 |
| One of Stéphane Audran’s best-known roles as the cook in Babette’s Feast Photo: UniFrance |
Veteran French actress Stéphane Audran, who was a favoured collaborator with the late Claude Chabrol, has died at the age of 85.
Audran, whose son Thomas announced the news of his mother’s death after a long illness today (27 March 2018), married Chabrol (his second wife) and they were together from 1964 to 1980.
Her golden years were in the 1960s and 1970s when she appeared in such titles as Les Biches, a huge success for Chabrol in which Audran won the best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.
 |
| Stéphane Audran has died at the age of 85 - after a long illness. Photo: UniFrance |
Although she worked frequently with Chabrol she also appeared under the direction of Claude Sautet in Vincent, François, Paul et les autres and with Michel Audiard in Comment Réussir Quand On Est Con Et Pleurnichard.
She was equally at home in dramas and comedies, earning a best actress César in 1979 for Violette Nozière (by Chabrol) in which she played Isabelle Huppert’s mother.
Born in Versaille in 1932 the red head was the daughter of a doctor who died when she was only six. She was raised by her mother. Showing a childhood penchant for dressing up, she embarked on acting lessons in the 1950s at the Charles Dullin school. Her contemporaries included Delphine Seyrig, Michael Lonsdale and Jean-Louis Trintignant, whom she married in 1954.
It was the actor and director Gérard Blain who introduced her to Chabrol and he gave her a small role in Les Cousins. After her divorce from Chabrol in 1980 her career seemed to go into a modest decline but she continued to work with such directors as Bertrand Tavernier (Coup De Torchon) and Mortelle Randonnée by Claude Miller.
She made one of her most memorable appearances in 1987, taking the lead role as the cook in Danish director Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast.
