Nathalie Baye, French actor known for her warmth and versatility, dies at 77
She was featured in more than 80 movies, switching from mainstream comedies to auteur films with ease in a career that spanned over five decades.
PARIS — Nathalie Baye, a French actor who was a fan’s favorite for her down-to-earth charm and great versatility, has died. She was 77.
French president Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to an actor “with whom we loved, dreamed and grew.” French media reported that Ms. Baye died on Friday in Paris from a neurodegenerative disease, quoting a statement from her relatives.
“We loved Nathalie Baye so much,” Macron wrote in a message on X. “Through her voice, her smiles, and her modesty, she accompanied the past decades of French cinema, from François Truffaut to Tonie Marshall.”
Ms. Baye was featured in more than 80 movies, switching from mainstream comedies to auteur films with ease in a career that spanned over five decades. She twice claimed the prize for best actress at the Césars, France’s equivalent of the Oscars.
Ms. Baye, who was Leonardo DiCaprio’s on-screen mother in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, won both popular and critical acclaim for her role in Venus Beauty Institute, a romantic comedy that follows three women working in a Parisian beauty salon as they search for fulfillment. Marshall won the César award for best director in 2000 for the movie.
The daughter of artists, Ms. Baye first trained as a dancer then honed her acting skills at the famed Cours Simon and the Conservatoire. She took the spotlight in François Truffaut’s Day for Night in 1973 and, five years later, worked with him again on The Green Room.
Ms. Baye worked with directors Maurice Pialat, Claude Sautet, and Bertrand Tavernier, among others. She rose to fame with The Return of Martin Guerre in 1982. A year later, her role as a tough-talking streetwalker devoted to her down-and-out gangster boyfriend Philippe Leotard in La Balance earned her a César.
Ms. Baye liked to work with emerging filmmakers such as Xavier Beauvois. She won the César for best actress for his movie The Young Lieutenant in 2006.