Sttphane Audran
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Biography
Delicately beautiful blonde French actress Stéphane Audran became a star, gaining prominence with starring roles in films directed by her second husband, Claude Chabrol. Born as Colette Suzanne Dacheville, she adapted her stage name in the mid-1950s. A doctor's daughter, she was born and raised in Versailles and began her acting career onstage and in a short film directed by Eric Rohmer. Audran entered features in 1957 with a small role in Herve Bromberger's gangster-themed "La Bonne tisane/Good Medicine/Kill or Cure." After being introduced to Chabrol by Gerard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy, the actress asked for a part in the director's next film; the result was a supporting role in "Les Cousins" (1959) but it marked the beginning of a their on and off screen relationships. Even after their marriage ended, the actress and the director continued to work together. Chabrol helped to shape the onscreen persona of Audran as that of a coolly elegant middle-class Frenchwoman. Bringing a combination of old-fashioned movie star glamour and a detached sophistication bolstered by a strong acting technique, the actress shone in a number of Chabrol films ranging from "Les Bonne femmes/The Girls" (1960) to "The Champagne Murders/Le Scandale" (1966). "Les Biches/The Does" (1967), in which Audran starred as a lesbian opposite her first husband Jean-Louis Trintignant, brought her the Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Other notable Chabrol films include "Le Boucher/The Butcher" (1969), "Juste avant la nuit/Just Before Nightfall" (1971), "Violette Noziere" (1977) and "The Blood of Others" (1984). Audran also appeared in several notable features directed by others, including two which won Oscars as Best Foreign Film: Luis Bunuel's surrealistic comedy "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) and Gabriel Axel's well-crafted "Babette's Gastebud/Babette's Feast" (1988). Her English-language films tended to be commercial disappontments, although she was well-received as Lord Marchmain's knowing mistress in the TV adaptation of "Brideshead Revisited" (BBC 1982). Stéphane Audran died on March 27, 2018 in Paris at the age of 85.
Filmography
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Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (Short)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1955
Made her stage debut in "La Maison carree"
1957
Made her feature debut in "La Bonne Tisane/Kill or Cure"
1959
Appeared in her first collaboration with Claude Chabrol, "Les Cousins"
1960
Starred in Rohmer's first feature, "The Sign of Leo/Le Signe du Lion"
1968
Had her breakthrough leading role in Chabrol's "Les Biches/The Does", opposite ex-husband Jean-Louis Tringtignant and Jacqueline Sassard
1969
Recieved further attention for her performance in Chabrol's "Le Boucher/The Butcher"
1972
Co-starred in Luis Bunuel's Oscar-winning "Le Charme discret de la Bourgeoisie/The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"
1975
Began appearing in English-language roles in "The Black Bird" and "And Then There Were None/Ten Little Indians"
1978
Earned Best Supporting Actress Cesar for her portrayal of Isabelle Huppert's mother in "Violette Noziere"
1982
Had featured role as Cara, the mistress of Lord Marchmain (Laurence Olivier) in the British miniseries "Brideshead Revisited"
1984
Co-starred in the HBO film "The Blood of Others", directed by Claude Chabrol
1987
Starred as Babette in Gabriel Axel's Oscar-winning foreign film "Babette's Feast"
1996
Appeared in supporting role in Ringo Lam's "Maximum Risk", starring Jean-Claude Van Damme
2000
Appeared as Lisa Montpleynet on the mini-series "The Blue Bicycle"
2005
Appeared as Louise Bonnier on the mini-series "The Condor Mystery"
2008
Co-starred in Anne Fontaine-helmed dramedy "The Girl from Monaco"
2018
Made her final screen appearance in the posthumously released "The Other Side of the Wind"
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