# Geneviève Page

Geneviève Bonjean (13 December 1927 – 14 February 2025), known professionally as Geneviève Page (French pronunciation:), was a French actress with a film career spanning fifty years and also numerous English-speaking film productions. She was the daughter of French art collector Jacques Paul Bonjean (1899–1990).

## Early life

Page was born in Paris on 13 December 1927, to a family of aesthetes, like her father Jacques Bonjean, who collected art from 17th century France, and her mother Germaine (born Lipman) Bonjean. Her mother's family was Jewish, and had founded LIP. At the age of six, her godfather Christian Dior played the piano with Page's mother, and talked to Page about talking to adults. She recalls, "He had no money at the time, and drew hats for big houses. He had lunch every other day at home and played the piano, with my mother in my room, with four hands. I took refuge in the bathroom to learn my lessons." At the age of twelve, Page read some works by Voltaire, and to her mother's surprise, her father replied "If she can't read Voltaire, she can't read anyone." Despite this, she was a very talented young girl, playing Musset at Théâtre National Populaire and entering the Conservatory.

## Career

Her film début was in Pas de pitié pour les femmes (1951), followed by Fanfan la Tulipe (1952), in which she played Madame de Pompadour alongside Gérard Philipe and Gina Lollobrigida. Later, she appeared in Italian, French, British, and American films. She co-starred with Robert Mitchum and Ingrid Thulin in Foreign Intrigue (1956), Dirk Bogarde and Capucine in Song Without End (1960), Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren in El Cid (1961), and was seen in Grand Prix (1966) with James Garner, and Belle de Jour (1967), with Catherine Deneuve and directed by Luis Buñuel. She appeared with Deneuve again when she played Countess Larisch in Mayerling (1968), also co-starring with Ava Gardner and James Mason.
Billy Wilder cast her as the mysterious widow in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) because the character she played used her sex appeal to manipulate Holmes. She appeared in Robert Altman's Beyond Therapy (1987) and continued to act until 2003.

### Theatre

She acted in 1943 in Le Soulier de Satin and in Oh! Les Beaux Jours, both of which were directed by Jean-Louis Barrault Madeleine Renaud Co. Her theatre career continued in the 1980s and 1990s, with Les larmes amères de Petra von Kant (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant) (1980), La nuit des rois (Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare), La femme sur le lit (The Woman on the Bed, Franco Brusati) 1994, and Delicate Balance (1998).

## Personal life and death

Page was educated at École du Louvre and Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. Page was married to Jean-Claude Bujard from 1959 until his death on 29 August 2011; the couple had two children. In an interview from 2013, she said she was having stewardship problems in her house and that she was "not used to talking anymore".
Page died in Paris on 14 February 2025, at the age of 97.

## Selected filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Director |
| 1952 | Fanfan la Tulipe | Madame de Pompadour | Christian-Jaque |
| 1952 | Pleasures of Paris | Violet | Ralph Baum |
| 1953 | Open Letter | Colette Simonet | Alex Joffé |
| 1954 | L'Étrange Désir de monsieur Bard | Donata | Géza von Radványi |
| 1956 | Foreign Intrigue | Dominique Danemore | Sheldon Reynolds |
| 1956 | The Silken Affair | Geneviève Gérard | Roy Kellino |
| 1956 | Michel Strogoff | Nadia Fédor | Carmine Gallone |
| 1957 | Amour de poche | Édith | Pierre Kast |
| 1957 | Trapped in Tangier | Mary Bolevasco | Riccardo Freda |
| 1960 | Song Without End | Countess Marie | George Cukor and Charles Vidor |
| 1961 | El Cid | Princess Urraca | Anthony Mann |
| 1963 | The Day and the Hour | Agathe Dutheil | René Clément |
| 1963 | The Reluctant Spy | Ursula Keller | Jean-Charles Dudrumet |
| 1964 | Youngblood Hawke | Frieda Winter | Delmer Daves |
| 1965 | Le Majordome | Agnès des Vallières | Jean Delannoy |
| 1965 | Three Rooms in Manhattan | Yolande Combes | Marcel Carné |
| 1966 | Tender Scoundrel | Béatrice Dumonceaux | Jean Becker |
| 1966 | Corsaires et Flibustiers | Mary Brown | Claude Barma |
| 1966 | Grand Prix | Monique Delvaux-Sarti | John Frankenheimer |
| 1967 | Belle de jour | Madame Anais | Luis Buñuel |
| 1968 | Mayerling | Countess Marie Larisch von Moennich | Terence Young |
| 1968 | Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher | Margot | John Krish |
| 1968 | A Talent for Loving | Delphine | Richard Quine |
| 1970 | The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes | Gabrielle Valadon | Billy Wilder |
| 1979 | Buffet froid | Geneviève Léonard (the widow) | Bertrand Blier |
| 1982 | Mortelle randonnée | Madame Schmidt-Boulanger | Claude Miller |
| 1987 | Beyond Therapy | Zizi | Robert Altman |
| 1987 | Italian Postcards | Silvana | Memè Perlini |
| 1989 | Les Bois noirs | Nathalie Dupin | Jacques Deray |
| 1992 | L'Inconnu dans la maison | Bernadette | Georges Lautner |

## Accolades

| Year | Title | Award |
| 1980 | Les larmes amères de Petra von Kant | Critics Prize for Best Actress |
| 1994 | La femme sur le lit | Colombe Prix Plaisir du Théâtre Best Actress |