wit, cultural insight, and unapologetic honesty, earning her a reputation as one of the most influential voices on French pop culture and LGBTQ+ issues. Parallel to her journalistic work, Maud pursued an eclectic acting career, appearing in Adolfo Arrieta’s Les Intrigues de Sylvia Couski (1974) and Tam Tam (1976), as well as in Jean‑Louis Jorge’s Mélodrame (1976) where she played Anna, and later in Gérard Courant’s experimental Cinématon (1981) as herself. She continued to act in Virginie Thévenet’s La Nuit porte‑jarretelles (1985) and Jeux d’artifices (1987). From the late 1990s onward she focused on costume design, collaborating repeatedly with director Pascal Thomas on films such as The Dilettante (1999), Day Off (2001), Mon petit doigt m’a dit… (2005) and Le Grand Appartement (2006), as well as on Patrick Mimouni’s Quand je serai star (2004) and Yann Gonzalez’s short Je vous hais petites filles (2008). Throughout her life Maud Molyneux remained a bold advocate for gender diversity, a cultural chronicler, and a creative force whose legacy continues to inspire French cinema and LGBTQ+ activism.