Seyrig, Delphine (1932–1990)

Lebanese-born French stage and screen actress. Born on April 10, 1932, in Beirut, Lebanon; died on October 15, 1990, in Paris, France; children: one son.

Selected filmography:

Pull My Daisy (US, 1958); L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad, 1961); Muriel (1963); La Musica (1966); Accident (UK, 1967); Baisers volés (Stolen Kisses, 1968); Mister Freedom (1969); La Voie Lactée (The Milky Way, 1969); La Rouge aux Lèvres (Daughters of Darkness, Fr.-US, 1971); Peau d'Ane (Donkey Skin, 1971); Le Journal d'un Suicide (1972); La Charme discret de la Bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, 1972); The Day of the Jackal (UK-Fr., 1973); A Doll's House (UK, 1973); The Black Windmill (UK, 1974); Eulallie quitte les Champs (The Star, the Orphan and the Butcher, 1974); Aloise (1974); India Song (1975); Jeanne Dielman 23 Quai de Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (1975); Caro Michele (It., 1976); Der letzte Schrei (Ger., 1977); Baxter—Vera Baxter (1977); Repérages (Faces of Love, Switz., Fr., 1979); Le Chemin perdu (Switz.-Fr., 1979); Chère Inconnu (I Sent a Letter to My Love, 1980); Fresh Orlando (Ger., 1981); Le Grain de Sable (1983); Dorian Grey in Spiegel der Boulevardprese (Dorian Grey in the Mirror of the Popular Press, 1983); Les Années 80 (Golden Eighties, 1986); Seven Women Seven Sins (Ger.-Fr.-US-Aus.-Belg., 1987); Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia (Joan of Arc of Mongolia, Ger., 1989); Window Shopping (released posthumously, 1994).

Born in 1932 in Beirut, Lebanon, to French Alsatian parents, actress Delphine Seyrig built her reputation on the Paris stage before arriving in America in 1956. In New York, she studied at the Actors Studio, performed on television, and appeared in the underground 16mm film Pull My Daisy (1958), written by Jack Kerouac. Returning to France, she made her professional film debut in 1961, portraying a complex role in Last Year at Marienbad, an early feature film of the experimental director Alain Resnais. The largely plotless and highly ambiguous movie not only won the grand prize at the 1961 Venice Festival, but advanced Seyrig's reputation considerably. Throughout of 1960s and 1970s, she played major and minor roles in international films of note, including Luis Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, a surrealist fable which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film of 1972.

A dedicated feminist, Seyrig also appeared in the films of a number of women directors, notably Marguerite Duras ' India Song and Chantal Akerman 's Jeanne Dielman (both 1975). In the late 1970s, Seyrig directed her own major film, Soi belle et tais-toi (1977), as well as a number of experimental videotaped shorts. The actress made her last appearance in Window Shopping, which was released posthumously in 1994, four years after her death from lung disease.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts