Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider a.k.a. Romy Schneider-Albach (
September 23,
1938 -
May 29,
1982) was a German
actress of
German-
Austrian ancestry. She was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach-Retty in
Vienna into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother
Rosa Albach-Retty, her father
Wolf Albach-Retty and her mother
Magda Schneider. After Magda's divorce in
1945, she took care of Romy and eventually also supervised the young girl's career, often appearing alongside her daughter, who made her film debut in
1953, at the age of 15. Young Romy's career was also overseen by her stepfather, Hans-Herbert Blatzheim, a noted restaurateur who Schneider indicated had an unhealthy interest in her.
In the film
Mädchenjahre einer Königin (Girlhood of a Queen,
Ernst Marischka,
1954) Romy Schneider for the first time portrayed a royal. Interestingly, this Austrian movie is about the early years of
Queen Victoria, in particular her first encounter with
Prince Albert. Schneider's breakthrough, however, came with her portrayal of Princess Elisabeth of
Bavaria in the romantic biopic
Sissi (
1955) and its two
sequels (
1956 and
1957).
Fed up with the saccharine image these movies had bestowed upon her, Schneider leapt at the chance to star in the much more sombre
Christine (
1958), a
remake of
Max Ophüls's
1933 film
Liebelei (itself based upon a play by
Arthur Schnitzler). It was during the filming of
Christine that Schneider fell in love with French
actor Alain Delon, who co-starred in the movie. She abruptly left Germany to join him in Paris, creating a national scandal. Schneider became engaged to Delon in
1959.
This meant the beginning of Schneider's international film career, which also brought her to
Hollywood (
Good Neighbor Sam, a
1964 comedy with
Jack Lemmon, and the
1965 movie
What's New, Pussycat? with
Woody Allen). More importantly, however, Schneider stayed in France, working with
film directors such as
Orson Welles (
Le Procès of
1963, based upon
Franz Kafka's
The Trial) and
Luchino Visconti. She also gave remarkable and much lauded performances in John Ford's play "'T'is a pity she's a whore" and in the film "Boccacio '70" (in the episode entitled "The Job"), where her beauty and sensuality contrasted with the more obvious charms of Anita Ekberg and Sophia Loren.
Ludwig, Visconti's
1972 film about the life of King
Ludwig II of Bavaria, featured her as a much more mature, complex and bitter Elisabeth of Austria. "Sissi sticks to me just like oatmeal," Schneider once said. Reportedly, a portrait of her taken from the Visconti film was the only one of her roles she had displayed in her home.
Romy Schneider's private life was rather turbulent. Dumped by Delon in
1963, she married (
1966) and divorced (
1975)
Harry Meyen (
1924 -
1979), a German actor who later committed
suicide. The couple had a son, David-Christopher (
1966 â€"
1981). In
1975 Schneider married
Daniel Biasini, her private secretary; they separated in 1981. Her daughter by her second marriage,
Sarah Magdalena Biasini (b.
July 14,
1977), is now an actress who startlingly resembles her mother, and has been a target of German
tabloids for quite some time.
Even after the breakup of her relationship with Alain Delon, Schneider continued starring in films with Delon (
La Piscine of
1969 and "The Assassination of Trotsky"). He remained a lifelong friend, coming to her aid during difficult times. Of her other films, the macabre
Le Trio infernal (
1974) with
Michel Piccoli is worth mentioning and what may have been her greatest performance, a chilling turn in "
Garde a vue" with Michel Piccoli and Lino Ventura (1981).
In
1980 she starred in
Bertrand Tavernier's prophetic
La mort en direct (
Deathwatch), based on
D. G. Compton's novel, playing a dying woman whose last days are watched on national television via a camera implanted in the brain of a journalist (
Harvey Keitel). Her last film was
La Passante du Sans-Souci (
The Passerby,
1982).
A
smoker all her life, Schneider also took to drinking, especially after the sudden death, on
July 5,
1981, of her 14-year-old son, David, who was found impaled on a fence, which he had attempted to climb, at the home of his stepfather's parents. When Romy Schneider was found dead in her apartment in
Paris,
France on May 29,
1982, at the age of 43, rumour had it that she had committed suicide by taking a lethal cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills. However, no
post-mortem examination was carried out, and she was declared to have died of "
cardiac arrest".
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Biography at FemBio – Notable Women International*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Romy Schneider
