Capucine

At 62 years old, Capucine has this physical status:

Capucine (6 January 1928-1901) was a French fashion model and actress best known for her comedic appearances in The Pink Panther (1963) and What's New Pussycat? (1965).

She appeared in 36 films and 17 television shows between 1948 and 1990.

Early life

Capucine was born Germaine Hélène Lefebvre on January 6th, 1928 in Saint-Rapha's Var, France. She often mistook the date of her birth by inferring that she was born in 1931 or 1933, as the majority of sources point to those years. She attended school in Saumur, France, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in foreign languages.

Lefebvre was discovered by a commercial photographer in 1945, aged 17, while riding in a carriage in Paris. She became a fashion model while working for Givenchy and Christian Dior, adopting the French word for a flower, "Capucine" (nasturtium, Tropaeolum).

When modeling for Givenchy in Paris, Capucine met Audrey Hepburn. For the remainder of Capucine's life, they remained close friends.

Personal life

Capucine met Pierre Trabaud on the set of Rendez-vous (1949) and they married the next year. The marriage lasted just eight months, and she never married again.

She had a fascination with Charles K. Feldman, who made her films What's New Pussycat?, The 7th Dawn, and The Honey Pot. Capucine was shocked when she met William Holden, but she and Feldman remained close until his death in 1968. In 2021) she was worth $75,000 (equivalent to $584,000).

In the early 1960s, Capucine met actor William Holden. They appeared in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). Holden was married to Brenda Marshall, but the two friends started a two-year affair that culminated in part due to Holden's increasing alcoholism. She and Holden remained close friends until his death in 1981. In his will, he left her $50,000 (equivalent to $149,000 in 2021).

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Career

Capucine made her film debut in Jean Cocteau's The Eagle with Two Heads (1948), in a small, unbilled role. She appeared in Jacques Becker's Rendezvous in July (1949) and Robert Dhéry's Crazy Show (1949).

She appeared in My Friend Sainfoin (1950) and Bernard and the Lion (1951).

Capucine appeared in Mademoiselle (1955) and Frou-Frou (1955), after a gap of a few years.

Capucine was discovered by film director Charles K. Feldman while filming in New York City in 1957. Feldman was hired under $150,000 a week to work. She went to Hollywood to learn English and study acting under Gregory Ratoff. "Two names are intriguing, and I hope one is interesting," she says.

In 1958, she began a seven-year contract with Columbia Pictures. She began auditioning for Feathers in Rio Bravo (1959), her first English-speaking role in the film Song Without End (1960), a Franz Liszt biopic in which Capucine played Carolyne to Sayn-Wittgenstein. "You can teach a girl how to act, but no one can tell her how to act like a princess," producer William Goetz said. You have to start with a girl who appears to be a princess.

"I always think of it as an attractive guy" when she first saw it on camera. In 1960, she said, "I am meeting for the first time." "I find him demanding and distant, so I must do everything I can to care for him." "I got so much better as we went forward," she said. "As the scenes warmed up, so did I."

She had been nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Capucine continued this with North to Alaska (1960), a comedy that had been planned with her in mind by Feldman at 20th Century Fox. She played a French prostitute who became John Wayne's love interest. It was a hit at the box office, led by Henry Hathaway.

Capucine travelled to Europe to co-star in Le triomphe de Michel Strogoff (1961), a tribute to Michel Strogoff (1956).

She appeared in Walk on the Wild Side (1962), a Feldman film in which she portrayed a redeemed hooker, and she had second billing in Hollywood. Laurence Harvey, a co-star, has argued that Feldman removed his part to expand Capucine's role.

She was then William Holden's love interest in The Lion (1962). Capucine began a romance with Holden, which culminated in the breakdown of her intimate relationship with Feldman; however, the actress remained loyal professionally.

Feldman predicted that Capucine would be used in Mary Magdalene and Waltz of the Toreadors, but nothing happened.

In 1962, she moved to Switzerland.

Capucine's wife, Inspector Clouseau's wife, played by David Niven, is cast in The Pink Panther by Blake Edwards. It was a huge success and spawned a number of sequels. Capucine said she had learned the most from Edwards and Henry Hathaway in 1964.

Capucine was reunited with Holden in The 7th Dawn (1964) by Feldman; it was a box-office disappointment. What's New Pussycat, Feldman's second film. (1965), starring Sellers and Peter O'Toole, was much more fruitful; it was entirely shot in France.

Capucine was one of several European actors in Sex Quartet (1966) for Columbia (originally The Queens), then Feldman brought her into The Honey Pot (1967), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. She was not confirmed for Feldman's Casino Royale, but she did not appear in the film.

Feldman died in May 1968, and Capucine's career has never recovered its former glory. She acquired the rights to the book Zandy from his estate and sold it to the Zandy's Bridemakers.

Capucine was a participant in Fräulein Doktor (1968) and the lead in the Spanish thriller The Exquisite Cadaver (1969). She appeared in Fellini Satyricon (1969), which was a supporting cast. "She had a face to launch a thousand ships, but she was born too late," Fellini said.

"She wished she didn't have to be sophisticated," she said in an Italian publication in 1968, but "since the designers know I am a model, it is obvious that they don't like me as anything else."

Dirk Bogarde suggested her for the role of Tadzio's mother in Death (1971), but Luchino Visconti denied her because she has a sarcastic voice and too many teeth. I know that she is a beautiful horse and that she is a trainer. I'm familiar with horses, but I don't want a horse."

Capucine appeared in the Western Red Sun (1971) and was a supporting cast member in Search Control (1972), her first television series.

Jean-Paul Belmondo was a fan of Incorrigible (1975) and Richard Burton in Jackpot, which was eventually scrapped.

She appeared on television in Cinéma 16, and La pêche miraculeuse (1976), and appeared in The Con Artists (1979), Per amore (1979), Perpetuo (1978), Neapolitan Adventure (1979), Jaguar Lives (1980). Martin Eden (1979), 1979).

Capucine appeared in episodes of Orient Express (1980), Hart to Hart (1982) and Murder, She Wrote (1985), as well as the 1986 miniseries Sins.

She went to Europe to make Les invités (1982), Aphrodite (1982), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), and The Curse of the Pink Panther (1983).

Capucine appears in Série Noire, Voglia di cantare, Murder, She Wrote, Honor Thy Father, Sins, Delirium (1987), My First Forty Years (1989) and Il giudice estruttore.

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