Romy Schneider

Rosemarie Magdalena Albach began working in German Heimatfilms at fifteen in the early 1950s. By the mid-fifties she'd become a phenomenon as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the Sissi trilogy, a role that turned her into a cult figure but also a kind of trap. She left for France and rebuilt herself, making critically acclaimed films with the era's most notable directors. Luchino Visconti brought her back to Elisabeth in Ludwig in 1973, this time older and sharper. Coco Chanel watched her and saw the ideal; Bertrand Tavernier heard directors talk of Mozart and Mahler when they spoke her name. She died in 1982 at forty-three.