Capucine (6 January 1928 – 17 March 1990) was a French fashion model and actress best known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther (1963) and What's New Pussycat? (1965). She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990.

Early life

Capucine was born Germaine Hélène Irène Lefebvre in Saint-Raphaël, Var, France, on 6 January 1928. She often confused the issue of her birth by claiming that she was born in 1931 or 1933, and most sources report these years. She attended school in Saumar, France, and received a B.A. in foreign languages. At 17, while riding in a carriage in Paris, she was noticed by a commercial photographer.

She became a fashion model, working for fashion houses Givenchy and Christian Dior. She adopted the name, "Capucine" (French for nasturtium). She met Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn modeling in Givenchy (with whom Hepburn was best friends and whose muse she was) in Paris. The two would remain close friends for the rest of Capucine's life.

Career

In 1949, Capucine made her film debut in the French film Rendez-vous de Juillet.

In 1957, film producer Charles K. Feldman spotted Capucine while she was modeling in New York City. Feldman brought her to Hollywood to learn English and study acting under Gregory Ratoff. She was signed to a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1958 and landed her first English-speaking role in the film Song Without End (1960) for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

For the next few years, Capucine made six more major motion pictures. They included North to Alaska (1960), a comedy, as a prostitute who becomes the love interest of John Wayne, and Walk on the Wild Side (1962), in which she portrayed a redeemed hooker, before moving to Switzerland in 1962.

Much of 1963's hit film The Pink Panther was shot in Europe. A crime comedy that led to a number of sequels, the film starred David Niven and Peter Sellers along with Capucine. She continued making films in Europe until her death.

Personal life

On the set of Rendez-vous (1949), she met Pierre Trabaud; they married the next year. The marriage lasted only eight months, and Capucine never married again.

She later met actor William Holden in the early 1960s. They starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). Holden was married to Brenda Marshall, but the two began a two-year affair. After the affair ended, she and Holden remained friends until Holden's death in 1981.

Death

On 17 March 1990, Capucine jumped from her eighth-floor apartment in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she had lived for 28 years, having reportedly suffered from illness and depression for some time.

Selected filmography

       

• 1949

Rendez-vous de Juillet    

• 1951

Bernard and the Lion    

• 1955

Mademoiselle de Paris    

• 1955

Frou-Frou    

• 1960

Song Without End    

• 1960

North to Alaska    

• 1961

Le triomphe de Michel Strogoff    

• 1962

Walk on the Wild Side    

• 1962

The Lion    

• 1962

I dongiovanni della Costa Azzurra    

• 1963

The Pink Panther    

• 1964

The 7th Dawn    

• 1965

What's New Pussycat?    

• 1967

The Honey Pot    

• 1969

Fräulein Doktor     Satyricon    

• 1971

Red Sun    

• 1972

Search    

• 1975

Incorrigible    

• 1976

For Love    

• 1976

The Con Artists    

• 1977

Portrait of a Bourgeois in Black    

• 1978

Neapolitan Mystery    

• 1979

Arabian Adventure    

• 1982

Aphrodite    

• 1982

Trail of the Pink Panther    

• 1982

Hart to Hart    

• 1983

Curse of the Pink Panther    

• 1985

Murder, She Wrote    

• 1986

Sins    

• 1987

Delirium: Photo of Gioia    

• 1987

My First Forty Years    

• 1990

Blaues Blut