# Brigitte Fossey

Brigitte Florence Fossey (French pronunciation:; born 15 June 1946) is a French actress.

## Early years

The daughter of a schoolteacher, Fossey was five years old when she was cast by director René Clément to star in his film, Forbidden Games. Fossey played the role of an innocent child orphaned by World War II. The film won numerous awards worldwide, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Fossey was hired by American actor/director Gene Kelly for his 1957 film, The Happy Road. When Fossey was ten years old her parents took her out of the film business so she could receive proper schooling. While completing her education, Fossey studied piano and dance and then went on to work in Geneva, Switzerland as an interpreter/translator.

## Career

In 1967, at age twenty, after studying acting at Yves Furet "Studio d'Entrainement de l'Acteur" in Paris, Fossey was offered the female lead by director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco for his film Le Grand Meaulnes. As an adult Fossey acted both on stage and in film, working with French directors such as François Truffaut and Bertrand Blier. Fluent in English, Fossey has appeared in several Hollywood motion pictures, including a 1979 role as the wife of Paul Newman in the Robert Altman-directed film, Quintet. In 1982, she was a member of the jury at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival. During the 1990s, she began performing in television productions.

## Personal life

Brigitte Fossey has a daughter from her marriage to director Jean-François Adam, whom she met while making his 1970 film M comme Mathieu [fr].

## Awards and recognition

* 1977: Nominated for a César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Le bon et les méchants
* 1978: Nominated for a César Award for Best Actress for Les Enfants du placard

## Selected filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1952 | Forbidden Games | Paulette | Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film |
| 1953 | The Steel Rope | Marcella | |
| 1956 | The Happy Road | Jeanine | |
| 1968 | Adieu l'ami | Dominique 'Waterloo' Austerlitz | |
| 1970 | Raphael, or The Debauched One | Bernardine | |
| 1973 | Going Places | the woman in the train | |
| 1975 | Calmos | Suzanne Dufour | |
| 1976 | The Good and the Bad | Dominique Blanchot | |
| 1976 | The Man Who Loved Women | Geneviève Bigey | |
| 1977 | Closet Children (Les Enfants du placard) | Juliette | |
| 1977 | Le pays bleu [fr] | Louise Morand | |
| 1978 | Die gläserne Zelle | Lisa Braun | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film |
| 1979 | Mais où et donc Ornicar | Anne | |
| 1979 | Quintet | Vivia | |
| 1980 | La Boum | Françoise Beretton | |
| 1980 | Chanel Solitaire | Adrienne | |
| 1982 | La Boum 2 | Françoise Beretton | |
| 1982 | Enigma | Karen Reinhardt | |
| 1983 | For Those I Loved | Dina Gray | |
| 1988 | Cinema Paradiso (extended Italian version only) | Elena Mendola (as adult) | Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film |
| 1989 | 3615 code Père Noël | Julie de Frémont | |
| 1990 | The Last Butterfly | Vera | |
| 1991 | Les enfants du naufrageur | Hélène | |
| 1992 | Long Conversation with a Bird [pl] | Elisabeth Halbritter | |
| 2016 | Joséphine, ange gardien | Gabrielle Chamant | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2017 | Don't Tell Her | | |