French actress Nathalie Baye has died at the age of 77.
Her family confirmed the news to AFP on Saturday, stating that the “Downton Abbey: A New Era” star passed away at her home in Paris one day prior.
Baye’s death comes after a battle with Lewy body dementia. The “Catch Me If You Can” star was reportedly diagnosed with the condition last summer.
Lewy body dementia is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that can impact movement, cognitive thinking and cause hallucinations, per the Mayo Clinic. Baye’s career spanned over five decades after she first got her start in the early ’70s.
The young talent landed a one episode role on the television series “Au théâtre ce soir” in 1970 before rising to stardom three years later in the rom-com “Day For Night.”
“I’ve been lucky to make a lot of films, to work with very talented directors. But it was the first movie I made, Day for Night by François Truffaut, that allowed me to discover cinema and made me love cinema,” she once shared about the film, according to IMDb.
Baye steadily worked for the next 39 years before joining the 2012 French political drama, “Spin.” The actress played Anne Visage for six episodes.
In 2018, Baye led the six-episode miniseries thriller “Nox,” opposite Malik Zidi and Maïwenn.
Throughout her career, the French star appeared in over 80 films, including portraying Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother in the 2002 crime comedy “Catch Me If You Can.”
In 2022, Baye starred in the hit romance drama, “Downton Abbey: A New Era.”
The decorated icon was also a four-time César Awards winner — which is France’s equivalent to the Oscars.
Baye took home her first two Best Supporting Actress trophies back to back — first in 1981 for “Every Man for Himself” and then again in 1982 for “Strange Affair.”
She scored her first Best Actress award in 1983 for “La Balance,” and won for a second time for “The Young Lieutenant” (2006).
Baye was nominated ten times total.
“I try to do things which I would like to go and see at the cinema,” she once expressed, per IMDb. “My starting point isn’t my character, but the project as a whole. A film is an adventure, a script, a director, casting, a variety of things.”
After news of her death broke, French president Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on X, penning: “We loved Nathalie Baye so much.”
“With her voice, her smile and her grace, she has been a constant presence in French cinema over the past few decades, from François Truffaut to Tonie Marshall,” he added. “[She was] an actress with whom we have loved, dreamed and grown up.”
Concluding his heartfelt post, Macron wrote, “An actress with whom we loved, dreamed, and grew up. We think of her family and her loved ones.”
Isabelle Adjani, who starred with Baye in the 1974 film “La Gifle,” also remembered the late star.
She reminisced on Instagram, “When I learned that you would be my partner in the movie, I jumped for joy from the top of my eighteen years,” while sharing a shot of the pair in the project.
Adjani, 70, added that she has always “been part of” Baye’s “loyal audience.”
Baye is survived by her daughter, actress Laura Smet, 42, whom she shared with French musician Johnny Hallyday.
The exes were together from 1982 until 1986.
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