Pascale Petit, a French actress, was born in Paris and initially discovered while working as a hairdresser at the prestigious Carita salon by Françoise Lugagne, the wife of director Raymond Rouleau. Rouleau would go on to direct Petit's screen debut as Mary Warren, an accuser at the Salem witch trials of 1692 and a later confessed "witch", in the 1957 film adaptation of Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible.
Despite having no formal acting training, Petit made a lasting impression with consecutive performances in Marcel Carné's film, Les tricheurs (1958),and Alexandre Astruc's One Life (1958),in which she played the role of Rosalie, a servant girl. Her performance earned her the coveted Prix Suzanne Bianchetti as Most Promising Young Actress of 1958.
Petit's success was followed by a title role in the comedy Julie the Redhead (1959) and a co-starring role alongside Micheline Presle in A Mistress for the Summer (1960).
