Beloved French actress Marina Vlady has died at the age of 88, her family confirmed to AFP on Thursday. The star, who appeared in more than 80 films and won an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1963, died “at home, surrounded by her loved ones and her animals,” her children said in a statement honoring “a long and beautiful life, well lived.”
Over the course of her career, Vlady worked with some of cinema’s most celebrated figures, including French director Jean-Luc Godard and Hollywood legend Orson Welles.
Among her notable performances was La Princesse de Clèves, in which she starred opposite Jean Marais. Her work in the Italian production La regina delle Amazzoni (“The Queen Bee”) brought a Golden Globe nomination. She also appeared in Godard’s French New Wave film Two or Three Things I Know About Her. In 1963, Vlady won the Cannes Best Actress award for The Conjugal Bed, a performance that also earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
In 1965, Vlady took on a rare English-language role in Welles’s Shakespearean production Chimes at Midnight. Her personal life included three marriages: first to actor and director Robert Hossein, from 1955 to 1959; then to French businessman Jean-Claude Brouillet, from 1963 to 1966; and finally to Soviet poet and songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky, whom she married in 1969. The couple remained together, living mainly between Paris and Moscow, until his death in 1980.
To help sustain their relationship, Vlady joined the Communist Party of France. Her membership gave her unrestricted access to the Soviet Union and offered Vysotsky a measure of protection from state persecution.
Tributes quickly followed news of her death. One admirer wrote: “In France, the renowned actress, singer, and writer Marina Vlady has passed away at the age of 88. In 2022, Vlady sharply condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She didn’t fall for Putin’s money. She didn’t spoil her own obituary. She was a decent woman to the end. Peace to her dust.”
Another tribute said: “Marina Vlady has left us. A major figure in French cinema, awarded at Cannes in 1963, she leaves behind a rich and eclectic filmography.”
Her friend Cécile Bois also shared a moving tribute: “We met in a forest in Russia, one whole afternoon, where I was lucky enough to have you tell me all about your life. We didn’t just have Robert Hossein in common. We were both lovers.” The words offered a glimpse of the private bond the two women shared.
“I’m thinking of Pierre, Igor, and Vladimir, whom you cherished so much. Léon and your Vladimir must be so happy to have found their great love again. Robert, perhaps, too. Goodbye, Marina. I will keep everything about you.”