Today, on 23 September 2020, Romy Schneider would have been 82 years old. The actress was already a film star at the age of 15. Alongside her mother Magda and film partner Karlheinz Böhm, she became world famous in 1955 in the role of “Sissi“. However, the film or rather the film trilogy about the Austrian Empress Elisabeth also put Romy in the role of the “sweet girl” – a nightmare for the actress. Throughout her life she tried to break away from this image.
During the shooting of “Christine” (1958) she met the then unknown French actor Alain Delon and fell in love with him. She followed him to France where she was looking for a new artistic direction. This finally came about through her cooperation with star director Luchino Visconti. Subsequently, she worked with iconic directors such as Orson Welles (“The Trial“, 1962) or Andrzej Żuławski, for whose “That most important thing: Love” of 1974 she was awarded the “César” for best actress. But her favourite director was Claude Sautet, with whom she made five films during her career, including “The Things of Life” (1969) and “Max et les Ferrailleurs“. He was also her co-star in “The Infernal Trio” (1974), and a year later she appeared with Philippe Noiret in “The Old Gun“, other illustrious screen partners include Jack Lemmon, Peter Sellers, Peter O’Toole, Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Helmut Berger, Anthony Perkins and Richard Burton.
The celebrated character actress and grande dame of French cinema had to cope with many private strokes of fate and plunged into a deep depression at the latest with the tragic accidental death of her 14-year-old son David in 1981. Nevertheless she continues to work. Her last film was “The Passerby” (1982), once again at Michel Piccoli‘s side. At the age of 43 she died of heart failure in Paris on 29 May 1982.
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