‘Downton Abbey’ actor Nathalie Baye dead aged 77
French actor Nathalie Baye, known for her appearances in Downton Abbey: A New Era, Catch Me If You Can, and Laurence Anyways, has passed away at the age of 77.
The stalwart of French cinema, who received the Cesar Award on four separate occasions, passed away on the evening of April 17th at her home in Paris.
The star suffered from the neurodegenerative disease Lewy body dementia, which can alter movement and mood, as well as provoke hallucinations.
Appearing in over 100 movies across her vast and varied career that began in the 1970s with an appearance on the television series Au théâtre ce soir.
Her big break came some years later after she appeared in Francois Truffaut’s Day for Night, a romantic comedy-drama about a dedicated filmmaker struggling to finish another movie.
In the same decade, she teamed up with filmmakers Maurice Pialat and Claude Sautet, while in 1985 she worked with the coveted director Jean-Luc Godard on Détective, which was entered into the 1985 Cannes Film Festival that same year.
In 1982, she starred in the film Le Retour de Martin Guerre by Daniel Vigne, where she portrayed a 16th-century peasant involved in a case of identity theft. The role was later adapted in Hollywood with Jodie Foster at the helm.
In 2002, she played Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can. The actor kept herself busy and appeared as a frosty French aristocrat, Madame de Montmirail, in 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era.
Across her career, she earned seven nominations for the Cesar Award for ‘Best Actress’ and won the category twice. Additionally, she was a two-time recipient of the Cesar Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’.
Baye leaves behind a daughter, the famous French actor Laura Smet. The pair played a mock version of themselves in the hit series, Dix pour cent (Call My Agent!).
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