Marie-Christine Barrault

Marie-Christine Barrault (born 21 March 1944) is a French actress. She is best known for her performance in Cousin Cousine (1975) for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She is the widow of film director Roger Vadim. In 2010, she released her autobiography, titled This Long Way To Get To You.

Marie-Christine Barrault was born in Paris, France, the daughter of French-Catholic parents Martha (née Valmier) and Max-Henri Barrault. Her parents divorced and her father, who worked in the theatre, died while she was a teenager, and her mother was unable to care for her children. She has a brother, Alain, and she was raised by her grandmother, Felicite. Her mother later re-married and had more children. She was mentored in acting by her aunt and uncle, French performers Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud, although they initially did not support her dreams of becoming an actress. She performed in plays in secondary school and then enrolled in an acting conservatory. She is a breast cancer survivor.

Barrault got her start on television in L'oeuvre (1967). Barrault made her feature film debut in Éric Rohmer's My Night at Maud's (1969). In 1970 Barrault was featured along with Pierre Richard in the comedy film Le Distrait. In 1975 Barrault starred in Cousin Cousine, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She is not fluent in English and therefore has turned down offers to appear in American-Hollywood made films. In 1980 she accepted an offer from Woody Allen to appear in his film, Stardust Memories. She also played the role of Guinevere in Éric Rohmer's Perceval le Gallois. In 1988 she was nominated for a Genie Award for her performance in No Blame. In 1991 she portrayed Marie Curie in a television mini-series. In her later career, she has preferred acting on the stage in France. In 2015, she came to Los Angeles on tour to perform in the play Les Yeux Ouverts, in which she portrays French author Marguerite Yourcenar.

Barrault's first husband was producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, whom she married in 1965, with whom she had two children, David and Ariane. She was married to director Roger Vadim from 1990 until his death from cancer in 2000.