Anouk Aimée

Anouk Aimée (born April 27, 1932, Paris, France—died June 18, 2024, Paris) was a French motion-picture actress who starred in films in various languages with a number of noted directors, including Federico Fellini, Jacques Demy, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Altman, and Claude Lelouch.

The daughter of an actor and actress, Aimée made her first film appearance at age 14 in La Maison sous la mer (1946; “The House on the Sea”), in which her character was named Anouk. After making an impression as a Juliet figure in Les Amants de Vérone (1949; The Lovers of Verona), a role written especially for her by Jacques Prévert (who also provided the name Aimée that she soon adopted as a surname), she won acclaim for her performances in Fellini’s La dolce vita (1960; “The Sweet Life”) and Otto e mezzo (1963; 81/2).

Aimée, an aloof but alluring presence on the screen, was most widely known for her role as a woman with a tragic past in Lelouch’s popular Un Homme et une femme (1966; A Man and a Woman), which earned her a Golden Globe Award for best actress as well as an Academy Award nomination. She reprised the role in the less-successful Un Homme et une femme, vingt ans déjà (1986; “A Man and a Woman, Twenty Years Later”). Among her other noteworthy films are Golden Salamander (1950) and Lola (1960).