French Actress & Singer - Professional Career - 1934 - 2025 Brigitte Bardot
French actress born in Austria - Professional Career - 1938 - 1982 Romy Schneider
Rosemarie Albach-Retty, her real name, was born on September 23, 1938, in Vienna, Austria. The daughter of actors Magda Schneider and Wolf Albach-Retty, the little girl, already nicknamed Romy, grew up in Bavaria near Berchtesgaden. She had a younger brother, Wolfgang. After her parents' divorce, she attended a boarding school near Salzburg, where she already showed great talent for acting. In 1953, the young girl left the boarding school and rejoined her mother, who, in the meantime, had remarried Hans Herbert Blatzheim.
At 15, she made her screen debut alongside her mother, who played the lead role in Hans Deppe's film White Lilacs. Seeing Romy's promising start, Magda Schneider decided to take charge of her daughter's career. Romy Schneider would go on to portray romantic young women and, in 1955, was revealed to the general public thanks to the first installment of Sissi. The film was a great success, and two more installments were made: Sissi the Young Empress (1956) and Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress (1957). In 1958, her career took a new turn when she agreed to star in her first French film, Christine, directed by Pierre Gaspard-Huit and co-starring Alain Delon. The actress then emancipated herself and decided to settle in Paris to pursue her career. In 1961, Romy Schneider and Alain Delon co-starred in the play, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore,' directed by Luchino Visconti. After a stint in America, during which she filmed the comedies *The Cardinal* and *Lend Me Your Husband*, she returned to France and gradually began to shed her image. In 1964, she began filming Henri-Georges Clouzot's *Inferno* (an unfinished film) in which the actress revealed a more provocative side. Between 1966 and 1968, she took a break from her career to focus on her personal life. The actress returned to the screen in 1968 with Jacques Deray's *The Swimming Pool*, marking her reunion with Alain Delon. From then on, Romy Schneider would embody the modern woman in numerous films, notably those of Claude Sautet: *Les choses de la vie* (1970), *Max et les Ferrailleurs* (1970), *César et Rosalie* (1972), and *Une histoire simple* (1978), a role that earned her the César Award for Best Actress. She did not hesitate to portray very dark characters, such as in *Le trio infernal* and *L'important c'est d'aimer* (which also won her the César Award for Best Actress). The actress collaborated with many great directors, including Luchino Visconti, Pierre Granier-Deferre, Claude Chabrol, Costa-Gavras, and Claude Miller. In 1982, she filmed her last movie, *La passante du Sans-Souci*, directed by Jacques Rouffio. In her personal life, Romy Schneider met Alain Delon on the set of *Christine* in 1958. In March 1959, their engagement, on the shores of Lake Lugano, was highly publicized. But the actor left her, and the couple separated in 1963. In July 1966, the actress married the German director Harry Meyen, with whom she had a son, David, born in December 1966. The couple separated in 1972, and the divorce was finalized in 1975. She found love again with Daniel Biasini, her former secretary, eleven years her junior. They married in December 1975, and their daughter, Sarah, was born on July 21, 1977. In 1981, they divorced. On July 5, 1981, her 14-year-old son, David, died after climbing the gate of Daniel Biasini's parents' house. On May 29, 1982, Romy Schneider was found dead in her Paris apartment by her last partner, Laurent Pétin.
French actor born in Italy - Professional Career - 1921-1991 Yves Montand
Ivo Livi, known as Yves Montand, born on October 13, 1921, in Monsummano Terme, Italy, and died on November 9, 1991, in Senlis, France, was an Italian singer and actor who became a naturalized French citizen.[1]
Born into a family that had fled Fascist Italy, the young Ivo Livi grew up in Marseille and developed a passion for cinema, particularly American musicals, admiring Fred Astaire and his tap-dancing routines. First performing in Marseille cabarets, then in theaters and on tour, thanks to his producer Émile Audiffred, he made a name for himself in music and eventually moved to Paris after the war. Thanks to the support of Édith Piaf, he became a star of French music hall, with songs like "Les Feuilles mortes" (Autumn Leaves), "C'est si bon" (It's So Good), "Mais qu’est-ce que j’ai ?" (But What Have I Got?), "Rien dans les mains, rien dans les poches" (Nothing in My Hands, Nothing in My Pockets), and "La Bicyclette" (The Bicycle). His musical success led him to film, where he made his mark with the award-winning "The Wages of Fear" (1952), and to the stage in "The Crucible" (1955). His time on Broadway led to a role in "The Millionaire" (1960), a Hollywood musical, where he starred alongside Marilyn Monroe. Critical acclaim came with Costa-Gavras's political trilogy (Z, The Confession, and State of Siege), which established him as a politically engaged actor. He returned to the musical genre with Jacques Demy's "Trois Places pour le 26" (Three Seats for the 26th) in 1988.
A successful actor throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, he worked with renowned French directors such as Claude Berri, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean-Pierre Melville, Henri Verneuil, Costa-Gavras, Claude Sautet, and Alain Corneau, alternating between dramas, political films, thrillers, and comedies. Many of his films have become classics of French cinema, such as *Is Paris Burning?* (1966), The Devil by the Tail (1969), The Red Circle (1970), Delusions of Grandeur (1971), César and Rosalie (1972), Vincent, François, Paul and the Others (1974), The Savage (1975), Police Python 357 (1976), I... as in Icarus (1979), and the diptych Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring (1986). Known for his left-wing political activism, Montand performed in numerous socially conscious songs and films, including those by Costa-Gavras, denouncing extremism. A militant in the Peace and Human Rights Movement, he sang at the Olympia in support of the Chilean people after Pinochet's coup. His political views later evolved, and in 1984, on the program "Vive la crise!", he praised austerity and Thatcherite liberalism, defending the austerity measures. With Simone Signoret, whom he married in 1951, he formed one of the most famous couples in French cinema.
French Actress - Professional Career - 1938 - 2017 Mireille DARC
Born on May 15, 1938, in Toulon, Mireille Darc, whose real name is Mireille Christiane Gabrielle Aigroz, is an actress. The daughter of a gardener and a grocer, she also has two brothers, Roger and Maurice. Mireille spent the beginning of her childhood in Toulon before leaving for Switzerland during World War II. Returning to her parents, Mireille lived a modest childhood, and her relationship with her father was difficult. She later learned that her father was not her biological father, which explains their strained relationship.
At fifteen, the young girl left school to enroll in the Toulon Conservatory. In 1957, she graduated with an award for excellence. Determined to become an actress, the young woman went to Paris to try her luck. Upon arriving in the capital, she took acting classes, paying for them by posing for painters, photo novels, and doing some modeling. Mireille also walked a countess's dog and babysat. After a small role in the theater, replacing a sick actress, she made her television debut in *La Grande Bretèche* (1960) and *Hauteclaire* (1961), which brought her to the public's attention. But it was playing Louis de Funès's daughter in *Pouic-Pouic* (1963) that launched her career. In 1963, she starred in Georges Lautner's *Des pissenlits par la racine*. Building on this collaboration, they would go on to make thirteen films together, including *Les Barbouzes* (1964), *Galia* (1965), and *Ne nous fâchons pas* (1966). Thanks to this collaboration, she became a star of French cinema in the 1970s. Having become an icon, she went on to star in numerous films and worked alongside some of the biggest names in French cinema, such as Pierre Richard in *The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe* (1972), Jean Gabin in *Rififi in Paris* (1966), Jean-Paul Belmondo in *The Man Hunt* (1964), and Pierre Mondy in *The Pink Telephone* (1975).
In 1980, due to a congenital heart defect, she had to undergo open-heart surgery. The operation was a success, but forced her to slow down her filming schedule. Then, in July 1983, tragedy struck again: Mireille narrowly escaped death in a serious car accident. Severely injured, she remained hospitalized for more than three months. Following this, she decided to take a break from acting for a while. In the early 1990s, she returned to television and appeared in several series: Les Cœurs brûlés (1992), Les Yeux d’Hélène (1994), Terre Indigo (1996), and Frank Riva (2003). At the same time, the actress began directing numerous documentaries, including La Deuxième Vie (1992), Le Doute et l'Espérance (1996), and Jeunesse éternelle (2006). Many of her reports were broadcast on Envoyé spécial, Des racines et des ailes, and Infrarouge. An accomplished actress, in 2007 she took to the stage, where she reunited with Alain Delon in La Route de Madison. In March 2013, Mireille underwent another heart operation. After her final screen appearance in *Le Grand Restaurant* (2011), she directed a new documentary in 2015: *Elles sont des dixs de milliers sans abri* (They Are Tens of Thousands of Homeless People). In October 2016, suffering two strokes, Mireille was rushed to a hospital in Paris. On August 28, 2017, the actress died at the age of 79. In her personal life, Mireille Darc met Alain Delon in 1968. After several years together, they separated in 1983 but remained very close. Later, she had a relationship with Pierre Barret, which ended with the journalist's death in October 1986. Mireille found love again in 1996 with the architect Pascal Desprez. The couple married on June 29, 2002.Swedish-born American actress - The Divine - Professional Career - 1905 - 1990 Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo was born on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm. In 1922, she attended acting classes at the Royal Dramatic Academy of her country and was spotted by director Mauritz Stiller. He gave her her first film roles and enabled her to go to Hollywood. In the United States, photographer Arnold Genthe encouraged her to change her look and lose weight, and in 1926 she appeared in the silent film The Torrent. Successes followed one after another for Greta, including Anna Karenina. She had a tumultuous love affair with her on-screen partner, John Gilbert. Having become the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, the public discovered her deep, resonant voice in 1930 in Anna Christie. The actress gradually withdrew into herself, disdaining interviews and threatening to return to Sweden if producers didn't accommodate her wishes on set. Camille Gautier's novel cemented the young woman's talent, and she returned in 1939 in the whimsical Ninotchka. In 1941, she filmed her last movie, Two-Faced Woman, before retiring from the big screen. She settled permanently in New York, where she lived far from the spotlight and died in 1990. While Greta was always extremely discreet about her private life, it is known that she was bisexual and had a relationship with the Swedish actress Mimi Pollak.