Romy Schneider, a talented actress born on September 23, 1938, in Vienna, Austria, to a family of actors, made her film debut at the tender age of 15. Her breakthrough came two years later in the extremely popular trilogy Sissi (1955),which was a significant milestone in her career.
Her mother, Magda Schneider, played a crucial role in supervising her daughter's career, approving Romy's participation in Christine (1958),the remake of Max Ophüls's classic film Playing at Love (1933),where Magda Schneider had starred herself. During the shooting of Christine, Romy fell deeply in love with her co-star Alain Delon, and the couple eventually moved to Paris together, marking the beginning of her international career.
Romy collaborated with renowned directors such as Luchino Visconti and Orson Welles, solidifying her position in the film industry. However, her personal life took a turn for the worse when Alain Delon broke up with her in 1964. She married Harry Meyens shortly after, but the relationship was marked by difficulties, leading to their divorce in 1975.
Feeling dissatisfied with her personal life, Romy turned to substance abuse, but her cinematic career continued to flourish, particularly in France. She became the first actress to receive the prestigious César Award for "Best Actress" for her role in That Most Important Thing: Love (1975). Three years later, she was awarded again for A Simple Story (1978).
Romy's personal life took another turn when she married her former secretary, Daniel Biasini, with whom she had a daughter, Sarah Biasini. However, the greatest blow of her life came when her son, David-Christopher, was impaled on a fence in 1981. She never recovered from this devastating loss and died on May 29, 1982, in Paris, with the cause of death listed as cardiac arrest, although some speculated that she had committed suicide due to an overdose of sleeping pills.
