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.[2] 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, in a film shot the year earlier when she was only 12. She 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).
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 François Truffaut, talent agent Bertrand de Labbey, singer Serge Gainsbourg and TV host Carlos Lozano. 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. Travolta was also 11 years her junior.
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 began smoking in 1960 at age 16, and was 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, French actress and recent co-star Juliette Binoche told Vanity Fair that Deneuve has stopped smoking since her stroke. (Wikipedia)
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