Jean Seberg
Encyclopedia
Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American
actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood
and in France
, including Breathless (1960), the musical
Paint Your Wagon
(1969) and the disaster film
Airport (1970).
, the daughter of Dorothy Arline (née
Benson), a substitute teacher, and Edward Waldemar Seberg, a druggist. Her family was Lutheran and of Swedish, English, and German ancestry. Seberg studied at the University of Iowa
.
play, after being chosen from 18,000 hopefuls by director Otto Preminger
in a $150,000 talent search. Her name was entered by a neighbor. By the time she was cast, on October 21, 1956, her only acting experience had been a single season of summer stock performances. The film was paired with a great deal of publicity about which Seberg commented that she was "embarrassed by all the attention". Despite a big build-up, called in the press a "Pygmalion
experiment", both the film and Seberg received poor notices. On the failure, she later told the press:
Preminger, though, had promised her a second chance, and he cast Seberg in his next film Bonjour Tristesse the following year, which was filmed in France. Regarding his decision, Preminger told the press: "It's quite true that, if I had chosen Audrey Hepburn
instead of Jean Seberg, it would have been less of a risk, but I prefer to take the risk. [..] I have faith in her. Sure, she still has things to learn about acting, but so did Kim Novak
when she started." Seberg again received atrocious reviews and the film nearly ended her career. Her next role was in the 1959 comedy, The Mouse That Roared, starring Peter Sellers
.
Deciding she had no luck in English-language films, Seberg moved to France, where she scored success as the free-love heroine of French New Wave
films. Most notably, she appeared as Patricia in Jean-Luc Godard
's Breathless (original French
title: À bout de souffle), in which she co-starred with Jean-Paul Belmondo
. The film became an international success and critics praised Seberg's performance, François Truffaut
even hailing her "the best actress in Europe." Despite her achievements in this genre, Seberg did not identify with her characters or the film plots, saying that she was "making films in France about people [she's] not really interested in." The critics did not agree with Seberg's absence of enthusiasm, and raved about her performances, inspiring Hollywood and Broadway to make her important offers.
In 1961, Seberg took on the lead role in her then husband François Moreuil's debut film, La recréation. By that time, Seberg had been estranged from Moreuil, and she recollected that production was "pure hell" and that he "would scream at [her]." After moving back to the United States, she starred opposite Warren Beatty
in Lilith
(1964), which prompted the critics to acknowledge Seberg as a serious actress.
In 1969, she appeared in her first and only musical film
, Paint Your Wagon
, based on Lerner and Loewe
's stage musical, and co-starring Lee Marvin
and Clint Eastwood
, but her singing voice was dubbed by Anita Gordon. Seberg also starred in the disaster film
Airport (1970) opposite Burt Lancaster
and Dean Martin
.
At the peak of her career, Seberg suddenly stopped acting in Hollywood films. Reportedly, she was not pleased with the roles she had been offered, some of which, she noted, bordered on pornography. Conversely, she was not offered any great Hollywood roles, regardless of their size. Some have said she was blacklisted due to an infamous FBI smear campaign revolving around issues in her personal life. Others have dismissed that any blacklist occurred. Seberg was willing to work in a Paramount production whose screenplay she had been sent but the film was never made.
Seberg was François Truffaut's first choice for the central role of Julie in Day for Night
but, after several fruitless attempts to contact her, Truffaut gave up and cast British actress Jacqueline Bisset
instead. Her state of mind may have been responsible for this missed opportunity in 1973. Her last US film appearance was in the TV movie Mousey (1974). Seberg remained busy during the 1970s, but only in European films.
Seberg later appeared in Bianchi cavalli d'Agosto (White Horses of Summer) (1975), Le Grand Délire (Die Große Ekstase) (1975, with husband Dennis Berry) and Die Wildente (1976, based on Ibsen's The Wild Duck
).
In 1962, she married French novelist and diplomat Romain Gary
, who was 24 years her senior. Their only child together, a son, was named Diego. During her marriage to Gary, Seberg lived in Paris, Greece
, Southern France
and Majorca, but remained an American citizen throughout.
During the late 1960s, Seberg used her high-profile image to privately voice support for the NAACP and supported Native American
school groups such as the Mesquaki Bucks at the Tama settlement near her home town of Marshalltown, for whom she purchased $500 worth of basketball uniforms. She also supported the Black Panther Party
.
After Richard Nixon
's resignation from the presidency, the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-ID) and usually referred to as the Church Committee
, revealed that the FBI used illegally obtained information about Jean Seberg to concoct an article it planted in Newsweek
magazine that defamed the actress, who was then seven months pregnant with her second child.
The FBI's goal was to "cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the public".
Accordingly to some authors and researchers, the FBI's actions against Jean Seberg resulted in her suicide. Her death led fifteen months later to the suicide of her husband Romain Gary, although his suicide note denied any connection between their two suicides.
The story planted by the FBI in the Newsweek
magazine was related to allegations that Seberg had an affair with Clint Eastwood
while filming Paint Your Wagon
. and that in 1970, Seberg had an affair with a college student named Carlos Navarra, which resulted in the pregnancy of her daughter. It was when she was seven months pregnant that the FBI created the false story that the child she was carrying was not fathered by her husband Romain Gary, but by a member of the Black Panther Party
, Raymond Hewitt. The story was also reported by gossip columnist
Joyce Haber of the Los Angeles Times
, and Newsweek
magazine. During her pregnancy, Seberg claimed that her husband Gary was the father. She gave birth to a girl named Nina on August 23, 1970 in Geneva, but the infant died two days later. She held an open casket funeral in her hometown to allow the curious to see the infant's color.
In 1972, she married film director Dennis Berry.
David Richards, author of the book Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story, presents a different version of Jean's problems, describing them as having compounded after a relationship she had in 1979 with an Algeria
n named Ahmed Hasni. Richards affirms that Jean had "a form of marriage" to Ahmed Hasni through a ceremony on May 31, 1979 that had no legal force because she was still married to Berry. As per Richards, in July, Hasni persuaded her to sell her second apartment on the Rue du Bac, and he kept the proceeds (reportedly 11 million franc
s in cash), announcing that he would use the money to open a Barcelona restaurant. The couple departed for Spain but she was soon back in Paris alone, and went into hiding from Hasni, who she said had grievously abused
her. Charles Champlin, film and arts critic for the Los Angeles Times
, wrote in 1979 a piece entitled "Jean Seberg: A Hollywood tragedy", where he affirms that in her later life, Seberg dealt with clinical depression, something he asserts was not revealed until after her death.
of barbiturate
s and alcohol
(8g per liter). A suicide note ("Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves.") was found in her hand, and "probable suicide" was ultimately ruled the official cause of death by the French coroner. However, it is often questioned how she could have operated a car with that amount of alcohol in her body, and without the corrective lenses she needed for driving. One year later, her former husband Romain Gary
committed suicide.
Seberg was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse
, Paris, France.
played Seberg in a voice-over. Appropriately, Hurt was also born in Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1948, attended the same high school as Seberg, and Seberg had been her babysitter. A musical, Jean Seberg
, by librettist Julian Barry
, composer Marvin Hamlisch
, and lyricist Christopher Adler, based on Seberg's life, was presented in 1983 at the National Theatre
in London
.
Mexican author and diplomat Carlos Fuentes
mirrored their short-termed alleged love story in his 1994 novel Diana o La Cazadora Solitaria (Diana, or The Solitary Hunter).
The short 2000 film Je t'aime John Wayne
is a tribute parody of Breathless, with Camilla Rutherford
playing Seberg's role.
In 2004, the French author Alain Absire published Jean S., a fictionalised biography. Seberg's son, Alexandre Diego Gary, brought a lawsuit unsuccessfully attempting to stop publication.
In 1991, Jodie Foster
, a fan of her performance in Breathless, purchased the film rights to the David Richards' biography about Seberg, Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story. She was going to produce and star in the film. The project was cancelled two years later.
In 2011, filming began in New York City on a biopic tentatively titled, 'Jean', starring artist and heiress Daphne Guinness
as Jean Seberg.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
and in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, including Breathless (1960), the musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Paint Your Wagon
Paint Your Wagon
Paint Your Wagon is a Broadway musical comedy, with book and lyrics by Alan J. Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story centers around a miner and his daughter and follows the lives and loves of the people in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California. Popular songs from the show included...
(1969) and the disaster film
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
Airport (1970).
Early life
Jean Seberg was born in Marshalltown, IowaMarshalltown, Iowa
Marshalltown is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,552 in the 2010 census, an increase from the 26,009 population in the 2000 census. -History:...
, the daughter of Dorothy Arline (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Benson), a substitute teacher, and Edward Waldemar Seberg, a druggist. Her family was Lutheran and of Swedish, English, and German ancestry. Seberg studied at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
.
Career
Seberg made her film debut in 1957 in the title role of Saint Joan, from the ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
play, after being chosen from 18,000 hopefuls by director Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
in a $150,000 talent search. Her name was entered by a neighbor. By the time she was cast, on October 21, 1956, her only acting experience had been a single season of summer stock performances. The film was paired with a great deal of publicity about which Seberg commented that she was "embarrassed by all the attention". Despite a big build-up, called in the press a "Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
experiment", both the film and Seberg received poor notices. On the failure, she later told the press:
- "I have two memories of Saint Joan. The first was being burned at the stake in the picture. The second was being burned at the stake by the critics. The latter hurt more. I was scared like a rabbit and it showed on the screen. It was not a good experience at all. I started where most actresses end up."
Preminger, though, had promised her a second chance, and he cast Seberg in his next film Bonjour Tristesse the following year, which was filmed in France. Regarding his decision, Preminger told the press: "It's quite true that, if I had chosen Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
instead of Jean Seberg, it would have been less of a risk, but I prefer to take the risk. [..] I have faith in her. Sure, she still has things to learn about acting, but so did Kim Novak
Kim Novak
Kim Novak is an American film and television actress. She began her career with her roles in Pushover and Phffft! but achieved greater prominence in the 1955 film Picnic...
when she started." Seberg again received atrocious reviews and the film nearly ended her career. Her next role was in the 1959 comedy, The Mouse That Roared, starring Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
.
Deciding she had no luck in English-language films, Seberg moved to France, where she scored success as the free-love heroine of French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
films. Most notably, she appeared as Patricia in Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's Breathless (original French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
title: À bout de souffle), in which she co-starred with Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
. The film became an international success and critics praised Seberg's performance, François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
even hailing her "the best actress in Europe." Despite her achievements in this genre, Seberg did not identify with her characters or the film plots, saying that she was "making films in France about people [she's] not really interested in." The critics did not agree with Seberg's absence of enthusiasm, and raved about her performances, inspiring Hollywood and Broadway to make her important offers.
In 1961, Seberg took on the lead role in her then husband François Moreuil's debut film, La recréation. By that time, Seberg had been estranged from Moreuil, and she recollected that production was "pure hell" and that he "would scream at [her]." After moving back to the United States, she starred opposite Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
in Lilith
Lilith (film)
Lilith is a film written and directed by Robert Rossen. It is based on a novel by J. R. Salamanca and stars Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg, Peter Fonda, Kim Hunter and Gene Hackman...
(1964), which prompted the critics to acknowledge Seberg as a serious actress.
In 1969, she appeared in her first and only musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
, Paint Your Wagon
Paint Your Wagon (film)
Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 American musical film starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. The movie was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from the 1951 stage musical by Lerner and Loewe, set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California.-Plot:...
, based on Lerner and Loewe
Lerner and Loewe
Lerner and Loewe are the duo of lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe, known primarily for the music and lyrics of some of Broadway's most successful musical shows, including My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Brigadoon....
's stage musical, and co-starring Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles in Cat Ballou , he landed more...
and Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, but her singing voice was dubbed by Anita Gordon. Seberg also starred in the disaster film
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
Airport (1970) opposite Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
and Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
.
At the peak of her career, Seberg suddenly stopped acting in Hollywood films. Reportedly, she was not pleased with the roles she had been offered, some of which, she noted, bordered on pornography. Conversely, she was not offered any great Hollywood roles, regardless of their size. Some have said she was blacklisted due to an infamous FBI smear campaign revolving around issues in her personal life. Others have dismissed that any blacklist occurred. Seberg was willing to work in a Paramount production whose screenplay she had been sent but the film was never made.
Seberg was François Truffaut's first choice for the central role of Julie in Day for Night
Day for Night (film)
La Nuit Américaine is a 1973 French film directed by François Truffaut. It stars Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Léaud. In French, nuit américaine is a technical process whereby sequences filmed outdoors in daylight are underexposed to appear as if they are taking place at night...
but, after several fruitless attempts to contact her, Truffaut gave up and cast British actress Jacqueline Bisset
Jacqueline Bisset
Jacqueline Bisset is an English actress. She has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award. She is known for her roles in the films Bullitt , Airport , The Deep , Class , and the TV series Nip/Tuck in 2006...
instead. Her state of mind may have been responsible for this missed opportunity in 1973. Her last US film appearance was in the TV movie Mousey (1974). Seberg remained busy during the 1970s, but only in European films.
Seberg later appeared in Bianchi cavalli d'Agosto (White Horses of Summer) (1975), Le Grand Délire (Die Große Ekstase) (1975, with husband Dennis Berry) and Die Wildente (1976, based on Ibsen's The Wild Duck
The Wild Duck
The Wild Duck is an 1884 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.-Plot:The first act opens with a dinner party hosted by Håkon Werle, a wealthy merchant and industrialist. The gathering is attended by his son, Gregers Werle, who has just returned to his father's home following a self-imposed...
).
Personal life
Seberg married François Moreuil, a French movie director who directed her in La récréation, in 1958; they divorced in 1960. According to Seberg, the marriage was a "violent" one, and she complained that she "got married for all the wrong reasons." On living in France for a period of time, Seberg said in an interview:- "I'm enjoying it to the fullest extent. I've been tremendously lucky to have gone through this experience at an age where I can still learn. That doesn't mean that I will stay here. I'm in Paris because my work has been here. I'm not an expatriate. I will go where the work is. The French life has its drawbacks. One of them is the formality. The system seems to be based on saving the maximum of yourself for those nearest you. Perhaps that is better than the other extreme in Hollywood, where people give so much of themselves in public life that they have nothing left over for their families. Still, it is hard for an American to get used to. Often I will get excited over a luncheon table only to have the hostess say discreetly that coffee will be served in the other room. [..] I miss that casualness and friendliness of Americans, the kind that makes people smile. I also miss blue jeans, milk shakes, thick steaks and supermarkets."
In 1962, she married French novelist and diplomat Romain Gary
Romain Gary
Romain Gary was a French diplomat, novelist, film director, World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice .- Early life :Gary was born in Vilnius under the name Roman Kacew...
, who was 24 years her senior. Their only child together, a son, was named Diego. During her marriage to Gary, Seberg lived in Paris, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Southern France
Southern France
Southern France , colloquially known as le Midi is defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean, and Italy...
and Majorca, but remained an American citizen throughout.
During the late 1960s, Seberg used her high-profile image to privately voice support for the NAACP and supported Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
school groups such as the Mesquaki Bucks at the Tama settlement near her home town of Marshalltown, for whom she purchased $500 worth of basketball uniforms. She also supported the Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
.
After Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's resignation from the presidency, the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-ID) and usually referred to as the Church Committee
Church Committee
The Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church in 1975. A precursor to the U.S...
, revealed that the FBI used illegally obtained information about Jean Seberg to concoct an article it planted in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine that defamed the actress, who was then seven months pregnant with her second child.
The FBI's goal was to "cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the public".
Accordingly to some authors and researchers, the FBI's actions against Jean Seberg resulted in her suicide. Her death led fifteen months later to the suicide of her husband Romain Gary, although his suicide note denied any connection between their two suicides.
The story planted by the FBI in the Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine was related to allegations that Seberg had an affair with Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
while filming Paint Your Wagon
Paint Your Wagon
Paint Your Wagon is a Broadway musical comedy, with book and lyrics by Alan J. Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story centers around a miner and his daughter and follows the lives and loves of the people in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California. Popular songs from the show included...
. and that in 1970, Seberg had an affair with a college student named Carlos Navarra, which resulted in the pregnancy of her daughter. It was when she was seven months pregnant that the FBI created the false story that the child she was carrying was not fathered by her husband Romain Gary, but by a member of the Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
, Raymond Hewitt. The story was also reported by gossip columnist
Gossip columnist
A gossip columnist is someone who writes a gossip column in a newspaper or magazine, especially a gossip magazine. Gossip columns are material written in a light, informal style, which relates the gossip columnist's opinions about the personal lives or conduct of celebrities from show business ,...
Joyce Haber of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, and Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine. During her pregnancy, Seberg claimed that her husband Gary was the father. She gave birth to a girl named Nina on August 23, 1970 in Geneva, but the infant died two days later. She held an open casket funeral in her hometown to allow the curious to see the infant's color.
In 1972, she married film director Dennis Berry.
David Richards, author of the book Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story, presents a different version of Jean's problems, describing them as having compounded after a relationship she had in 1979 with an Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
n named Ahmed Hasni. Richards affirms that Jean had "a form of marriage" to Ahmed Hasni through a ceremony on May 31, 1979 that had no legal force because she was still married to Berry. As per Richards, in July, Hasni persuaded her to sell her second apartment on the Rue du Bac, and he kept the proceeds (reportedly 11 million franc
Franc
The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions and the former currency of France, the French franc until the Euro was adopted in 1999...
s in cash), announcing that he would use the money to open a Barcelona restaurant. The couple departed for Spain but she was soon back in Paris alone, and went into hiding from Hasni, who she said had grievously abused
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
her. Charles Champlin, film and arts critic for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, wrote in 1979 a piece entitled "Jean Seberg: A Hollywood tragedy", where he affirms that in her later life, Seberg dealt with clinical depression, something he asserts was not revealed until after her death.
Death
In August 1979, she went missing and was found dead eleven days later in the back seat of her car, which was parked close to her Paris apartment in the 16th arrondissement. The police report stated that she had taken a massive overdoseDrug overdose
The term drug overdose describes the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities greater than are recommended or generally practiced...
of barbiturate
Barbiturate
Barbiturates are drugs that act as central nervous system depressants, and can therefore produce a wide spectrum of effects, from mild sedation to total anesthesia. They are also effective as anxiolytics, as hypnotics, and as anticonvulsants...
s and alcohol
Ethanol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
(8g per liter). A suicide note ("Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves.") was found in her hand, and "probable suicide" was ultimately ruled the official cause of death by the French coroner. However, it is often questioned how she could have operated a car with that amount of alcohol in her body, and without the corrective lenses she needed for driving. One year later, her former husband Romain Gary
Romain Gary
Romain Gary was a French diplomat, novelist, film director, World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice .- Early life :Gary was born in Vilnius under the name Roman Kacew...
committed suicide.
Seberg was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse
Montparnasse Cemetery
Montparnasse Cemetery is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, part of the city's 14th arrondissement.-History:Created from three farms in 1824, the cemetery at Montparnasse was originally known as Le Cimetière du Sud. Cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the closure, owing to...
, Paris, France.
Legacy
In 1995, a documentary of her life was made by Mark Rappaport, titled From the Journals of Jean Seberg. Mary Beth HurtMary Beth Hurt
Mary Beth Hurt is an American actress of stage and screen.-Personal life:Hurt was born Mary Supinger in 1946 in Marshalltown, Iowa, the daughter of Delores Lenore and Forrest Clayton Supinger. Her childhood babysitter was actress Jean Seberg, also a Marshalltown native...
played Seberg in a voice-over. Appropriately, Hurt was also born in Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1948, attended the same high school as Seberg, and Seberg had been her babysitter. A musical, Jean Seberg
Jean Seberg (musical)
Jean Seberg is a musical biography with a book by Julian Barry, lyrics by Christopher Adler, and music by Marvin Hamlisch. It is based on the life of the late American actress....
, by librettist Julian Barry
Julian Barry
Julian Barry is an American screenwriter and playwright best known for his Oscar-nominated script for the film Lenny about comedian Lenny Bruce, which Barry adapted from his successful Broadway play of the same name...
, composer Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch is an American composer. He is one of only thirteen people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony . He is also one of only two people to EGOT and also win a Pulitzer Prize...
, and lyricist Christopher Adler, based on Seberg's life, was presented in 1983 at the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Mexican author and diplomat Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
mirrored their short-termed alleged love story in his 1994 novel Diana o La Cazadora Solitaria (Diana, or The Solitary Hunter).
The short 2000 film Je t'aime John Wayne
Je t'aime John Wayne
Je t'aime John Wayne is a ten minute short film parody directed by Toby MacDonald about a young man in London obsessed with imitating Jean Paul Belmondo in the film Breathless, who in turn was pretending to be Humphrey Bogart...
is a tribute parody of Breathless, with Camilla Rutherford
Camilla Rutherford
Camilla Rutherford is an English actress and fashion model.-Background:Rutherford was born to a journalist father and magistrate mother in Holland Park...
playing Seberg's role.
In 2004, the French author Alain Absire published Jean S., a fictionalised biography. Seberg's son, Alexandre Diego Gary, brought a lawsuit unsuccessfully attempting to stop publication.
In 1991, Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
, a fan of her performance in Breathless, purchased the film rights to the David Richards' biography about Seberg, Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story. She was going to produce and star in the film. The project was cancelled two years later.
In 2011, filming began in New York City on a biopic tentatively titled, 'Jean', starring artist and heiress Daphne Guinness
Daphne Guinness
The Honourable Daphne Diana Joan Suzannah Guinness is an artist of Irish, English, and French descent and an heiress of the Guinness family...
as Jean Seberg.
Filmography
- Saint Joan (1957)
- Bonjour tristesse (1958)
- The Mouse That Roared (1959)
- Breathless (A bout de souffle) (1959)
- Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960)
- Les Grandes Personnes (Time Out for Love) (1961)
- La récréation (Playtime / Love Play) (1961, with husband François Moreuil)
- L'Amant de cinq joursL'Amant de cinq joursL'Amant de cinq jours is a 1961 French comedy film directed by Philippe de Broca. It was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Jean Seberg - Claire* Micheline Presle - Madeleine* Jean-Pierre Cassel - Antoine...
(1961) - Congo Vivo (1962)
- In the French Style (1962)
- Les Plus Belles Escroqueries du Monde (The World's Greatest Swindles) (1964)
- LilithLilith (film)Lilith is a film written and directed by Robert Rossen. It is based on a novel by J. R. Salamanca and stars Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg, Peter Fonda, Kim Hunter and Gene Hackman...
(1964) - The Beautiful Swindlers (1964)
- Échappement libre (Backfire) (1964)
- Moment to Moment (1965)
- Un Milliard dans un Billard (Diamonds are Brittle) (1965)
- A Fine MadnessA Fine MadnessA Fine Madness is a motion picture comedy based on the 1964 novel by Elliott Baker that tells the story of Samson Shillitoe, a frustrated poet unable to finish a grand tome. It stars Sean Connery , Joanne Woodward, Jean Seberg, Patrick O'Neal and Clive Revill...
(1966) - La Ligne de démarcation or Line of DemarcationLine of Demarcation (film)Line of Demarcation. is a 1966 film written and directed by Claude Chabrol. Its title in French is La Ligne de démarcation. It is based on upon the memoir Mémoires d'un agent secret de la France libre et La Ligne de démarcation by Gilbert Renault under his pseudonym Colonel Rémy.-Plot:A small...
(1966) - Estouffade à la Caraïbe (Gold Robbers) (1967)
- La route de CorintheLa route de CorintheLa route de Corinthe is a 1967 spy film directed by Claude Chabrol.-External links:...
(The Road to Corinth, also released as Who's Got the Black Box?) (1967) - Birds in Peru (1968, with husband Romain GaryRomain GaryRomain Gary was a French diplomat, novelist, film director, World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice .- Early life :Gary was born in Vilnius under the name Roman Kacew...
) - Pendulum (1969)
- Paint Your WagonPaint Your Wagon (film)Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 American musical film starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. The movie was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from the 1951 stage musical by Lerner and Loewe, set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California.-Plot:...
(1969) - Ondata di Calore (Dead of Summer) (1970)
- Airport (1970)
- Macho Callahan (1970)
- Kill! (1972)
- Questa Specie d'Amore (This Kind of Love) (1972)
- L'attentat (The French Conspiracy) (1972)
- Camorra (1972)
- The Corruption of Chris Miller (1973)
- Mousey (or Cat & Mouse) (1974)
- Les Hautes solitudes (1974)
- Ballad for the Kid (1974) (also contributed to script, direction, editing)
- White Horses of Summer (1975)
- Le Grand DélireThe Big DeliriumThe Big Delirium is a 1975 French drama film directed by Dennis Berry.-Cast:* Jean Seberg - Emily* Pierre Blaise - Pierre* Wolfgang Preiss - Artmann* Isabelle Huppert - Marie* Yves Beneyton - John* Georges Adet* Gladys Berry* Stefania Casini...
(Die Große Ekstase) (1975, with husband Dennis Berry) - The Wild Duck (1976)
- La Légion Saute sur Kolwezi (1980 - scenes shot before her suicide were never shown)
External links
- 1958 Mike Wallace interview January 4, 1958