Nathalie Baye

Nathalie Marie Andrée Baye (born 6 July 1948) is a four-time César award-winning French actress. Also she has been nominated a further five times.

Her first cinema appearance was in Two People directed by Robert Wise. Then she rose to fame as the 'script girl' in La Nuit américaine (Day for Night) by François Truffaut. Throughout the 1970s she played the roles of good girlfriend and nice provincial in both film and television.

In 1981 she won her first César, for best supporting artist in Sauve qui peut (la vie) by Jean-Luc Godard. There then followed an impressive sequence of success and rise to stardom with Le Retour de Martin Guerre and La Balance.

She became one of the most popular and renowned French actresses, gaining two more Césars (Best Supporting Female for A Strange Affair, and Best Actress in 1982 for La Balance. Her 4 year relationship with Johnny Hallyday made them a leading celebrity couple and their daughter Laura is now actress Laura Smet.

After changing her image by playing the part of a streetwalker in La Balance, she further widened her scope with more obscure characters inJ'ai épousé une ombre and En toute innocence. In 1986 she returned to the theatre with an interpretation of Adriana Monti.

1999 started a glittering year as she was voted Best Supporting Actress at Venice Film Festival for Une liaison pornographique and in 2000 starred in the multi-award winning film Vénus Beauté (Institut) by Tonie Marshall

Since 2002 she has had many new collaborations including Claude Chabrol and Steven Spielberg, and remains one of France's busiest and most popular actresses of stage, screen and television.