Jeanne Moreau has passed away

Jeanne Moreau, one of French cinema’s biggest stars of the last 60 years, has died at the age of 89.

Moreau was found dead at her home in Paris, the district’s mayor told the AFP news agency.

Moreau made her theatrical debut in 1947. She began playing small roles in films in 1949. She achieved prominence as the star of Elevator to the Gallows (1958), directed by Louis Malle, and Jules et Jim (1962), directed by François Truffaut.

She won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for Seven Days… Seven Nights (1960), the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for Viva Maria! (1965), and the César Award for Best Actress for The Old Lady Who Walked in the Sea (1992). She has also been the recipient of several lifetime awards, including a BAFTA Fellowship in 1996.

She famously turned down Mike Nichols’ invitation to play Mrs Robinson in The Graduate, and instead reunited with Truffaut for 1968’s The Bride Wore Black.

She also worked with a number of other notable directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni (La notte and Beyond the Clouds), Orson Welles (The Trial, Chimes at Midnight and The Immortal Story), Luis Buñuel (Diary of a Chambermaid), Elia Kazan (The Last Tycoon), Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Querelle), Wim Wenders (Until the End of the World), Carl Foreman (Champion and The Victors), and Manoel de Oliveira (Gebo et l’Ombre).

Orson Welles called her “the greatest actress in the world.”