Mireille Darc

Biography

Mireille Darc (15 May 1938 – 28 August 2017) was a French actress, director, photographer, singer and model. She appeared as a lead character in Jean-Luc Godard's 1967 film Weekend. Darc was a Knight of the Legion of Honour and Commander of the National Order of Merit. Alain Delon was her longtime co-star and companion.

Born Mireille Christiane Gabrielle Aimée Aigroz in Toulon, she attended the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Toulon and moved to Paris in 1959.

Darc's debuted in Claude Barma's television drama Du côté de l'enfer (aka, La Grande Brétèche, 1960). Her first leading role came in another production for French television, Jean Prat's Hauteclaire (1961). She starred in Jean-Luc Godard's film Weekend (Week-end, 1967) as Corinne, her highest profile role for international critics; as Christine in The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire, 1972) and The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (Le retour du grand blond, 1974) and alongside Alain Delon and Louis de Funès in several films: Pouic-Pouic (1963), High Lifers (How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning (1965), Jeff (1969), Borsalino (uncredited, 1970), The Love Mates (Madly, 1970), Icy Breasts (Les Seins de glace, 1974), Death of a Corrupt Man (Mort d'un pourri, 1977), Man in a Hurry (L'Homme pressé, 1977), and the television series Frank Riva (2003).

Darc had a heart condition from childhood, which required open-heart surgery in 1980. She was seriously injured in a car accident on July 7, 1983, in a tunnel in the Aosta Valley, Italy, suffering a fractured spine and other injuries that required three months of immobilization in a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland.

Although they had recently separated about two weeks prior to the accident after a fifteen-year relationship, Delon rushed to Aosta when he heard about the accident, and left separately for Geneva by automobile during the night.

She quit her film career, but she returned to television in the 1990s. In 2006, French President Jacques Chirac awarded Darc the Legion of Honour.

In 2013, Darc underwent further open heart surgery, and during 2016 she suffered several hemorrhages. She died on 28 August 2017 in Paris in a coma at the age of 79.

Source: Article "Mireille Darc" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.