# Sylvia Kristel

Sylvia Maria Kristel (28 September 1952 – 17 October 2012) was a Dutch actress and model who appeared in over 50 films. She was the eponymous character in five of the seven Emmanuelle films, including originating the role with Emmanuelle (1974).

## Early life

Kristel was born in Utrecht, the Netherlands; she was the elder daughter of an innkeeper, Jean-Nicholas Kristel, and his wife Pietje Hendrika Lamme. In her 2006 autobiography, Nue, she stated that she was sexually abused by an elderly hotel guest when she was nine years old, an experience she otherwise refused to discuss. Her parents divorced when she was 14 years old, after her father abandoned the family for another woman. "It was the saddest thing that ever happened to me," she said of the experience of her parents' separation.

## Career

Kristel began modeling when she was 17 years old. In 1971, before becoming famous, she took part in auditions for the female lead (a role ultimately played by Maria Schneider) in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1972 film Last Tango in Paris.
In 1973, she won the Miss TV Europe contest. She spoke Dutch, English, German, and Italian fluently, and several other languages to a lesser extent. Kristel gained international attention in 1974 for playing the title character in the softcore film Emmanuelle, which remains one of the most successful French films ever produced.
After the success of Emmanuelle, Kristel was often cast in films capitalizing on a similar sexually provocative image and in roles involving nudity. Notably, she starred in a 1981 film adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover; and in the title role of Mata Hari (1985), a biographical film about the World War I spy. She also appeared in lesser-known art house films by prominent French directors Claude Chabrol and Roger Vadim during the 1970s; and starred in La Marge (1976), a French box office success co-starring Joe Dallesandro and directed by Walerian Borowczyk.
Her typecast image as Emmanuelle would follow her into film roles in the United States. After her brief comic turn in the Get Smart revival film The Nude Bomb in 1980, Kristel starred in the sex comedy Private Lessons (1981) as Nicole Mallow, a maid who seduces a teenage boy. Although Private Lessons was one of the highest-grossing independent films of 1981 (ranking 28th in overall domestic box office receipts in the U.S.), Kristel reportedly saw none of the profits. She continued to appear in films and last played Emmanuelle in the early 1990s.
In addition to her early tryout for Last Tango, Kristel would often come close to having leading or supporting parts in several other major films over the first two decades of her career. She was cast as Stella in Roman Polanski's The Tenant (1976) but was replaced by Isabelle Adjani after one day of shooting. In 1977, she was an early choice to star as Hattie in Louis Malle's controversial period drama Pretty Baby (1978), but the role eventually went to Susan Sarandon. Several years later, Malle asked her to play Ingrid in Damage, his 1992 drama of sexual obsession, but Kristel was unavailable at the time and Miranda Richardson was cast. She was friends with Sergio Leone, who wanted her for the role of Carol while casting Once Upon a Time in America (1984); the producers did not agree and the part went to Tuesday Weld. In 1982, she was turned down by Tony Scott for the role of Miriam in The Hunger (1983); Catherine Deneuve won the part. She also was considered for the role of Lois Lane in Superman (1978), which went to Margot Kidder; and she unsuccessfully tried to win a role as a Bond Girl in four James Bond movies: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Octopussy (1983).
Kristel also rejected the female leading roles in The Story of Adele H. (1975), King Kong (1976), Logan's Run (1976), Caligula (1979), Body Heat (1981), Blade Runner (1982), Scarface (1983), Dune (1984), Body Double (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986). In 1992, her friend Gérard Depardieu, wanting to help secure her comeback, unsuccessfully tried to persuade the producers of 1492: Conquest of Paradise to cast her as Queen Isabella I, ultimately played by Sigourney Weaver.
In May 1990, she appeared in the television series My Riviera, filmed at her home in Saint-Tropez and offering insights on her life and motivations in an interview with writer-director Michael Feeney Callan. In 2001, she had a small role in Forgive Me, Dutch filmmaker Cyrus Frisch's debut. In May 2006, Kristel received an award at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, for directing the animated short film Topor and Me, written by Ruud Den Dryver. The award was presented by Gayle King.
After a hiatus of eight years, she appeared in the film Two Sunny Days (2010) and, that same year, in her last acting role, she played Eva de Leeuw in the Italian TV movie The Swing Girls.
In June 2021 it was announced that actress Sylvia Hoeks will play Sylvia Kristel in a biopic of her life and career.

## Personal life

In September 2006, Kristel's autobiography Nue (Nude) was published in France. The writing was translated into English as Undressing Emmanuelle: A Memoir, by Fourth Estate, 2 July 2007, in which she described a turbulent personal life that was blighted by addictions to drugs and alcohol, and her quest for a father figure, which resulted in some destructive relationships with older men. The book received some positive reviews.
She had her first major relationship with Belgian author Hugo Claus, who was more than two decades her senior. Their union from 1973 to 1977 produced her only child, a son named Arthur, who was born in 1975. She left her husband for British actor Ian McShane, whom she had met in 1976 on the set of the film The Fifth Musketeer (1979). They moved in together in Los Angeles, where he had promised to help launch her American career. However, their five-year affair led to no significant career break for Kristel, but a relationship she describes in her autobiography as "awful – he was witty and charming, but we were too much alike." She began using cocaine about two years into their relationship. This proved her downfall, although at the time she thought of it as a "supervitamin, a very fashionable substance, without danger, but expensive, far more exciting than drowning in alcohol – a fuel necessary to stay in the swing." Sylvia Kristel also had a year-long relationship with French singer Michel Polnareff.
Kristel was interviewed in 2006 for the documentary Hunting Emmanuelle. She described how she made a number of poor decisions due to an expensive cocaine addiction. One of those mistakes included selling her interest in Private Lessons to her agent for US$150,000; the film grossed more than US$26 million domestically. After McShane, she married twice, first in 1982 to Alan Turner, an American businessman. That marriage ended after five months, and she later married film producer Philippe Blot (1986–1991). She then spent a decade with Belgian radio producer Fred De Vree, until his death in 2004.
Her authorized biography was written by Dutch journalist Suzanne Rethans and was published in September 2019. It took Rethans more than three years to write it. Titled Begeerd en Verguisd (transl. Desired and Vilified), it has not yet been translated into English.

## Illness and death

Kristel was a heavy cigarette smoker from the age of 11. She was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2001, and underwent three courses of chemotherapy and surgery after the disease spread to her lungs. On 12 June 2012, she suffered a stroke and was hospitalized in critical condition. Four months later, she died in her sleep at age 60 from esophageal and lung cancer. Kristel is buried at her place of birth in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1973 | Frank en Eva | Sylvia | English title: Living Apart Together |
| 1973 | Because of the Cats | Hannie Troost | |
| 1973 | Naked Over the Fence | Lilly Marischka | |
| 1974 | Emmanuelle | Emmanuelle | |
| 1974 | Julia | Andrea | |
| 1974 | No Pockets in a Shroud | Avril | |
| 1975 | Playing with Fire | Diana Van Den Berg | |
| 1975 | Emmanuelle II | Emmanuelle | English title: Emmanuelle, The Joys of a Woman |
| 1976 | Game of Seduction | Mathilde Leroy | Directed by Roger Vadim |
| 1976 | La Marge | Diana | English titles: The Streetwalker / The Margin |
| 1977 | Alice or the Last Escapade | Alice Caroll | Directed by Claude Chabrol French title: Alice ou la dernière fugue |
| 1977 | Rene the Cane | Krista | |
| 1977 | Emmanuelle 3 | Emmanuelle | English title: Goodbye Emmanuelle |
| 1978 | Pastorale 1943 | Miep Algera | |
| 1978 | Mysteries | Dany Kielland | |
| 1979 | Tigers in Lipstick | The Lady on the Bed / The Unhappy Wife | |
| 1979 | The Fifth Musketeer | Maria Theresa | |
| 1979 | The Concorde... Airport '79 | Isabelle | |
| 1980 | The Nude Bomb | Agent 34 | |
| 1980 | Love in First Class | Beatrice | |
| 1981 | Private Lessons | Nicole Mallow | |
| 1981 | Lady Chatterley's Lover | Lady Constance Chatterley | |
| 1983 | Private School | Ms. Regina Copoletta | |
| 1984 | Emmanuelle 4 | Sylvia / Emmanuelle | |
| 1985 | Mata Hari | Mata Hari | |
| 1985 | Red Heat | Sofia | |
| 1985 | The Big Bet | Michelle | |
| 1988 | The Arrogant | Julie | |
| 1988 | Dracula's Widow | Vanessa | |
| 1989 | Hot Blood | Sylvia | |
| 1992 | Silence of the Body(성애의침묵) | | |
| 1993 | Beauty School | Sylvia | |
| 1993 | Emmanuelle 7 | Emmanuelle | |
| 1996 | In the Shadow of the Sandcastle | Angel Kelley | |
| 1997 | Gaston's War | Miep Visser | |
| 1999 | Film 1 | Patron | |
| 1999 | An Amsterdam Tale | Alma | |
| 1999 | Harry Rents a Room | Miss Pinky | Short |
| 2000 | Lijmen/Het Been | Jeanne | |
| 2001 | Vergeef me | Chiquita (on stage) | |
| 2001 | De vriendschap | Sylvia | |
| 2001 | Sexy Boys | La sexologue | |
| 2002 | Bank | Wife | Video |
| 2010 | Two Sunny Days | Angela | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1979 | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson | Self | Talk show guest appearance |
| 1979 | The Merv Griffin Show | Self | Talk show guest appearance |
| 1981 | The Million Dollar Face | Brett Devereaux | TV film |
| 1981 | Friday Night, Saturday Morning | Self | Talk show guest appearance |
| 1982 | The Don Lane Show | Self | Talk show guest appearance |
| 1985 | Àngel Casas Show | Self | Talk show guest appearance |
| 1987 | Casanova | Maddalena | TV film |
| 1993 | Emmanuelle | Old Emmanuelle | TV films |
| 1996 | De eenzame oorlog van Koos Tak | "Tante Heintje" | TV series |
| 1996 | Onderweg naar Morgen | Trix Odijk | TV series |
| 1997 | Die Sexfalle | Nicole Fuchs | TV film |
| 2000 | Mind Hunter [de] (a.k.a. Die Unbesiegbaren) | Elisabeth Lohmann | TV film |
| 2010 | The Swing Girls | Eva de Leeuw | TV film |