Romy Schneider Biography
Romy Schneider was born on 23 September 1938 in Vienna, Austria into a family of actors. Making her film debut at the age of 15, her breakthrough came two years later in the very popular trilogy
Sissi. Her mother, supervising the daughter's career, immediately approved Romy's participation in
Christine, the remake of
Max Ophüls's
Liebelei, where
Magda Schneider once starred herself. During the movies's shooting, she felt in love with her co-star
Alain Delon and eventually moved with him to Paris. At that time, she started her international career collaborating with famous directors such as
Luchino Visconti and
Orson Welles. After Delon had broken up with her in 1964, she married
Harry Meyen shortly after. Although she gave birth to a boy, David-Christopher, their relationship was difficult, so they divorced in 1975. Being unsatisfied with her personal life, she turned to alcohol and drugs, but her cinematic career -especially in France- remained intact. She was the first actress, receiving the new created César Award as "Best Actress" for her role in
That Most Important Thing: Love. Three years later, she was awarded again for
Une histoire simple. After a short marriage to her former secretary
Daniel Biasini, being the father of her daughter
Sarah Biasini, she suffered the hardest blow of her life when her son was impaled on a fence in 1981. She never managed to recover from this loss and died on 29 May 1982 in Paris. Although it was suggested she committed suicide caused by an overdose of sleeping pills, she was declared to have died from cardiac arrest.
Trivia

Daughter of
Wolf Albach-Retty and
Magda Schneider

Her daughter Sara-Magdalena, who resembles her very much, has already got several invitations to star somewhere, but the girl's father Daniel Biasini doesn't want her to follow her mother's footsteps.

Was engaged to
Alain Delon (1959-1963)

Mother of
Sarah Biasini.

Portrayed on a postage stamp issued on Oct. 3, 1998 by the French Post Office.

In
8 Women, when Louise (
Emmanuelle Béart) shows a picture of her former employer, it is a picture of
Romy Schneider.

Good friends with German Bundeskanzler
Willy Brandt. She was one of many celebrities supporting his politics of social novation.

Ranked #1 in a list by tabloid "Bild" searching the "50 most beautiful Germans ever" (30 April 2005).

Was good friends with French actor
Jean-Claude Brialy and French TV presenter
Michel Drucker.

Cesar award winner.

Stepfather was Hans-Herbert Blatzheim, a restaurateur.

Her role as Chantal in
Garde à vue was held by
Monica Bellucci in the American remake of the film
Under Suspicion.

Was good friends with director
Luchino Visconti.

Shares birthday with French stage actor
Jean Piat, singer
Ray Charles, actor
Gino Paoli and Spanish singer
Julio Iglesias.

Had a younger brother named Wolfgang.

Her first husband
Harry Meyen, a stage director, committed suicide in 1978.

Is buried at Boissy-Sans-Avoir cemetery.

Was nicknamed "Miss worried".

Her son - with
Harry Meyen - David-Christopher died in 1981 after being impaled on a fence.

After her first movie,
Wolf Albach-Retty wrote his daughter: "Put your childhood in your pocket and run away because that's everything you have!".
Pedro Almodóvar's film
All About My Mother is partially dedicated to her.

She never overcame the loss of her son. She suffered from depressions after his death resulting in an alcohol problem.

Pro-choice activist and supporter of the feminist movement.

Graduated at the Goldstein boarding school near Salzburg, Austria (1953).

Ranked #3 in a survey by network ZDF searching Germany's all-time favorite actor, which made her the highest ranked woman (24 November 2006).

Is portrayed on a 110 + 50 pfennig postage stamp by Deutsche Post (2000).

Was good friends with
Marlene Dietrich, one of her idols.

Was voted "Greatest actress of all time" by the readers of French newspaper "Le Parisien" (1999).

Her last longtime companion was
Laurent Pétin, who found her dead in her Paris apartment on 29 May 1982. Although she was declared to have died from cardiac arrest, the media suggested that she committed suicide by taking a cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills.

'Alain Délon' placed a piece of paper with the following words on her tomb: "Tu n'as jamais été aussi belle, tu vois j'ai appris quelques mots allemands pour toi: Ich liebe dich meine Liebe" (You have never been so beautful, you see that I learned some words in German for you: I love you my love).
Source provided by imdb (Copyright) - The Internet Movie Database.