Nathalie Baye

Nathalie Baye
Baye at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
Born	Nathalie Marie Andrée Baye (1948-07-06) 6 July 1948 Mainneville, Eure, France
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1970–present
Partner(s)	Philippe Léotard (1972–1982) Johnny Hallyday (1982–1986)
Children	Laura Smet

Nathalie Marie Andrée Baye^[1] (born 6 July 1948) is a French film, television and stage actress. She began her career in 1970 and has appeared in more than 80 films. A nine-time César Award nominee, her four wins were for Every Man for Himself (1980), Strange Affair (1981), La Balance (1982), and The Young Lieutenant (2005). In 2009, she was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Her other films include Day for Night (1973), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Tell No One (2006) and The Assistant (2015).

Early life

Baye was born in Mainneville, Eure, Normandy to Claude Baye and Denise Coustet, two painters.^[2] At 14 she joined a school of dance in Monaco. Three years later she went to the United States. On returning to France she continued with dance but also registered for the Simon Course and was admitted to the Conservatoire, from where she graduated in 1972 with a second prize in comedy, dramatic comedy and foreign theatre.

Career

Her second cinema appearance was in Two People (1973) directed by Robert Wise. She became more widely known as the script girl in La Nuit américaine (Day for Night) by François Truffaut. Throughout the 1970s she played the good girlfriend or nice provincial girl in film and television.

In 1981, she won her first César, for best supporting artist in Sauve qui peut (la vie) by Jean-Luc Godard. There then followed Le Retour de Martin Guerre (The Return of Martin Guerre, 1982) and La Balance (also 1982).

Baye won two more Césars (Best Supporting Female for Une étrange affaire (A Strange Affair), and Best Actress in 1982 for La Balance). Her four-year relationship with Johnny Hallyday made them a celebrity couple and their daughter Laura is now actress Laura Smet.

After changing her image by playing a streetwalker in La Balance, she widened her scope with more obscure characters in J'ai épousé une ombre and En toute innocence. In 1986, she returned to the theatre with an interpretation of Adriana Monti.

In 1999, she was voted Best Supporting Actress at Venice Film Festival for Une liaison pornographique and in 2000 starred in the award-winning film Vénus Beauté (Institut) by Tonie Marshall

She has worked with Claude Chabrol and Steven Spielberg.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Nathalie Baye in 1994

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nathalie Baye.

• Nathalie Baye at the Internet Movie Database
• Nathalie Baye at AllMovie
• Nathalie Baye at AlloCiné (French)