Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (; ), is a French actress as well as an occasional singer, model and producer, considered one of the greatest European actresses. She gained recognition for her portrayal of icy, aloof and mysterious beauties for various directors, including Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut and Roman Polanski. In 1985, she succeeded Mireille Mathieu as the official face of Marianne, France's national symbol of liberty. A 14-time César Award nominee, she won for her performances in Truffaut's "The Last Metro" (1980), for which she also won the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress, and Régis Wargnier's "Indochine" (1992).
Deneuve made her film debut in 1957 at the age of 13 (12 when it was shot the previous year) and first came to prominence in Jacques Demy's 1964 musical "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg". She went on to star for Polanski in "Repulsion" (1965) and for Buñuel in "Belle de Jour" (1967) and "Tristana" (1970). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for "Belle de Jour", and the Academy Award for Best Actress for "Indochine". She also won the 1998 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for "Place Vendôme". Her English-language films include "The April Fools" (1969), "Hustle" (1975), "The Hunger" (1983), "Dancer in the Dark" (2000) and "The Musketeer" (2001). Other notable films include "Mississippi Mermaid" (1969), "Scene of the Crime" (1986), "My Favourite Season" (1993), "8 Women" (2002), "Persepolis" (2007), "Potiche" (2010), "The Brand New Testament" (2015) and "Bonne Pomme" (2017).
Early life.
Deneuve was born Catherine Fabienne Dorléac in Paris, the daughter of French stage actors Maurice Dorléac (1901–1979) and Renée Simonot (b. 1911). Deneuve has two sisters, Françoise Dorléac (1942–1967) and Sylvie Dorléac (born 14 December 1946), as well as a maternal half-sister, Danielle, whom their mother had out of wedlock in 1937 with Aimé Clariond, but who was later adopted by Maurice and took his surname. Deneuve was her mother's maiden name, which she chose for her stage name, in order to differentiate herself from her sisters. Deneuve attended Catholic schools.
Film career.
Deneuve made her film debut with a small role in André Hunebelle's "Les Collégiennes" (1957) with her younger sister Sylvie Dorléac who, like their older half-sister Danielle, was an occasional child actress. She subsequently appeared in several films for director Roger Vadim as well as in "" (1960), which caught the eye of Jacques Demy, who cast Deneuve in his 1964 musical
"Les Parapluies de Cherbourg", the film that brought her to stardom. Deneuve played the cold but erotic persona, for which she would be nicknamed the "ice maiden", in Roman Polanski's horror classic "Repulsion" (1965), reinforcing it in Luis Buñuel's "Belle de Jour" (1967), and reaching a peak in "Tristana" (1970). Her work for Buñuel would be her most famous.
Further prominent films from this early time in her career included Jean-Paul Rappeneau's "A Matter of Resistance" (1966), Demy's musical "Les Demoiselles de Rochefort" (1967) (opposite her sister Françoise Dorléac), and François Truffaut's romantic thriller "Mississippi Mermaid" (1969). Deneuve remained active in European films during the 1960s and 1970s, though she limited her appearances in American films of the period to "The April Fools" (1969), a romantic comedy with Jack Lemmon, and "Hustle" (1975), a crime drama with Burt Reynolds. Her starring roles at the time were featured in such films as "A Slightly Pregnant Man" (1973) with Marcello Mastroianni and "Le Sauvage" (1975) with Yves Montand.
In the 1980s, Deneuve's films included François Truffaut's "Le Dernier métro" (1980), for which she won the César Award for Best Actress, and Tony Scott's "The Hunger" (1983) as a bisexual vampire, co-starring with David Bowie and Susan Sarandon, a role which brought her a significant lesbian and cult following, mostly among the gothic subculture. She made her debut film as a producer in 1988, "Drôle d'endroit pour une rencontre", alongside frequent co-star Gérard Depardieu.
In the early 1990s, Deneuve's more significant roles included 1992's "Indochine" opposite Vincent Perez, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won a second César Award for Best Actress; and André Téchiné's two movies, "Ma saison préférée" (1993) and "Les Voleurs" (1996). In 1997, Deneuve was the protagonist in the music video for the song "N'Oubliez Jamais" sung by Joe Cocker. In 1998 she won acclaim and the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for her performance in "Place Vendôme". In the late 1990s, Deneuve continued to appear in a large number of films such as 1999's five films "Est-Ouest", "Le temps retrouvé", "Pola X", "Belle maman", and "".
In 2000, Deneuve's part in Lars von Trier's musical drama "Dancer in the Dark" alongside Icelandic singer Björk was subject to considerable critical scrutiny. The film was selected for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She made another foray into Hollywood the following year, starring in "The Musketeer" (2001) for Peter Hyams. In 2002, she shared the Silver Bear Award for Best Ensemble Cast at the Berlin International Film Festival for her performance in "8 Women". In 2005, Deneuve published her diary "A l'ombre de moi-meme" ("In My Own Shadow", published in English as "Close Up and Personal: The Private Diaries of Catherine Deneuve"); in it she writes about her experiences shooting the films "Indochine" and "Dancer in the Dark". She also provided the voice role of Marjane Satrapi's mother in Satrapi's animated autobiographical film "Persepolis" (2007), based on the graphic novel of the same name. In 2008, she appeared in her 100th film, "Un conte de Noël".
Deneuve's recent work includes "Potiche" (2010) with frequent co-star Depardieu, "Beloved" (2011), alongside former co-stars Ludivine Sagnier and Chiara Mastroianni, the popular French adventure comedy "" (2012) with Gérard Depardieu and Valérie Lemercier, screenwriter and director Emmanuelle Bercot's "On My Way" (2013), Palme D'or winning writer/director Pierre Salvadori's comedy drama "In the Courtyard" (2014), and André Téchiné's drama "In the Name of My Daughter" (2014). In 2017, she co-starred alongside Catherine Frot, in writer/director Martin Provost's French drama "The Midwife", which has been acquired by Music Box Films for a summer 2017 distribution in the United States.
Career outside film.
Modeling.
Deneuve appeared nude in two "Playboy" pictorials in 1963 and 1965. 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 Statesso much so that the American press, captivated by her charm, nominated her as the world's most elegant woman. In 1983, American Home Products retained her to represent their cosmetics line and hired world-renowned photographer Richard Avedon to promote its line of "Youth Garde" cosmetics, for which she famously proclaimed, "Look closely. Next year I will be 40."
She is considered the muse of designer Yves Saint Laurent; he dressed her in the films, "Belle de Jour", "La Chamade", "La sirène du", "Un flic", "Liza" and "The Hunger". In 1992, she became a model for his skincare line.
In 2001, she was chosen as the new face of L'Oréal Paris. In 2006, Deneuve became the third inspiration for the M•A•C Beauty Icon series and collaborated on the colour collection that became available at M•A•C locations worldwide in February that year. Deneuve began appearing in the new Louis Vuitton luggage advertisements in 2007. Deneuve was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by the "Guardian" in March 2013. In July 2017, Deneuve appeared in a video campaign for Louis Vuitton entitled "Connected Journeys", celebrating the launch of the brand's Tambour Horizon smartwatch, which also featured celebrities, including Jennifer Connelly, Bae Doona, Jaden Smith and Miranda Kerr.
Entrepreneurial.
In 1986, Deneuve introduced her own perfume, "Deneuve". She is also a designer of glasses, shoes, jewelry and greeting cards.
Personal life.
Deneuve speaks fluent French, Italian and English and has some knowledge of Spanish, though she does not speak the language fluently. Her hobbies and passions include gardening, drawing, photography, reading, music, cinema, fashion, antiques and decoration. According to a 1996 article published by "The New York Times", Deneuve is a practising Roman Catholic.
Deneuve has been married only once: to photographer David Bailey from 1965 to 1972, though they separated in 1967. She has lived with director Roger Vadim, actor Marcello Mastroianni, cinematographer Hugh Johnson, and Canal+ tycoon Pierre Lescure.
Deneuve has two children: actor Christian Vadim (born 18 June 1963), from her relationship with Roger Vadim, and actress Chiara Mastroianni (born 28 May 1972), from her relationship with Marcello Mastroianni. She has five grandchildren.
Deneuve has not had a public relationship since her breakup with Lescure in 1991. They remain friends, and Deneuve's children consider him their stepfather. According to "Gala", in late 2019 Deneuve relied on Lescure while she recuperated from a stroke.
Throughout her 20s and 30s, Deneuve reportedly dated actors Sami Frey, Clint Eastwood, Franco Nero, Burt Reynolds, and John Travolta as well as directors Roman Polanski, Jerry Schatzberg and Francois Truffaut, talent agent , singer Serge Gainsbourg and TV host . While most of her confirmed liaisons have been with much older men, Lozano was 19 years her junior, and in his late teens when he and Deneuve were involved in the early 1980s.
In recent decades, Deneuve's lack of a boyfriend of record – in combination with the fact that she's kissed women in five films – has prompted speculation about her sexual orientation, which she acknowledged in a 2002 interview with "Knack" magazine: "Now that people know nothing about my private life, they start guessing: is there still a man in her life and who is he then? When they see me two or three times with a female friend they say: we've always known that. Well, they can enjoy it to their heart's content." Reports from 2000 claimed her beau was a 25-year-old technician she'd met on a recent film, but no writers could identify him. In 2006, Deneuve told "The Daily Telegraph" that she was in a relationship, but would not disclose the name of her partner.
Deneuve is close friends with the artist Nall and owns some of his works.
On 6 November 2019, BBC News reported that Deneuve suffered a mild stroke and was recuperating in a Paris hospital. Despite the health scare, there was no damage to her motor functions. Five weeks later, she was released from the hospital and spent the remainder of 2019 recuperating at her Paris home.
A 2020 biography of Johnny Hallyday by Gilles Lhote claims that the singer maintained a carefully hidden, 56-year affair with Deneuve that started when they were teenagers in 1961 and continued until Hallyday's death in 2017.
Deneuve started smoking in 1960 at age 16, and has been known to smoke up to three packs a day. She quit in 1985 with the aid of hypnotherapy, but started again in 1996. In 2020, her friend Juliette Binoche told "Vanity Fair" that Deneuve has stopped smoking since the recent stroke.
Awards and nominations.
Other awards.
In 2000, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her. In 2013, she was honored for her lifetime achievement at the 26th European Film Awards. In 2015, she received the Lifetime Achievement Golden Orange Award from International Antalya Film Festival, Turkey. In 2020, "The New York Times" ranked her #21 in its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.