Catherine Deneuve was born in Paris, France. Her parents, Maurice and Renee Dorleace, were actors who raised her Catholic. Catherine made her film debut in 1957, and continued with small parts in minor films, until Roger Vadim gave her a meatier part in "Vice and Virtue" (1963). Deneuve defied conventions by moving in with the much-older director at 17, refusing to marry him when she gave birth to their son Christian Vadim two years later.
Her breakthrough came with the excellent musical "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" in 1964 in which Deneuve gave an unforgettable performance as a romantic middle-class girl who falls in love with a young soldier but gets imprisoned in a loveless marriage with another man; the director was the gifted Jacques Demy who also cast Deneuve in the less successful "The Young Girls of Rochefort" in 1967. Catherine then played a schizophrenic killer in Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" in 1965 and a married woman who works as a part-time prostitute every afternoon in Luis Bunuel's masterpiece "Belle de Jour" in 1967.
Deneuve also worked with Bunuel in "Tristana" in 1970 and gave a great performance for Francois Truffaut in "Mississippi Mermaid" in 1969, a kind of apotheosis of her "frigid femme fatale" persona. Over the next ten years, she didn't find parts of that caliber, and she showed little interest in making American films aside from "The April Fools" (1969) and "Hustle" (1975). While working on "It Only Happens to Others" in 1971, catherine became romantically involved with her leading man Marcello Mastroianni. The relationship produced a daughter, Chiara Mastroianni, but ended after a few years.
Catherine's magnificent work in Truffaut's "The Last Metro" (1980) as a stage actress in Nazi-occupied Paris revived her career. She made another U.S. film afterwards, "The Hunger" (1983), a modern vampire story and cult classic, noted for her sex scenes with Susan Sarandon and David Bowie. Actress was also very good in the epic drama "Indochina" (1992) for which she earned her first Academy Award Nominaton (Best Actress).
Catherine continued to give acclaimed performances in the French features "My Favorite Season" (1993), "Pola X" (1999), "Dancer in the Dark" (2000), "8 Women" (2002) and made another return to Hollywood with a role in "The Musketeer" (2001). A "Christmas Tale" (2008) marked a milestone in her career as her 100th film. Although the elegant and always radiant Deneuve has never appeared on stage, she is universally hailed as one of the "grandes dames" of French cinema, joining a list that includes such illustrious talents as Simone Signoret, Jeanne Moreau, Isabelle Huppert, and the younger Juliette Binoche. She remains active in the industry, averaging at least two films per year.
