Geneviève Page, the captivating French actress from the Golden Age of Hollywood who starred in such films as Belle de Jour, El Cid, and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes has passed away at the age of 97, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Born Geneviève Bonjean in Paris on Dec. 13, 1927, to aesthetes parents, her father an art collector, her mother from a family of watchmakers, and her godfather, fashion designer Christian Dior, Page would make her debut on screen in the mystery film No Pity For Women (Pas de pitié pour les femmes) followed by the swashbuckler adventure Fanfan la Tulip.
She would soon expand into international roles several years later, going on to work with several star actors and directors such as Robert Mitchum, David Niven, James Garner, John Frankenheimer, Terence Young, George Cukor, and most notably with Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren in El Cid, Catherine Deneuve in Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour, and Christopher Lee in Billy Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
Despite this, Page’s real love was the stage as she explained in an interview in 2009:
“You start a scene, you rehearse it, you’re ready. Then, they do the sound and lighting. There comes a moment when you’ve got to charge in. And then: ‘Cut!’ It annoyed me each time…Whereas when you arrive in your theatre dressing room in the evening, you know it’ll start soon, and you’ll see it through right to the end.”
Page was married to businessman Jean-Claude Bujard, who died in 2011. She is survived by their two children and five grandchildren.
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