Biography: life and films
It was while she was performing at the Theatre Moderne, that she was discovered by François Truffaut, who cast her in the role of Christine Darbon, the girl-friend of his alter-ego Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), in his film Baisers volés (Stolen Kisses). Her screen debut earned her great acclaim and placed Claude Jade in the international spotlight. She reprised her role as Christine in Truffaut's Domicile conjugal (Bed and Board) and L'Amour en fuite (Love on the Run).
Claude Jade gained fame and adulation, caught the attention of Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in Topaz, and went on to enjoy a prolific international career in USA, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Germany and USSR as well as French productions.
In French Cinema her most memorable roles where Manette in Edouard Molinaro's Mon oncle Benjamin, the unscrupulous Eleanore in Gérard Brach's Le bateau sur l'herbe and Robert Hossein's love Françoise in Denys de la Patellières Prêtres interdits.
Claude Jade also continued to perform on stage and television, where she had her most popular role as Véronique d'Hergemont, heroine of mini-series L'île aux trente cercueils (1979), and from 1998 until 2000 as Anna in the television series Cap des Pins.
Her many contributions to French Culture were
recognised in 1998, when she was named a Chevalier de la legion d'honneur. In 2000
she received the New Wave Award at Palm Beach International Film Festival for the
'trend-setting role in the world cinema'.
Claude Jade died, aged 58, on 1st December 2006 in France, from complications arising
from an eye cancer.
© G.S. 2000
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Filmography
Key: a = actor
Sous le signe de Monte-Cristo (1968) [a]
Le Témoin (1969) [a]
Topaz (1969) [a]
Nijinsky: Unfinished Project (1970) [a]
Le Bateau sur l'herbe (1971) [a]
Les Feux de la chandeleur (1972) [a]
Home Sweet Home (1973) [a]
La Ragazza di Via Condotti (1973) [a]
Prêtres interdits (1973) [a]
Le Malin plaisir (1975) [a]
Maître Pygmalion (1975) [a]
Le Choix (1976) [a]
Una spirale di nebbia (1977) [a]
Le Pion (1978) [a]
Le Bahut va craquer (1981) [a]
L'Honneur d'un capitaine (1982) [a]
Rendezvous in Paris (1982) [a]
L'Homme qui n'était pas là (1987) [a]
Qui sont mes juges? (1987) [a]
Bonsoir (1994) [a]
Le Radeau de la Méduse (1998) [a]
Scénarios sur la drogue (2000) [a]
Le Journal d'Alphonse (2004) [a]
The best French Films of the 1910s
The best French war films ever made
