French actress Marina Vlady, a celebrated star who appeared in more than 80 films and won a major acting prize at the Cannes Film Festival, has died at the age of 88.
Vlady died Thursday at home, surrounded by her family and beloved animals, her children confirmed to AFP. In a statement, they described her life as “long and beautiful,” saying she had lived it fully.
Best Actress award at Cannes
Over the course of her remarkable career, Vlady worked alongside some of the biggest names in international cinema, including French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard and Hollywood icon Orson Welles.
Her career reached a major milestone in 1963, when she won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her performance in The Conjugal Bed. The role also earned her a Golden Globe.
”It was completely unexpected. I was told the day before; I fell off my chair and quickly slipped on a little black dress,” Vlady once shared.
Just two years later, Vlady took on one of her rare English-language roles, appearing in Orson Welles’ Shakespeare adaptation Chimes at Midnight.
Born into an artistic family, Vlady was the daughter of a former dancer and a former French Army aviator who also performed at the opera. Acting wasn’t her only creative pursuit — she also explored music, recording two albums with her sisters.
Born Catherine Marina de Poliakoff-Baïdaroff in 1938, she grew up in Clichy, near Paris, in a family of Russian immigrants who had fled the aftermath of the revolution. Her father, Vladimir Poliakoff, was an opera singer who had served in the French military, while her mother, Militza, was a former ballet dancer. All four Poliakoff sisters would eventually find their way into the arts.
Vlady’s childhood was anything but conventional.
She left school when she was just 12 and began working at a remarkably young age. She trained as a young dancer at the Paris Opera and appeared on screen as a child, launching a career that would eventually span more than 80 films. At only 16, she received the Suzanne Bianchetti Prize, an award recognizing one of France’s most promising young actresses.
Her early career often focused on her beauty, with Vlady repeatedly cast as seductive or rebellious young women. But she refused to remain confined to that image.
As her career developed, she deliberately moved between commercial movies and more ambitious films, taking on dramatically different characters and working with some of the most respected directors of her generation.
But Vlady’s life extended far beyond the world of film.
A notable romance
She was also known for her involvement in social and political causes, including opposition to the Algerian War and campaigns supporting migrants and access to housing.
She became an outspoken advocate for abortion rights in France at a time when abortion was still illegal in the country and took part in protests against the deportation of Arab workers.
Her personal life also included a notable romance with Soviet singer, actor and poet Vladimir Vysotsky. The two maintained a long-distance relationship for a decade, a chapter of her life she later chronicled in her memoir Vladimir, or the Aborted Flight. Their relationship also inspired several of Vysotsky’s songs.
Later in life, Vlady and her partner, physician and political activist Léon Schwartzenberg, helped establish DAL (Droit au logement), an organization dedicated to fighting for the right to housing.
Marina Vlady attends the Henri Langlois 10th Annual Award Ceremony at UNESCO on March 30, 2015 in Paris, France. (Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)
From acclaimed film roles and international awards to music, activism and a remarkable personal life, Marina Vlady leaves behind a legacy that stretched far beyond the screen.
She was 88.
