Nathalie Marie Andrée Baye (July 6, 1948 – April 17, 2026) was a French film, television, and stage actress. She began her career in 1970 and has appeared in more than 80 films. A ten-time César Award nominee, her four wins were for Every Man for Himself (1980), Strange Affair (1981), La Balance (1982), and The Young Lieutenant (2005). Her other films include Day for Night (1973), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Tell No One (2006), and The Assistant (2015). In 2009, she was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Baye was born in Mainneville, Eure, Normandy to Claude Baye and Denise Coustet, two painters. At 14, she joined a school of dance in Monaco. Three years later she went to the United States. On returning to France, she continued with dance but also registered for the Simon Course and was admitted to the Conservatoire, from where she graduated in 1972 with a second prize in comedy, dramatic comedy, and foreign theatre.
Her second cinema appearance was in Two People (1973), directed by Robert Wise. She became better known as the script girl in Day for Night (La Nuit américaine, 1973) by François Truffaut. Throughout the 1970s, she played the good girlfriend or nice provincial girl in film and television.
She won her first César, as best supporting artist, for Every Man for Himself (Sauve qui peut (la vie), 1980) directed by Jean-Luc Godard. There then followed The Return of Martin Guerre (Le Retour de Martin Guerre, 1982) and La Balance (also 1982).
Baye won two more César Awards, Best Supporting Actress, for Strange Affair (Une étrange affaire, 1981), and Best Actress for La Balance, 1982). Her four-year relationship with Johnny Hallyday made them a celebrity couple and their daughter is Laura Smet, now an actress.
After changing her image by playing a streetwalker in La Balance, she widened her scope with more obscure characters in J'ai épousé une ombre (1983) and En toute innocence (1988). In 1986, she returned to the theatre with an interpretation of Adriana Monti.
In 1999, she was voted Best Supporting Actress at Venice Film Festival for Une liaison pornographique and starred in Vénus Beauté (Institut) (2000) by Tonie Marshall which won multiple César Awards including Best Film.
She has worked with Claude Chabrol and Steven Spielberg.
Source: Article "Nathalie Baye" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
9
9
4
This deftly made French psychological thriller terrifies with its exploration of an experiment gone ...
More info9
9
5
9
9
6
9
9
7
9
9
8
9
9
9
Aging beautician Angèle, already wounded by a long-ago romance, gets awkwardly dumped at a train sta...
More info0
0
0
0
0
1
Middle-aged best friends Eddie and Patsy live in an endless haze of drugged, drunken selfishness. Th...
More info0
0
2
A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of...
More info0
0
3
Three generations of a wealthy Bordeaux family are caught in the crossfire when Anne decides to run ...
More info
Francois Cluzet and Karin Viard are the couple behind a French shopping channel whose business and m...
More info0
0
4
A married Frenchwoman living in Brazil returns to her native country to visit her ailing elderly mot...
More info0
0
5
A rookie policeman from provincial Le Havre volunteers for the high pressure Parisian homicide burea...
More info0
0
6
A man receives a mysterious email appearing to be from his wife, who was murdered years earlier. As ...
More info0
0
7
0
0
8
0
0
9
0
1
0
A hairdresser forwards a passionate love letter to her widowed mother....
More info0
1
1
0
1
2
The story of an impossible love between a woman named Fred and a transgender woman named Laurence wh...
More info0
1
3
0
1
4
0
1
5
A challenging psychological drama where the carefully nurtured harmony of a family is shattered one ...
More info0
1
6
Louis, a terminally ill writer, returns home after a long absence to tell his family that he is dyin...
More info0
1
7
In this ensemble drama set in rural France, the women of the Paridier farm are left to run it by the...
More info0
1
8
0
1
9
0
2
0
0
2
1
Esther is at the end of her career as Head Seamstress at Dior Avenue Montaigne workshop. One day, sh...
More info0
2
2
The Crawley family goes on a grand journey to the south of France to uncover the mystery of the dowa...
More info0
2
3
After closing his agency Alibi.com and promising Flo that he would never lie to her again, Greg's ne...
More infoRecent movies
| # | Name | Character | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alibi.com 2 (2023) | Mme Martin | 7 | |
| 2 | Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) | Mme de Montmirail | 7.3 | |
| 3 | Haute Couture (2021) | Esther | 6 | |
| 4 | Alibi.com (2017) | Marlène Martin | - | - |
| 5 | The Guardians (2017) | Hortense Sandrail | 7 | |
| 6 | It's Only the End of the World (2016) | Martine | 6.5 | |
| 7 | Préjudice (2015) | Mother | - | - |
| 8 | SK1 (2015) | Frédérique Pons | - | - |
| 9 | Laurence Anyways (2012) | Julienne Alia | 6.3 | |
| 10 | Beautiful Lies (2010) | Mady | - | - |
| 11 | Visage (2009) | Nathalie | - | - |
| 12 | Tell No One (2006) | Elysabeth Feldman | 7.1 | |
| 13 | The Young Lieutenant (2005) | Commandant Vaudieu | 2 | |
| 14 | I've Been Waiting So Long (2004) | Jeanne | - | - |
| 15 | The Flower of Evil (2003) | Anne Charpin-Vasseur | 6 | |
| 16 | France Boutique (2003) | Sofia | - | - |
| 17 | Catch Me If You Can (2002) Oscars 2003 | Paula Abagnale | 8 | |
| 18 | Absolutely Fabulous (2001) | Patricia 'Patsy' Laroche | - | - |
| 19 | Venus Beauty Institute (1999) | Angèle Piana | 3 | |
| 20 | The Machine (1994) | Marie Lacroix | 10 | |
| 21 | And the Band Played On (1993) | Dr. Françoise Barre | 7 | |
| 22 | Detective (1985) | Françoise Chenal | 4 | |
| 23 | Honeymoon (1985) | Cécile Carline | - | - |
| 24 | La Balance (1982) | Nicole Danet | 5 | |
| 25 | Short Memory (1982) | Judith Mesnil | 3 | |
| 26 | The Return of Martin Guerre (1982) | Bertrande de Rols | 4 | |
| 27 | The Green Room (1978) | Cecilia Mandel | 3 | |
| 28 | Fill 'er Up with Super (1976) | Charlotte | 5 | |
| 29 | The Slap (1974) | Christine Abeillé | 5 | |
| 30 | Day for Night (1973) | Joelle, the Script Girl | 5.8 |

