flowers

1. Nadia Sibirskaïa

Actress | Sapho

Nadia Sibirskaïa was born on September 11, 1901 in Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine, France. She was an actress, known for Sapho (1934), Les vagabonds magnifiques (1931) and The Kidnapping (1934). She was previously married to Dimitri Kirsanoff. She died on July 14, 1980 in Dinard, Ille-et-Vilaine, France.

2. Marlene Dietrich

Soundtrack | Witness for the Prosecution

Her father was a police lieutenant and imbued in her a military attitude to life. Marlene was known in school for her "bedroom eyes" and her first affairs were at this stage in her life - a professor at the school was terminated. She entered the cabaret scene in 1920s Germany, first as a spectator ...

3. Véra Clouzot

Actress | Les diaboliques

Véra Gibson-Amado, known professionally as Véra Clouzot, was a Brazilian-French actress.

In 1941, Véra met French actor Léo Lapara, a member of the theater company of Louis Jouvet, who toured in Brazil during World War II. Vera married the actor, taking part in the company's South American tour that...

4. Ingrid Bergman

Actress | Casablanca

Ingrid Bergman was one of the greatest actresses from Hollywood's lamented Golden Era. Her natural and unpretentious beauty and her immense acting talent made her one of the most celebrated figures in the history of American cinema. Bergman is also one of the most Oscar-awarded actresses, tied with ...

5. Simone Signoret

Actress | Les diaboliques

The face of Simone Signoret on the Paris Metro movie posters in March 1982 looked even older than her 61 years. She was still a box-office draw, but the film L'étoile du Nord (1982) would be her last theatrical release; she played the landlady. Signoret had a long film apprenticeship during ...

6. Micheline Presle

Actress | If a Man Answers

Elegant, dark-haired Parisian Micheline Presle (billed in the U.S. as Micheline Prelle) was born on August 22, 1922, the daughter of a businessman whose surname was Chassagne. Taking acting classes as a teen, she was discovered by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and cast in Young Girls in Trouble (1939) (...

7. Veronica Lake

Actress | Sullivan's Travels

Veronica Lake was born as Constance Frances Marie Ockleman on November 14, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the daughter of Constance Charlotta (Trimble) and Harry Eugene Ockelman, who worked for an oil company as a ship employee. Her father was of half German and half Irish descent, and her ...

8. Linda Darnell

Actress | Fallen Angel

Linda Darnell, one of five children of a postal clerk, grew up fast. At 11, she was modeling clothes, giving her age as 16. At 13, she was appearing on the stage with little theater groups. Her mother encouraged her to audition when Hollywood talent scouts came to Dallas. She went to California and...

9. Carla Del Poggio

Actress | Senza pietà

At 15, while she was studying foreign languages and modern dance, she started attending the Italian school for performing arts, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome. The director Vittorio De Sica chose her for her debut role in "Maddalena, zero in condotta". At 19, she met her future ...

10. Brigitte Auber

Actress | To Catch a Thief

Brigitte Auber was born on April 27, 1925 in Paris, France. She is an actress, known for To Catch a Thief (1955), The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and Ce soir les jupons volent... (1956).

11. Maria Schell

Actress | Superman

Maria Schell studied in a religious institution in Colmar (Haut-Rhin, France). She received a dramatic training in Zurich, Switzerland. To pay her studies, she was a secretary there. Besides being a film star; Maria appeared in plays in Zurich, Basel, in Vienna (Josefstad Theater), Berlin, Munich (...

12. Ingrid Thulin

Actress | Viskningar och rop

Ingrid trained as a ballet dancer and attended Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre. She came to fame thanks to Bergman's "Wild Strawberries". She acted in 9 Ingmar Bergman's films. Her fame allowed her to act in Luchino Visconti's "The Damned" in 1969. Ingrid Thulin lived in Rome since the 1960's. ...

13. Emmanuelle Riva

Actress | Hiroshima mon amour

An only child, Emmanuelle was born Paulette Germaine Riva in Cheniménil, but eventually grew up in Remiremont. Her mother, Jeanne Fernande Nourdin, was a seamstress. Her father, René Alfred "Alfredo" Riva, was a sign writer. Her paternal grandfather was Italian. She dreamed of becoming an actress ...

14. Lucia Bosè

Actress | La signora senza camelie

Lucia Bosè was born on January 28, 1931 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. She was an actress, known for The Lady Without Camelias (1953), Story of a Love Affair (1950) and Death of a Cyclist (1955). She was previously married to Luis Miguel Dominguín. She died on March 23, 2020 in Segovia, Segovia, ...

15. Adriana Asti

Actress | Caligola

Adriana Asti was born on April 30, 1931 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. She is an actress, known for Caligula (1979), The Best of Youth (2003) and Pasolini (2014). She was previously married to Giorgio Ferrara.

16. Nicole Courcel

Actress | Papa, maman, la bonne et moi...

Nicole Courcel was born Nicole Marie-Anne Andrieux, the daughter of a journalist, in the Parisian suburb of Saint Cloud. Some of her early childhood was spent in Catholic boarding schools (an unhappy experience) and with her grandmother (much happier) in the small township of Martel (renowned for ...

17. Monica Vitti

Actress | L'avventura

Monica Vitti was born on November 3, 1931 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was an actress and writer, known for L'Avventura (1960), L'Eclisse (1962) and Red Desert (1964). She was previously married to Roberto Russo. She died on February 2, 2022 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

18. Anouk Aimée

Actress | 8½

The daughter of actress Geneviève Sorya, in 1948 she played the part of Juliette in The Lovers of Verona (1949). During the 1950s and 1960s she made various films, including Montparnasse 19 (1958) and La Dolce Vita (1960), but only Lola (1961) , Jacques Demy, and A Man and a Woman (1966) Claude ...

19. Sophia Loren

Actress | La ciociara

Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on September 20, 1934. Her father Riccardo was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and her younger sister ...

20. Brigitte Bardot

Actress | Le mépris

Brigitte Bardot was born on September 28, 1934 in Paris, France. Her father had an engineering degree and worked with his father in the family business. Brigitte's mother encouraged her daughter to take up music and dance, and she proved to be very adept at it. By the time she was 15, Brigitte was ...

21. Giovanna Ralli

Actress | C'eravamo tanto amati

Giovanna Ralli was born on January 2, 1935 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress and writer, known for We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974), The Mercenary (1968) and A Prostitute Serving the Public and in Compliance with the Laws of the State (1971). She was previously married to Ettore Boschi.

22. Lisa Gastoni

Actress | Svegliati e uccidi

Lisa Gastoni was born on July 28, 1935 in Alassio, Liguria, Italy. She is an actress, known for Wake Up and Die (1966), Come Play with Me (1968) and Submission (1976).

23. Vanessa Redgrave

Actress | Coriolanus

On January 30, 1937, renowned theatre actor Michael Redgrave was performing in a production of Hamlet in London. During the curtain call, the show's lead, Laurence Olivier, announced to the audience: "tonight a great actress was born". This was in reference to his co-star's newborn daughter, ...

24. Jane Fonda

Actress | Klute

Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario-born New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was ...

25. Claudia Cardinale

Actress | C'era una volta il West

Like many other female Italian film stars, Claudia Cardinale's entry into the business was by way of a beauty pageant. She was 17 years old and studying at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome when she entered a beauty contest, which resulted in her getting a succession of small film roles. Her earthy ...

26. Marina Vlady

Actress | Una storia moderna - L'ape regina

This provocative sex kitten had the obvious makings of a superstar blonde bombshell and could have ended up in film history annals as merely a second-rate Brigitte Bardot, but Marina Vlady rose above her sex symbol status and proved she was capable of so much more. In her prime she was nominated ...

27. Romy Schneider

Actress | L'important c'est d'aimer

Romy Schneider was born on 23 September 1938 in Vienna, Austria into a family of actors. Making her film debut at the age of 15, her breakthrough came two years later in the very popular trilogy Sissi (1955). Her mother, supervising her daughter's career, immediately approved Romy's participation ...

28. Marie Laforêt

Actress | Plein soleil

As an actress she came to prominence in the 60s nouvelle vague. As a chanteuse she was noted for her beautifully emotional, melancholy voice and went on to sell more than 35 million albums. Marie Laforet was born Maïtena Doumenach in the seaside resort of Soulac-sur-Mer in the Gironde region of ...

29. Anna Karina

Actress | Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution

Born in Denmark, she came to Paris at 18. She met Coco Chanel and Pierre Cardin and started as a top model. She met Jean-Luc Godard about a cameo in Breathless (1960), but she had to be naked and she refused to play in the movie. One year later, they wed and she became famous with the "Nouvelle ...

30. Laura Antonelli

Actress | Passione d'amore

Laura Antonelli was born on November 28, 1941 in Pola, Istria, Italy [now Pula, Istria, Croatia]. She was an actress, known for Passion of Love (1981), Malicious (1973) and L'Innocente (1976). She was previously married to Enrico Piacentini. She died on June 22, 2015 in Ladispoli, Rome, Lazio, ...

31. Catherine Deneuve

Actress | Belle de jour

Catherine Fabienne Deneuve was born October 22, 1943 in Paris, France, to actor parents Renée Simonot and Maurice Dorléac. She made her movie debut in 1957, when she was barely a teenager and continued with small parts in minor films, until Roger Vadim gave her a meatier role in Vice and Virtue (...

32. Charlotte Rampling

Actress | 45 Years

Tessa Charlotte Rampling was born 5 February 1946 in Sturmer, England, to Isabel Anne (Gurteen), a painter, and Godfrey Lionel Rampling, an Olympic gold medalist, army officer, and colonel, who became a NATO commander. She was educated at Jeanne d'Arc Académie pour Jeunes Filles in Versailles, ...

33. Loredana Detto

Actress | Il posto

Loredana Detto was born on March 14, 1946 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. She is an actress, known for Il Posto (1961). She was previously married to Ermanno Olmi.

34. Anne Wiazemsky

Actress | La chinoise

Anne Wiazemsky was born on May 14, 1947 in Berlin, West Germany. She was an actress and writer, known for La Chinoise (1967), Au hasard Balthazar (1966) and George Who? (1973). She was previously married to Jean-Luc Godard. She died on October 5, 2017 in Paris, France.

35. Sue Lyon

Actress | Lolita

Suellyn Lyon was born in Davenport, Iowa, the youngest of five siblings born to Sue Lyon (née Karr) and James Lyon. Sue Karr Lyon was 42 years old when she was widowed, when Suellyn was just 10 months old. Her mother worked in a hospital to provide for her children, and money was tight. The family ...

36. Dominique Sanda

Actress | Il conformista

Dominique Sanda was born in 1951, in Paris, France. When she was 16, she left her upper-class family and married, but divorced two years later. She found a temporary job as a Vogue model, when Robert Bresson gave her the starring part in his absorbing drama A Gentle Woman (1969); she was quite ...

37. Sonia Petrovna

Actress | La prima notte di quiete

Sonia Petrovna was born on January 13, 1952 in Paris, France. She is an actress, known for Indian Summer (1972), Ludwig (1973) and Search for Tomorrow (1951).

38. Isabelle Huppert

Actress | Elle

Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then...

39. Ornella Muti

Actress | Flash Gordon

Ornella Muti was born on March 9, 1955 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Oscar (1991) and The Most Beautiful Wife (1970). She was previously married to Federico Fachinetti and Alessio Orano.

40. Carole Bouquet

Actress | For Your Eyes Only

Carole Bouquet is a French actress and fashion model. She is best known for played Bond girl Melina Havelock in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981).

She also starred in That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), Nemo (1984), The Bridge (1999) and Do Not Disturb (2014).

In 2017 she starred in the...

41. Maruschka Detmers

Actress | Prénom Carmen

Maruschka Detmers was born in the Netherlands in 1962, but moved to France when she was a teenager to work as an au-pair.

During her time in France, she came to the notice of French avant-garde director Jean-Luc Godard and was signed to played the female lead in First Name: Carmen (1983), also ...

42. Monica Bellucci

Actress | Malèna

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci was born on September 30, 1964 in the Italian village of Città di Castello, Umbria, the only child of Brunella Briganti and Pasquale Bellucci. She originally pursued a career in the legal profession. While attending the University of Perugia, she modeled on the side to ...

43. Agnese Nano

Actress | Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

Agnese Nano was born on November 5, 1965 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress, known for Cinema Paradiso (1988), Il lungo silenzio (1993) and A Bad Encounter (2011).

44. Charlotte Gainsbourg

Actress | Antichrist

Charlotte Gainsbourg was born in London, England in 1971. She is an Anglo-French actress and singer. The daughter of English singer and actress Jane Birkin and French songwriter, singer and actor Serge Gainsbourg, she was raised in Paris. Charlotte made her motion picture debut in 1984. In 1986, ...

45. Eva Green

Actress | Casino Royale

French actress and model Eva Gaëlle Green was born on July 6, 1980, in Paris, France. Her father, Walter Green, is a dentist who appeared in the 1966 film Au hasard Balthazar (1966). Her mother, Marlène Jobert, is an actress turned children's book writer. Eva's mother was born in Algeria, of French...

46. Jasmine Trinca

Actress | The Gunman

Jasmine Trinca was born on April 24, 1981 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress and director, known for The Gunman (2015), The Son's Room (2001) and Fortunata (2017).

47. Stacy Martin

Actress | Nymphomaniac: Vol. I

Stacy Martin was born on March 20, 1990 in Paris, France. She is an actress, known for Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013), All the Money in the World (2017) and The Serpent (2021).