Geneviève Page

Geneviève Bonjean 13 December 1927 14 February 2025 known professionally as Geneviève Page was a French actress with a film career spanning fifty years and also numerous Englishspeaking film productions She was the daughter of French art collector Jacques Paul Bonjean 18991990 Page was born in Paris on 13 December 1927 to a family of aesthetes like her father Jacques Bonjean who collected art from 17th century France and her mother Germaine born Lipman Bonjean Her mothers family was Jewish and had founded LIP At the age of six her godfather Christian Dior played the piano with Pages mother and talked to Page about talking to adults She recalls He had no money at the time and drew hats for big houses He had lunch every other day at home and played the piano with my mother in my room with four hands I took refuge in the bathroom to learn my lessons At the age of twelve Page read some works by Voltaire and to her mothers surprise her father replied If she cant read Voltaire she cant read anyone Despite this she was a very talented young girl playing Musset at Théâtre National Populaire and entering the Conservatory Her film début was in Pas de pitié pour les femmes 1951 followed by Fanfan la Tulipe 1952 in which she played Madame de Pompadour alongside Gérard Philipe and Gina Lollobrigida Later she appeared in Italian French British and American films She costarred with Robert Mitchum and Ingrid Thulin in Foreign Intrigue 1956 Dirk Bogarde and Capucine in Song Without End 1960 Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren in El Cid 1961 and was seen in Grand Prix 1966 with James Garner and Belle de Jour 1967 with Catherine Deneuve and directed by Luis Buñuel She appeared with Deneuve again when she played Countess Larisch in Mayerling 1968 also costarring with Ava Gardner and James Mason Billy Wilder cast her as the mysterious widow in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes 1970 because the character she played used her sex appeal to manipulate Holmes She appeared in Robert Altmans Beyond Therapy 1987 and continued to act until 2003 She acted in 1943 in Le Soulier de Satin and in Oh Les Beaux Jours both of which were directed by JeanLouis Barrault Madeleine Renaud Co Her theatre career continued in the 1980s and 1990s with Les larmes amères de Petra von Kant The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant 1980 La nuit des rois Twelfth Night William Shakespeare La femme sur le lit The Woman on the Bed Franco Brusati 1994 and Delicate Balance 1998 Page was educated at École du Louvre and Conservatoire national des arts et métiers Page was married to JeanClaude Bujard from 1959 until his death on 29 August 2011 the couple had two children In an interview from 2013 she said she was having stewardship problems in her house and that she was not used to talking anymore Page died in Paris on 14 February 2025 at the age of 97 Description above from the Wikipedia article Geneviève Page licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia