Sophie Marceau

Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu was born in November 1966 and became Sophie Marceau on screen at fourteen, when La Boum made her an instant teen sensation in France. The sequel arrived two years later, along with a César for Most Promising Actress. Through the late eighties and nineties she anchored a run of European hits - L'Étudiante, Pacific Palisades, Fanfan, Revenge of the Musketeers - that made her a film star across the continent. Then came the international leap: Braveheart in 1995, Firelight and Anna Karenina in 1997, and a turn as Bond villain Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough. More than 300 magazine covers followed, luxury-brand campaigns, an Officer appointment in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2003. In 2015 she quietly declined the Legion of Honour and began choosing darker material - Arrêtez-moi, Jailbirds, Everything Went Fine - films that press on wounds instead of smoothing them over.