Romy Schneider Autograph

Profession:
(1938-1982) German-French actress. She began her career in the German Heimatfilm genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. From 1955 to 1957, she played the central character of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the Austrian Sissi trilogy.

Year of Birth: 1938

Romy Schneider was an Austrian-German actress born in Vienna, Austria on 23 September 1938. She is best known for her portrayal of Elisabeth of Austria in the film Sissi. Schneider was one of the most popular German actresses of the 1970s and 1980s, and starred in a number of successful films during her career.

Schneider's father, Wolf Albach-Retty, was a well-known Austrian actor who starred in many comedic films and was a close friend of Sigmund Freud. Her mother, Magda Schneider, was an actress in her own right, and the couple had two other children in addition to Romy. Schneider began her career as a child actress, appearing in her father's films. She had a successful run in the German film industry, starring in a number of successful films, such as When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (1955), Summer in Tyrol (1957), and The Widow (1958).

In 1959, Schneider had her breakout role in the film Sissi, playing the title role of Elisabeth of Austria. This role would become her most iconic, and she reprised the role in two sequels, Sissi: The Young Empress (1960) and Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress (1961). In the early 1960s, Schneider had success in international films, such as Goodbye Again (1961), The Trial (1962), and What's New Pussycat? (1965), the latter of which was her first English-language film.

Schneider's career continued to be successful throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, and she starred in a number of successful films, such as The Assassination Bureau (1969) and The Swimming Pool (1969). She also starred in a trilogy of films with actor Alain Delon, The Damned (1969) and The Night Heaven Fell (1968) and The Judge and the Assassin (1976).

In the 1980s, Schneider's career took a downturn, and she appeared in a number of unsuccessful films. She attempted a comeback in the 1990s, starring in the television drama series Der Schwur des Schmieds (1990-1992). Her last role was in the film Queen of the Damned (2002).

Romy Schneider died on 29 May 1982 in Paris, France, at the age of 43. She had suffered from depression and drug abuse, and died from heart failure. Schneider's legacy lives on in her films and performances, and she is remembered as one of the most iconic German actresses of the 20th century.