Iconic film star Nathalie Baye, who starred in Catch Me If You Can and Downton Abbey, has sadly passed away at her home in Paris, her family have confirmed
Actress Nathalie Baye has died aged 77(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Legendary actress Nathalie Baye has died at the age of 77, her family have announced.
She is famed for films such as Stevel Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can (2000) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022). Baye appeared in over 80 movies during her incredible career and received ten Best Actress nominations at the Cesar Awards – the French equivalent of the Oscars – and won four.
The iconic actress died at her home in Paris after battling Lewy body dementia, her loved ones told the French news agency AFP. The neurogenerative disease can cause cognitive decline, hallucinations and issues with movement similar to Parkinson’s.
Naye’s former stepson David Hallyday shared his heartbreak at the loss, writng: “C’est pas possible…” (“It’s not possible…” Baye had a five-year relationship with late rocker Johnny Hallyday, who died in 2017, and their daughter Laura Smet has gone on to become a famous actress herself.
French president Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the late star, writing: “We loved Nathalie Baye so much.
“She accompanied, through her voice, her smiles, and her reserve, these last decades of French cinema, from François Truffaut to Tonie Marshall. An actress with whom we loved, dreamed, and grew up. We think of her family and her loved ones.”
Culture Minister Catherine Pégard said that Baye had “lit up a long chapter in the history of French cinema with her talent and radiant personality.”
Baye’s breakthrough role came in François Truffaut’s 1973 film Day for Night, a film that she said made her fall in love with cinema. In 2010, she told France 24: “I’ve been lucky to make a lot of films, to work with very talented directors.
“But it was the first movie I made, ‘Day for Night’ by François Truffaut, that allowed me to discover cinema and made me love cinema. I was working toward a career in theatre rather than in film. But with Truffaut, working on a story about a film shoot, it was magical.
“It was a very important moment in my career. That said, a career is something that is built little by little. It’s like a puzzle, with new pieces added to older ones. There is not one role that will forever be the most important role of my life. It’s an ensemble of work.”
Baye starred with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks in Catch Me If You Can.
She won her first Cesar Award in 1981 for her role in Every Man for Himself, before winning for her work in Strange Affair (1982), La Balance (1983), and The Young Lieutenant (2005).
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