Capucine Lefebvre

Early life Capucine was born Germaine Hélène Irène Lefebvre on 6 January 1928 in Saint-Raphaël, Var, France. She often confused the issue of her birth by saying that she was born in 1931 or 1933, and most sources indicate those years. She attended school in Saumur, France, and attained a Bachelor of Arts degree in foreign languages. In 1945, at age 17, while riding in a carriage in Paris, Lefebvre was noticed by a commercial photographer. Adopting the name "Capucine" (French for nasturtium), she became a fashion model, working for fashion houses Givenchy and Christian Dior. Capucine met Audrey Hepburn while modeling for Givenchy in Paris. They remained close friends for the rest of Capucine's life. Career Early films Capucine made her film debut in Jean Cocteau's The Eagle with Two Heads (1948). She only had a small unbilled role. She also appeared in Jacques Becker's Rendezvous in July (1949) and Robert Dhéry's Crazy Show (1949). She was in My Friend Sainfoin (1950) and Dhery's Bernard and the Lion (1951). After a break of a few years Capuncine appeared in Mademoiselle from Paris (1955) and Frou-Frou (1955). Charles K. Feldman In 1957, film producer Charles K. Feldman spotted Capucine while she was modeling in New York City. Feldman put her under contract at $150 a week. He brought her to Hollywood to learn English and study acting under Gregory Ratoff. She took the stage name "Capucine" (French for "nasturtium") saying, "Two names are interesting and I hope one is interesting." She was signed to a seven-year contract with Columbia Pictures in 1958. After unsuccessfully auditioning for the role of Feathers in Rio Bravo (1959) she landed her first English-speaking role in the film Song Without End (1960), a biopic of Franz Liszt where Capucine played Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. Producer William Goetz said "You can teach a girl to act but nobody can teach her how to look like a princess. You've got to start with a girl who looks like a princess." "Every time I get in front of the camera I think of it as an attractive man I am meeting for the first time," she said in 1960. "I find him demanding and aloof so I must do all I can to interest him." Capucine said, "I got much better as we went on," she said."As the scenes warmed up, so did I." She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Capucine followed this with North to Alaska (1960), a comedy which had been set up by Feldman at 20th Century Fox. She played a prostitute who becomes the love interest of John Wayne. It was successful at the box office. Capucine returned to Europe to co star in Le triomphe de Michel Strogoff (1961) with Curt Jurgens, a sequel to Michel Strogoff (1956). Back in Hollywood, she was second billed in Walk on the Wild Side (1962), produced by Feldman, in which she portrayed a redeemed hooker. Costar Laurence Harvey complained that Feldman cut his part to build Capucine's role. She was then William Holden's love interest in The Lion (1962). During filming Capucine began a romance with Holden which led to the end of her romantic relationship with Feldman but the producer remained loyal professionally. Feldman announced he would put Capucine in Mary Magdelene and Waltz of the Toreadors but neither happened. She moved to Switzerland in 1962. The Pink Panther Capucine in The Pink Panther (1963) Blake Edwards cast Capucine in The Pink Panther playing the wife of Inspector Clouseau who is having an affair with a jewel thief played by David Niven. It was a huge hit and led to a number of sequels. In 1964 Capucine said the directors she had learned most from were Edwards and Henry Hathaway. Capucine was reunited with Holden in The 7th Dawn (1964) produced by Feldman; it was a box-office disappointment. Far more successful was another film she did for Feldman, the comedy What's New Pussycat? (1965), which costarred Sellers and Peter O'Toole, and was filmed entirely in France. Capucine was one of several European stars in Sex Quartet (1966) for Columbia (originally The Queens[19]) then Feldman put her in The Honey Pot (1967) directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. She was announced for Feldman's Casino Royale but did not appear in the film. Feldman died in May 1968 and Capucine's career never regained its former momentum. She inherited the rights to the book Zandy from his estate and sold them to the makers of Zandy's Bride. Post-Feldman Capucine had a support role in Fraulein Doktor (1968) and the lead in the Spanish thriller The Exquisite Cadaver (1969). She was in the supporting cast of Fellini's Satyricon (1969). Fellini said "she had a face to launch a thousand ships... but she was born too late." In 1968 she told an Italian magazine she wished she didn't always have to be elegant, that she longed to play a "dishevelled woman", but "since the directors know I was a model, it is obvious that they can't see me as anything else." Dirk Bogarde suggested her for the role of Tadzio's mother in Death in Venice (1971), but Luchino Visconti turned her down saying "She has a horrible voice and too many teeth. She looks like a horse, a beautiful horse, I know that, I was a trainer. I know all about horses, but I don't want a horse." Capucine had a supporting role in the Western Red Sun (1971)[23] and guest starred on Search Control (1972), her first TV series.[24] She supported Jean Paul Belmondo in Incorrigible (1975) and Richard Burton in Jackpot, which ultimately was abandoned. She appeared on television in Cinéma 16, and La pêche miraculeuse (1976), and had roles in The Con Artists (1976), Per amore (1976), Ecco noi per esempio... (1977), Nest of Vipers (1978), From Hell to Victory (1979), Atrocious Tales of Love and Death (1979), Neapolitan Mystery (1979), Arabian Adventure (1979), Jaguar Lives! (1979), and Martin Eden (1979). 1980s Capucine was in episodes of Orient Express, and Hart to Hart. She went to Europe to make Les invités (1982), Aphrodite (1982), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983).[25] Capucine can be seen in episodes of Série noire, Voglia di cantare, Murder, She Wrote, Honor Thy Father, Sins, Delirium (1987), My First Forty Years (1987), Gila and Rik (1987), Una verità come un'altra (1989), Quartier nègre (1989), Blaues Blut [fr] (1990) and Il giudice istruttore. Personal life Capucine met Pierre Trabaud on the set of Rendez-vous (1949) and they married the next year. The marriage lasted only eight months, and she never married again. She had an affair with Charles K. Feldman, who produced her films What's New Pussycat? The 7th Dawn and The Honey Pot. This affair ended when Capucine met William Holden, but the two remained close until Feldman's death. He left her $75,000. Capucine met actor William Holden in the early 1960s. They starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). Holden was married to Brenda Marshall, but the two began a two-year affair. After the affair ended, she and Holden remained friends until Holden's death in 1981. When he died, he left her $50,000. She reportedly also had affairs with women. On 17 March 1990, at age 62, Capucine jumped to her death from her eighth-floor apartment in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she had lived for 28 years, having reportedly suffered from illness and depression for some time. The police said an investigation left no doubt that she committed suicide. Neighbors said she had led a reclusive life with her three cats, hardly ever leaving her apartment and spending most of her time reading. Capucine Lefebvre: Obituary

GARY COOPER May 7, 1901 - May 13, 1961 Gary Cooper, the strong, silent hero of the screen, died of cancer at 12:27 p.m. Saturday in the quiet of his Holmby Hills home. The 60-year-old actor's death, awaited by his family and friends and by Cooper himself for two weeks, ended a long fight with the disease, the nature of which did not become publicly known until his confinement last month. The tall, drawling Cooper, winner of two Academy Awards in a film career that spanned 35 years, had received messages of hope from all over the world, including a call from President Kennedy. Cooper's wife, Veronica, their daughter, Maria, the family doctor, a priest and two male nurses were with Cooper when the end came in a bedroom of his estate at 200 Baroda Dr. Beverly Hills, California. Fears for the actor's health arose a year ago after a prostate operation. He denied then that there was a malignancy. Five weeks later, a cancerous portion of his colon was removed, but he still wouldn't admit it. From then on, doctors acknowledged later, it was only a matter of time. Cooper, heavily drugged for the last 10 days to ease the intense pain, received the last rites of the Catholic Church on Friday. A long-time friend, the Rt. Rev. Daniel Sullivan of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Beverly Hills, said he was able to talk with Cooper briefly on Thursday. Catholic Convert "Although he was weak, I was amazed how alert he was," Father Sullivan commented. The priest reported that Cooper had been unconscious all day and died while sleeping peacefully under sedation. He said the wife and daughter took the death calmly. And he disclosed that Mrs. Cooper had known since December that her husband's illness was incurable. Cooper, reared as an Episcopalian, was converted in 1959 to Catholicism, the faith of his wife and daughter. He had received no visitors for two weeks, and his family remained constantly at his bedside. Gary Cooper, Hollywood's homespun hero, was another product of its big star era—the same era in which names like Clark Gable, John Wayne, Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power became household words to millions. It was an era which Hollywood itself believes is gone forever. Cooper brought to the screen a personality that was all his own. His taciturn drawl, shy grin and the loose-jointed way he carried his 6 ft. 3 in. frame came to typify something as American as buckwheat cakes. Moreover, he was Hollywood's own creation. He came here almost directly from a ranch near Helena, Mont., his birthplace, rather than by way of the stage, radio or other entertainment media. Aspired to Be Artist The son of a state supreme court justice, Cooper originally aspired to be an artist and from 1922 to 1924 he studied art at Grinnell College in Iowa. But in Los Angeles he found he could make more money as a screen extra and stunt man. He was introduced to many Hollywood figures by Grace Kingsley, a film society columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Cooper accompanied her on some assignments. But the film colony was unimpressed. "He's too bashful," was the usual comment. Cooper acquired an agent, Nan Collins, then a casting director at United Studios. It was Miss Collins who suggest he change his real name from Frank James Cooper to Gary Cooper. The new name clicked.