She won the Césars, the French equivalent of the American Oscars, for her performances in the films Zachraň si kdo můš (life) (1980), Special Case (1981), Praskač (1982) and Commissioner (2004).
The world audience was reminded, for example, of the role of the mother in Steven Spielberg’s hit Catch me when you can (2002), where she starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.
A native of the village of Mainneville in Normandy, she came from an artistic family – both her parents were painters. In her childhood, she danced and performed with a dance troupe in New York. In 1972, she graduated from the State Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris and made her film debut in the same year. From the beginning of the 1970s, she also performed on the stage of the Odeon theater in Paris.
She often collaborated with legendary directors such as François Truffaut (The American Night, The Green Room), Jean-Luc Godard or, more recently, Xavier Dolan (It’s Only the End of the World).
In 1999, she won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for her role in the chamber psychological story Pornographic Relationship. Ten years later, she received the French Order of the Legion of Honor.
Baye’s daughter Laura Smet, whose father is rock singer Johnny Hallyday, said her mother died on Friday evening at her Paris home. She succumbed to a disease related to Lewy bodies, which occur in some types of dementia or diseases with Parkinson’s syndromes. Smetová is also an actress.
