Anouk Aimée, the enigmatic French actress known for her work in Federico Fellini‘s La Dolce Vita (1960), Jacques Demy‘s Lola (1961), George Cukor‘s Justine (1969), and Bernardo Bertolucci‘s Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981) died on Tuesday. She was 92.
Aimée’s daughter, Manuela Paptakis, confirmed her death in a post on Instagram.
“With my daughter, Galaad, and my granddaughter, Mila, we have great sadness to announce the departure of my mother Anouk Aimée,” she wrote. “I was right by her side when she passed away this morning at her home in Paris.” See the post below.
Well-regarded for her “striking features” and her beauty, the internationally-acclaimed actress first struck American audiences for her performance in A Man and a Woman, the Palme d’Or-winning 1966 French romance film directed by Claude LeLouch in which she played a young widow who forms a budding relationship with a widower she meets at her son’s boarding school. For her performance, Aimée won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama and the BAFTA for Best Actress and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress. Shot in three weeks on a small budget, the moved grossed $14 million in the U.S. In 1986, LeLouch revived the project through the sequel film A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later.
The actress was often described as “regal,” “intelligent” and “enigmatic,” noted journalist Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, attributing Aimée with “an aura of disturbing and mysterious beauty that has earned her the status of one of the hundred sexiest stars in film history (in a 1995 poll conducted by Empire magazine).”
Born in Paris on April 27, 1932, Aimée, whose real name was Judith Dreyfus — though some official documents list her first name as Nicole — was the daughter of actor Henri Dreyfus and actress Genevieve Sorya.
During World War II, she attended boarding school in the Alps, where she changed her maiden name to her mother’s to avoid Nazi persecution. Between Paris, Sussex, and England, she studied dance, theatre, and dramatic arts. At age 14, she was discovered by film director Henry Calef, who cast her for the part of Anouk in the 1947 French drama La maison sous la mer, a name which she maintained as her stage name for the rest of her career.
At 16, she starred in The Lovers of Veronia (1949) by Andre Cayette, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Over the next five decades, Aimée went on to star in more than 60 films. Her TV credits include the miniseries Napoléon and Solomon.
Aimée first achieved international regard in Fellini’s masterpiece La Dolce Vita, in which she played a wealthy heiress and one of the protagonist’s love interests. Fellini and Aimée worked together again three years later in his autobiographical film 8 1/2, where she played a spurned wife (a character based on Fellini’s real wife).
In 1980, she won the Award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for Marco Bellochio’s film A Leap in the Dark. In 2002, she was awarded an honorary Cesar Award from France.
Aimeé was married four times, first to Edouard Zimmermann (1949-50), then Nikos Papatakis (1951-55), Pierre Barouh (1966-69), and the last time to actor Albert Finney (1970-78). All the marriages ended in divorce.
Aimeé is survived by her daughter, Manuela Papatakis.