LGBT People from History 29 - Marie-Pierre Pruvot (Bambi)

Jean-Pierre Pruvot was born in 1935 in Algeria as a boy. As a child she was quite happy except that she always felt under pressure to conform to gender stereotypes. She had a very strong will to be a girl. At school she spent much of her life reading alone and studied hard, thus gaining good grades.

When she was nearly 17 she discovered the French show ‘Le Carrousel’ playing in her area of Algeria. One of the performers was Coccinelle with whom she later shared a home. Her stage name was Bambi. At the age of 19 she topped the bill at ‘Le Carrousel’. A year later Coccinelle underwent hormone therapy and sex realignment surgery undertaken by Dr Burou. Two years later she underwent the therapy and surgery herself. She and Eric (a drag king called Ute) performed together at ‘Elle et Lui’ and on several tours.

Due to the war in Algeria and other changes in the country she had to go to Algiers to obtain her gender change birth certificate. Thus she became Marie-Pierre Pruvot, born female.

During her performance years she attended the Sorbonne in Paris and gained her degrees and a teaching diploma in 1974. She taught in a school near Paris for 25 years without anyone knowing of her past life.

She feels that she could have done more in supporting people during the Algerian war, but we think that she had more than enough to contend with in her life and congratulate her on her courage!

Ian and Callum.

With thanks to http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/Bambi.html#Photos

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