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Marie-France Pisier

(10 May 1944 – 24 April 2011) was a French actress.

Pisier was born in Dalat, Indochina now Vietnam, where her father served as colonial governor. Gilles Pisier, her younger brother, is a mathematician and a member of French academy of sciences. Her sister, Evelyne, is the first wife of Bernard Kouchner.

Pisier moved to Paris with her family at the age of 12 and began acting in films five years later. Her debut was in the François Truffaut Antoine and Colette (1962) and she later appeared in Truffaut's Baiser volés/Stolen Kisses (1968) and L'Amour en fuite/Love on the Run(1980), which she also co-wrote. Pisier had made her screenwriting debut with Céline et Julie vont en bâteau/Celine and Julie Go Boating(1973), in which she also co-starred. She gained widespread public recognition in 1975 as the star of the popular comedy Cousin, Cousine — a role which earned her a Best Actress Cesar. Subsequent features include three with director André Téchiné, Souvenirs en France/French Provincial (1975), Barocco (1976) and The Bronte Sisters (1978), in which she portrayed Charlotte.

Pisier attempted to crack the American film industry with The Other Side of Midnight (1977), adapted from a Sidney Sheldon novel. She did not fare well with either her TV credits (the 1979 ABC miniseries The French Atlantic Affair and 1980s Scruples) or her second Hollywood film French Postcards (1979). Returning to France, she continued to work; in 1990, Pisier made her directorial debut with Le Bal du gouverneur/The Governor's Party, which she adapted from her own novel. She also played Madame Verdurin in Time Regained/Le Temps retrouvé (1999) Raúl Ruiz's adaptation of Marcel Proust.

She died on 24 April 2011 in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, Var. She was found dead in her swimming pool and is believed to have drowned.

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