Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve (born 22 October 1943) is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion (1965) and Belle de jour (1967). Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that film and The Last Metro (1980). One of France's most renowned actresses, she has also appeared in seven English-language films, most notably the 1983 cult classic The Hunger. In 2008, she appeared in her 100th film, Un conte de Noël. --- Deneuve was born Catherine Fabienne Dorléac in occupied Paris to French stage and screen actor Maurice Dorléac and actress Renée Deneuve (born 1911). Deneuve is the second of their three daughters. Her older sister was Françoise Dorléac (1942–1967) and her younger sister is Sylvie Dorléac (born 1946). They have a maternal half-sister, Danielle (born 1937). Deneuve attended Catholic schools. As Catherine Dorléac, she made her film debut at age eleven in Les Collégiennes (1957), filmed in 1955 but not released until two years later. Deneuve subsequently began using her mother's surname professionally so she wouldn't be confused with her elder sister, Françoise Dorléac, who was using their father's name. Deneuve then starred in films such as Vice and Virtue (1962), directed by Roger Vadim. The film that brought her stardom was Jacques Demy's 1963 musical Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. She made two more films with Demy, most notably another musical, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), with Dorléac – who was killed in a car accident the following year – as her twin sister. Further prominent films from this early time in her career included Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965), Jean-Paul Rappeneau's La Vie de château (1966), which employed her 'underused comic skills', and Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour (1967), – as the ' haut-bourgeois housewife who achieves sexual satisfaction working in a Parisian brothel.' In the Polanski film, Deneuve first portrayed the character archetype for which she would be nicknamed the "ice maiden", playing a beautiful Belgian girl, an emotionally distant and mysterious woman 'going homicidally insane in Kensington.' Her work for Buñuel would be her most famous, and her screen persona as "a cold, remote erotic object which dreams are made on" reached a peak, according to the critic Philip French, in her second Buñuel film Tristana, (1970). Deneuve remained active in European films throughout the 1960s and 70s, but limited her appearances in American films of the period to The April Fools (1969) and Hustle (1975). --- In 1965, Deneuve appeared nude in a Playboy pictorial. One of the world's great beauties, her image was used to represent Marianne, the national symbol of France, from 1985 to 1989. As the face of Chanel No. 5 in the late 1970s, she caused sales of the perfume to soar in the United States – so much so that the American press, captivated by her charm, nominated her as the world's most elegant woman. --- In 1961, at age 17, Deneuve moved in with director Roger Vadim, who was 16 years her senior. They had a son, Christian Vadim, on 18 June 1963. The pair ended their relationship a month later. On August 19, 1965, Deneuve married British photographer David Bailey. They divorced in 1972 but remain friends, and Deneuve has since said, "Marriage is obsolete and a trap." Following her separation from Bailey, Deneuve had a relationship with actor Marcello Mastroianni, with whom she co-starred in five films. Deneuve gave birth to their daughter, Chiara Mastroianni, on 28 May 1972. The couple split in 1975 but remained friends. Deneuve was present at his bedside when he died of pancreatic cancer on December 19, 1996. Deneuve also had a brief relationship with actor Clint Eastwood in 1966, while on a break from Bailey, and dated director François Truffaut in the late 1970s. She had an on-and-off, long-term relationship with Canal+ tycoon Pierre Lescure during the 1980s and '90s. In an August 2007 interview, the intensely private Deneuve stated that she was in a relationship but would not disclose the name of her partner. Deneuve has four grandchildren. She became a grandmother for the first time at age 43 in September 1987, when Christian's 18-year-old girlfriend gave birth to their son Igor. Her other grandchildren are: Milo (b. 1996, Chiara's son with Pierre Torreton), Anna (b. 2003, Chiara's daughter with Benjamin Biolay), and Lou (b. 2010, Christian's daughter with Julia Livage).