Nathalie Baye, French actress known for her roles in film Downton Abbey: A New Age and Catch me if you can, He died. She was 77 years old.
Bey died on Friday at her home in Paris due to complications from dementia, her family told AFP.
Bay was born on July 6, 1948 in Mainville, Normandy, and began her career in the 1970s, appearing in more than 80 films. She graduated from the French Conservatoire National des Arts Dramatiques (National Academy of Dramatic Arts) in 1972 and made her film debut that year in Robert Wise’s film. Two people.
She later appeared in films such as Truffaut Day by night, the man who loved women and Green roomJean-Luc Godard Every man for himself, Detective and Le retour de martin guerre and Academy Award-winning Steven Spielberg Catch me if you canWhere she played Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother, Frank Abagnale Jr., opposite Tom Hanks.
Her works have also received critical recognition, having been nominated 10 times for the prestigious César Award and winning it four times. Won for Every man for himself (1980), Strange case (1981), No ballance (1982) and Young Lieutenant (2005). In 2022, she appeared in the film Downton Abbey: A New AgeWhere she shared the screen with Maggie Smith in one of her last film roles. Mother Valley (2023) was Bay’s last film role.
She had a daughter, Laura Smit, also an actress, with the late French singer Johnny Hallyday. Bey and Laura starred together in a 2015 episode of the TV series Contact my agent! (Laura has booked a role in the upcoming fourth season of HBO White lotus.)
After news of her death, French President Emmanuel Macron took to social media to honor her. “We liked Natalie Bay very much,” he wrote on the morning of Saturday the 10th. “She has accompanied, through her voice, her smiles and her reserve, these last decades of French cinema, from François Truffaut to Toni Marchal. The actress we loved, dreamed of and grew up with. We think of her family and loved ones.”
