Stéphane Audran was a French film and television actress, known for her performances in award-winning movies such as The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and Babette's Feast and in critically acclaimed films like The Big Red One and Violette Nozière.
Biography
Audran was raised by her mother after her father, a doctor, died while she was young. In 1964, she married director and screenwriter Claude Chabrol, after a short marriage to the actor Jean-Louis Trintignant. Her son by her marriage to Chabrol is the actor Thomas Chabrol. Her first major role was in Chabrol's film Les Cousins. She later appeared in most of Chabrol's films. Some of the more noteworthy of his films Audran appeared in were Les Bonnes Femmes, La Femme Infidèle, Les Biches as a wealthy bisexual who becomes involved in a ménage à trois, Le Boucher as a school teacher in rural France, Juste Avant La Nuit, and Violette Nozière. She won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her role in Les Biches at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival. She also appeared in the first film of Éric Rohmer, and in films by Jean Delannoy, Gabriel Axel, Bertrand Tavernier and Samuel Fuller. The most celebrated of her non-Chabrol roles was as Alice Senechal in Luis Buñuel's Oscar-winning film Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie. Also appearing in English-language productions, Audran appeared in American features, including The Black Bird, and in TV serials, including Brideshead Revisited, Mistral's Daughter and The Sun Also Rises. She starred in the 1974 film version of Agatha Christie's mystery And Then There Were None. Audran won a French César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Violette Nozière, and a British Film Academy award for her part in Just Before Nightfall. Her son Thomas told the AFP news agency that his mother had died early on 27 March 2018, following a long illness, saying: "She had been in hospital for 10 days and she had returned home. She died peacefully at around 2 am."
