France is mourning the loss of two celebrated actresses within the same weekend. Nadia Farès, the Morocco-born star known internationally for her role in The Crimson Rivers, died on April 17 at age 57 after spending a week in a coma. Just one day later, Nathalie Baye — one of the most decorated figures in the history of French cinema — passed away at her Paris home at 77 from a neurodegenerative disease.
A week of uncertainty, then silence
On April 11, Nadia Farès was found unresponsive in the swimming pool of a private gym in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. She never regained consciousness. Her daughters confirmed her passing in a statement released to AFP on April 17.
“It is with immense sadness that we announce the passing of Nadia Farès this Friday. France has lost a great artist, but for us, it is above all a mother we have just lost.”
— Statement from Nadia Farès’s daughters
Born in Morocco, Farès broke through in 2000 alongside Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel in director Mathieu Kassovitz’s thriller The Crimson Rivers, adapted from Jean-Christophe Grangé’s novel. She later appeared in the 2007 Hollywood action film War, starring Jason Statham and Jet Li, as well as the horror feature Storm Warning.
Her health had never been straightforward. She was candid about undergoing brain surgery in 2007 for an aneurysm she described as far from minor, and survived three separate heart operations over four years. Despite it all, she had been preparing to step behind the camera — she was due to begin shooting her first feature as both writer and director in September 2026.
Her daughter Cylia Chasman, whom Farès shared with American film producer Steve Chasman, paid tribute on Instagram in a message that captured both grief and gratitude.
“Mama. This is a heartbreak I will never get over. On Saturday we were on the phone and you told me you weren’t afraid of death, and my response was that I was afraid of your death, and the next day the universe decided it was time for you.”
— Cylia Chasman, daughter
Five decades, four Césars, one generation
Nathalie Baye died on the evening of April 18 at her Paris home. Her family confirmed she had been living with Lewy body dementia, a neurodegenerative condition that can affect memory, movement and perception. She was 77.
Born in Normandy in 1948 to a family of painters, Baye left school at 14 and trained as a dancer in Monaco before discovering acting. Her career breakthrough came in François Truffaut’s 1973 comedy Day for Night, and she quickly became a fixture of French arthouse cinema, working alongside directors including Maurice Pialat, Claude Sautet and Jean-Luc Godard.
She won four César Awards — three consecutively between 1981 and 1983 — and her international profile grew late in her career when Steven Spielberg cast her as Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can. She also appeared in the second Downton Abbey film, and starred alongside her daughter Laura Smet in the acclaimed French series Call My Agent!, where the two played exaggerated versions of themselves.
“She was an actress with whom we loved, dreamed and grew up. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones.”
— President Emmanuel Macron
Baye had a five-year relationship with rock icon Johnny Hallyday — widely known as the French Elvis — whose death in 2017 triggered national mourning in France. Their daughter, actress Laura Smet, survives her.
A weekend France will not forget
The deaths of Farès and Baye within 24 hours of each other mark an unusually heavy moment for French cultural life. One was at the beginning of a new creative chapter; the other at the close of a half-century of defining work. Both leaves behind a body of film that will outlast the grief of this April weekend.