Renowned academic, novelist and actress Florence Delay has passed away.
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Delay died in Paris on July 1 at the age of 84, as announced by the French Academy, where she had been a member since her election in 2000.
“The Perpetual Secretary and members of the French Academy are sad to share the death of their sister, Mrs. Florence Delay, who died on July 1, 2025, in Paris. She was eighty-four years old,” the academy wrote.
No cause of death was given.
She was one of only five women to sit among the esteemed “Immortals,” having become the fourth woman elected to the Academy in December 2000. Before her, this honor had been bestowed upon Marguerite Yourcenar, Jacqueline de Romilly, and Hélène Carrère d’Encausse.
At just twenty years old, Delay portrayed Joan in Robert Bresson’s acclaimed 1962 film Trial of Joan of Arc (Procès de Jeanne d’Arc). The film earned the prestigious Special Jury Prize at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.
She also contributed her talents to films by renowned directors such as Chris Marker, Hugo Santiago, Benoît Jacquot, and Michel Deville.
Florence Delay’s Prolific Life in Academia
According to the French Academy, she published her first educational novel, Midnight on Games, after thirty years of working on it. Her literary achievements include winning the Femina Prize in 1983 for Riche et légère, the François Mauriac Prize in 1990 for Etxemendi, the Grand Prix du roman de la Ville de Paris in 1999, and the Essai Prize from the Académie française for Dit Nerval.
From 1987, she alternated between writing novels and essays while staying connected to theater and Spanish literature. Her theater contributions include translating works like La Célestine and classic Spanish plays by Calderón de la Barca and Lope de Vega, some of which entered the Comédie Française repertoire. She also collaborated with Jacques Roubaud on a ten-play cycle, Graal Theater, inspired by Arthurian legends.
Her distinguished academic achievements include serving as the Dramatic Columnist for the N.R.F. from 1978 to 1985, acting as a juror for the Femina Prize between 1978 and 1982, and contributing as a member of the reading committee for Éditions Gallimard from 1979 to 1987. Additionally, she was part of the editorial board for the journal Critique from 1978 to 1995. In 2016, she was honored as a corresponding member in France for the Real Academia Española.