Stéphane Audran (1932–2018)

Stéphane Audran was the stage name of Colette Suzanne Jeanine Dacheville, born in Versailles, France. Her father, a physician, died when she was six years old. She attended the Lycée Lamartine in Paris and then studied acting against the wishes of her mother. She made her screen debut in Le Jeu de la Nuit (1957). After a brief first marriage during drama school to actor Jean-Louis Trintignant ended, she met director and screenwriter Claude Chabrol, and married him in 1964. Their son Thomas Chabrol also became an actor. Stéphane became Chabrol's muse, and appeared in 23 of his films, including Les Cousins (1959), Les Bonnes Femmes (1960), Les Biches (1968), Juste Avant La Nuit (1971), and Violette Nozière (1978). She also starred in dozens of films by other directors such as Éric Rohmer, Jean Delannoy, Bertrand Tavernier, and Samuel Fuller. Among her most celebrated roles were as Alice Senechal in the Oscar-winning film Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, 1972), and as the mysterious Babette in the Oscar-winning Babette's Feast (1987).

She also appeared in British and American features, including Brideshead Revisited (1981), Mistral's Daughter (1984), and The Sun Also Rises (1984).