Had she lived, the extraordinary beauty that was Capucine would have been 82 years old today.
Born Germaine Lefebvre, she was discovered by a photographer while riding a carriage through Paris, and was soon modelling for top fashion houses Givenchy and Christian Dior. After a brief career in French movies, she decided to move to America - apparently because "she felt bored". In fact her charming good looks and her lifelong friendship with Audrey Hepburn had drawn her to Hollywood, where she learned English and had some success in such films as Song Without End (the story of Franz Liszt, alongside Dirk Bogarde) and the star-studded melodrama Walk On The Wild Side.
It was when she had moved back to Europe (bored again?), however, that she made the films for which we remember her most - The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat?, both with Peter Sellers (who famously "collected" beautiful women, although there is no evidence they did have an affair - Capucine was famously the "other woman" in William Holden's life at the time).
Despite her apparently effortless glamour, beauty, sense of humour and exoticism (she was rumoured to be bisexual, and her name has been linked with Barbara Stanwyck), Capucine in fact suffered with manic depression throughout her life and attempted suicide several times (apparently Audrey Hepburn managed to talk her down more than once). In 1990 she tragically succeeded, and killed herself in Lausanne, Switzerland by jumping from her 8th-floor apartment window. Some say her only known survivors were her three cats. A tragic end to a beautiful life...
Capucine's film career on IMDB
Thanks for the lovely little tribute Jon. Not many people are aware of Capucine's career and her extraordinary beauty. As I said in another post my late Grandmother knew Capucine and she thought Capucine was the most beautiful woman she had ever met but also the loneliest woman she ever knew. She seemed to be constantly running away from something or other. She never liked talking about her family and childhood which made my Grandmother wonder if she was abused. One minute she was laughing and the next she was in tears. Btw later on she was diagnosed as bipolar but shrugged off any offer of help or treatment. In those days there wasn't trendy rehab retreats that starlets of today (Lindsey Lohan etc) would go to. In Capucine's days you fought your battles alone and just got the job done. She did tell my Grandmother one day in their later years that she regretted not having children. Indeed she was a manic depressif all her life and like my Grandmother I do wonder too if that had something to do with her childhood of which very little is known even among her closest friends. I recall when news of her suicide reached us my Grandmother was not surprised and said (roughly translated) at last she'll have that good sleep she's always dreamed about, before she burst into tears. She wasn't a very close friend of Capucine and sporadically exchanged postcards but she couldn't help but get attached to Capucine and worry about her. By the way William Holden really was the love of her life but her bipolarity wreaked havoc and her bisexuality was nothing more than rumours.May she rest in peace....
ReplyDeleteIt is, to me, an eternal shame that such a beautiful and talented lady should have felt so alone and so depressed to have thrown it all away. I suppose we'll never know what goes though the mind of someone like that. I am glad your grandmother was there, even briefly, to care. Jx
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