| Monique van Vooren | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born: | March 25, 1927 |
| Birth Hometown: | Brussels, Belgium |
| Died: | January 25, 2020 |
| Place of death: | Manhattan, New York City |
| Occupation: | Actress, dancer |
| Years active: | 1950–2012 |
Monique van Vooren (March 25, 1927 – January 25, 2020) was a Belgian-American actress and dancer.
Early years[]
Born in Brussels to George Bronz (or Bronze) and Louise van Vooren, Monique was a champion skater and a beauty queen in Belgium. She reportedly studied philosophy and languages and learned to speak English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch. "I can also read Greek and Latin," she stated. Her first visit to the United States apparently took place in 1946 at age 19, with the married name "Jakobson" and listed as a "housewife". Her second husband was Kurt (or Curt) Henry Pfenniger. Her third husband was New York businessman Gerard Walter Purcell. The couple were married from 1958 until Purcell's death in 2002.
Career[]
On Broadway, Van Vooren played in John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953–54) and Man on the Moon (1975). In the 1960s, Van Vooren starred in summer stock theatre productions in the United States. Van Vooren recorded an album, Mink in HiFi for RCA Victor. In 1956, she signed a contract with Request Records.
In 1983, Signet published Night Sanctuary, written by Van Vooren. She described the book as being about "the dark side of people."
Later life and personal life[]
In 1983, Van Vooren was found guilty of lying before a federal grand jury and "ordered to get psychiatric help and perform 500 hours of community service as part of a suspended sentence." The sentence resulted from an investigation of "whether she had pocketed her dead mother's Social Security payments." Van Vooren died of cancer on January 25, 2020.