Annie Girardot, grande dame of French cinema, remembered for Visconti’s “Rocco and His Brothers”, has died aged 79

Annie Gir­ar­dot, the perky, gravely-voiced act­ress who became one of France’s most acclaimed stars, has died. She was 79.

Gir­ar­dot had suffered since 2006 from Alzheimer’s dis­ease, and died today in a Paris hospital.

With an enthu­si­astic nature that never seemed to fail, Gir­ar­dot cap­tured the hearts of French lov­ers of cinema and theatre. Former Cul­ture Min­is­ter Jack Lang called her a “legend” and film dir­ector Claude Lel­ouch said she was the equi­val­ent on stage of singing great Edith Piaf.

She starred with Alain Delon in Luchino Vis­conti’s “Rocco e i suoi fra­telli” (“Rocco and His Broth­ers”) in 1960 and dur­ing her career per­formed in over 100 films. In 1962 she mar­ried Italian actor Ren­ato Sal­vatori who co-starred with her in Visconti’s film.

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