31 December 2017

Stars Who Passed Away in 2017

On the last day of the year, EFSP remembers twelve stars of the European cinema we had to say goodbye to in 2017. Thanks for your films which will live on forever.


27 January: Emmanuelle Riva (1927–2017)


Emmanuelle Riva
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1269, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: Unifrance Film. Publicity still for Berufsrisiko/Les risques du métier (André Cayatte, 1967).

On Friday 27 January, French actress Emmanuelle Riva passed away at the age of 89. She became well-known for her roles in the classic Nouveau Vague films Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959) and Léon Morin, prêtre (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961). In her 80s, Emmanuelle Riva became an icon for world cinema all over again with Michael Haneke's Amour (2012). Riva received both the Bafta and the César award for her role as the retired music teacher Anne in Amour. She was also nominated for an Oscar for her touching performance.


22 March: Tomas Milian (1933-2017)


Thomas Milian
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, in the series Artisti di sempre, no. 118.

In March, Cuban-American actor Tomas Milian passed away at the age of 84. He worked extensively in Italian films from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. Milian played neurotic and sadistic killers in several Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s and lone-wolf anti-heroes in violent action and police thrillers of the 1970s. Very popular in Italy were his crime-comedies of the late 1970s and 1980s. Besides these genre films, he worked with such prolific directors as Mauro Bolognini, Luchino Visconti, Bernardo Bertolucci and Michelangelo Antonioni.


18 April: Yvonne Monlaur (1939-2017)


Yvonne Monlaur
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/395. Photo: Gérard Decaux.

French film actress Yvonne Monlaur passed away in April at the age of 77. She starred in several European film productions of the late 1950s and 1960s. The glamorous French starlet is best known for her roles in a few Hammer horror films.


23 May: Roger Moore (1927-2017)


Roger Moore 14
Dutch postcard by Loeb Uitgevers BV, Amsterdam, 1985. Photo: Eon Productions / Gilrose Publications / Danjaq S.A. Publicity still for A View To A Kill (John Glen, 1985).

British actor Roger Moore died in May. He will always be remembered as the guy who replaced Sean Connery in the James Bond series, but he was also our favourite Ivanhoe, Saint and Persuader on TV. Roger Moore was 89.


17 June: Anneliese Uhlig (1918-2017)


Anneliese Uhlig
German Postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3784/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Civirani.

German actress Anneliese Uhlig passed away at the age of 98. She was an elegant and enchanting femme fatale of Ufa crime films of the 1940s. The classic beauty unwillingly bewitched Joseph Goebbels. After the war she also worked internationally as a journalist, theatre producer and university teacher. She became an American citizen and died in Santa Cruz in California.


8 July: Elsa Martinelli (1935-2017)


Elsa Martinelli
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/255.

Glamorous Italian actress and former fashion model Elsa Martinelli died in July. She showed her beautiful curves in many European and Hollywood productions of the 1950s and 1960s, but somehow she never became the star she was destined to become in the mid-1950s. Martinelli was 82.


31 July: Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017)


Jeanne Moreau
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 81. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French actress Jeanne Moreau died this summer at the age of 89. Moreau was the personification of French womanhood and sensuality. She had a diverse career: she was a magnificent stage and film actress, a producer, screenwriter and film director, a successful singer with a substantial recording career, and a theatre and opera director. Throughout her long career in the cinema with more than 130 films, Jeanne Moreau worked with some of the most notable film directors ever. She combined off-kilter beauty with strong character in Nouvelle Vague classics as Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Louis Malle, 1958) and Les amants (Louis Malle, 1959). Her role as the flamboyant, free-spirited Catherine with her devil-may-care sensuality in Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1962) is one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema.


20 August: Margot Hielscher (1919-2017)


Margot Hielscher
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 230. 1941-1944. Photo: Hammerer / Wien-Film.

German singer, film actress and costume designer Margot Hielscher (1919-2017) passed away in August. During her long career, she appeared in 60 films and 200 TV productions. Hielscher also represented Germany twice at the Eurovision Song Contest, in 1957 and 1958. Hielscher was 97.


26 September 2017: Kveta Fialová (1929-2017)


Kveta Fialova (1929-2017)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 2.125, 1964. Photo: Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera/Lemonade Joe (Oldrich Lipský, 1964).

In September Czech actress Květa Fialová passed away at the age of 88. In her country, she was a popular theatre, film and television diva. Internationally she is best known for her role as bar singer Tornado Lou in the Western parody Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera/Lemonade Joe (Oldrich Lipský, 1964).


17 October: Danielle Darrieux (1917-2017)


Danielle Darrieux
French postcard by Viny, no. 70. Photo: Universal Film.

In October, French actress and singer Danielle Darrieux (1917-2017) passed away. She was a beautiful, international leading lady whose eight-decade career was among the longest in film history. From her film debut in 1931 on she played in more than 110 films in which she progressed from playing pouting teens to worldly sophisticates. In the early 1950s she starred in three classic films by Max Ophüls, and she played the mother of Catherine Deneuve in five films! Danielle Darrieux was 100.


10 November 2017: Erika Remberg (1932-2017)


Erika Remberg (1932-2017)
German postcard by WS-Drück, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 100. Photo: Huster.

In November Erika Remberg passed away at the age of 85. Long ago we saw the beautiful Austrian film actress in the tearjerker Laila/Make Way for Lila (Rolf Husberg, 1958), as a foundling who is adopted and raised by a Lapland chieftain. Remberg appeared in 31 films between 1950 and 1970, but we want to remember her as lovely Laila.


6 December: Johnny Hallyday (1943-2017)


Johnny Hallyday
German postcard by ISV, no. H 85.

The father of French Rock and Roll is dead. Flamboyant singer and actor Johnny Hallyday passed away on 6 December. He was a European teen idol in the 1960s with record-breaking crowds and mass hysteria, but he never became popular in the English-speaking market. In later years he concentrated on being an actor and appeared in more than 35 films. Hallyday was 74.

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