Romy Schneider

Romy Schneider was born on 23 September 1938 in Vienna, Austria into a family of actors.

1953: Graduated at the Goldstein boarding school near Salzburg, Austria.

Making her film debut at the age of 15, her breakthrough came two years later in the very popular trilogy Sissi (1955).

Her mother, supervising her daughter's career, immediately approved Romy's participation in Christine (1958), the remake of Max Ophüls's Liebelei (1933), where Magda Schneider once starred herself. During the shooting, she fell in love with her co-star Alain Delon and eventually moved with him to Paris. At that time, she started her international career collaborating with famous directors such as Luchino Visconti and Orson Welles.

Friends with Austrian actor Helmut Berger and French designer Coco Chanel. She would often wear clothes designed by Chanel during the 1960s and 1970s.

After Delon had broken up with her in 1964, she married Harry Meyen shortly after.

Was once considered and in talks with director Claude Lelouch to play the part of Anne Gauthier (that eventually went to Anouk Aimée) in A Man and a Woman (1966), but couldn't come to an agreement.

Recorded with Michel Piccoli the song entitled "Helene", for their film The Things of Life (1970)).

30 October 1974: Her appearance on Je später der Abend... (1973) made German television history when she passionately remarked to Burkhard Driest, a bank robber and author: "Sie gefallen mir. Sie gefallen mir sehr." (I like you. I like you a lot.).

Although she gave birth to a boy, David-Christopher, their relationship was difficult, so they divorced in 1975. Being unsatisfied with her personal life, she turned to alcohol and drugs, but her cinematic career -especially in France- remained intact.

She was the first actress, receiving the new created César Award as "Best Actress" for her role in L'important c'est d'aimer (1975).

César award winner in 1976 and 1978. In 2008 she was awarded an honorary César.

Three years later, she was awarded again for A Simple Story (1978).

Her first husband Harry Meyen, a stage director, committed suicide in Hamburg on 15 April 1979.

After a short marriage to her former secretary Daniel Biasini, being the father of her daughter Sarah Biasini, she suffered the hardest blow of her life when her son was impaled on a fence in 1981.

Her last longtime companion was Laurent Pétin, who found her dead in her Paris apartment on 29 May 1982. Although she was declared to have died from cardiac arrest, the media suggested that she committed suicide by taking a cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills.

The Prix Romy Schneider, named after her, has been awarded to young actresses by the French movie business since 1984.

A telephone card depicting Romy circulated in France in 1994, at the time of a campaign celebrating French cinema, with images of actors and actresses extracted from films and showing them on the telephone. The phone card featuring Romy was a photograph taken from The Swimming Pool (1969).

Portrayed on a postage stamp issued on Oct. 3, 1998 by the French Post Office.

Pedro Almodóvar's film All About My Mother (1999) is partially dedicated to her.

2000: Is portrayed on a 110 + 50 pfennig postage stamp by Deutsche Post.

In 8 Women (2002), when Louise (Emmanuelle Béart) shows a picture of her former employer, it is a picture of Romy Schneider.

30 April 2005: Ranked #1 in a list by tabloid "Bild" searching the "50 most beautiful Germans ever".

24 November 2006: Ranked #3 in a survey by network ZDF searching Germany's all-time favorite actor, which made her the highest ranked woman.

Is portrayed by Jessica Schwarz in Romy (2009) and by Marie Bäumer in 3 Tage in Quiberon (2018). In February 2008, it was announced that Yvonne Catterfeld would play the lead in a biopic called "A Woman Like Romy", backed by Warner Bros. Raymond Danon and Douglas Welbat were producing the film, to have been directed by Josef Rusnak. Shooting was scheduled to have begun in July 2008 but the project never came to fruition.