Lise Bourdin, a French actress best known for her role in Billy Wilder’s 1957 romantic comedy, Love in the Afternoon, passed away.
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According to the AFP news service, Bourdin died on Nov. 28, just two days before her 100th birthday. Born in 1925, the actress initially pursued modeling after a French fashion magazine owner’s brother spotted her at a Parisian train station.
She fronted several fashion magazines, including Marie-Claire and Harper’s Bazaar.
She later went into acting from 1949 to 1959. While her acting career was short-lived, Bourdin hit the spotlight by starring opposite Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn in Love in the Afternoon. In the film, she played one of Frank Flannigan’s (Cooper) girlfriends.
Other films she appeared in were Children of Love, The Last Blitzkrieg, and Desperate Farewell. Her final film was Quay of Illusions (1959).
Following the end of her acting career, she married Roberto Seabra. The marriage lasted two years, from 1963 to 1965. Nearly a decade after her divorce, she began dating French politician Raymond Marcellin in 1974. Although they never married, the couple remained together until Marcellin died in 2004.
Lise Bourdin Once Revealed Why She Quit Acting
During a 2017 interview with La Montagne, Lise Bourdin reflected on her acting career and why she decided to quit.
“The press didn’t like me, and I had a private life outside the artistic world,” she said. “I told myself that I would never have the career I deserved, so I stopped.”
Speaking about her first major role in Les Enfants de l’amour, by Léonide Moguy, Bourndin said, “It was a very good film that was panned by the Parisian press, even though it had a career worldwide. I’ve never received so much mail from all over the world as for this film.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Bourndin spoke about her short-lived marriage to Seabra.
“I thought I would never get married,” she explained. “I’d been against marriage since childhood. I’m not made for it, I’m too independent. One day I said to my husband, ‘I don’t understand, you’re a wonderful friend, but a terrible husband, and I’m not going to stay.'”
The former actress said her ex-husband was shocked when she finally ended their marriage. “Rich men don’t think you’ll leave them. Money has never been my motivation; I’ve spent a lot of it, I’ve given a lot away.”