Romy Schneider: The screen star Alain Delon loved and left with a breakup letter

Coco Chanel reportedly called Schneider ‘the ultimate incarnation of the ideal woman’

In the wake of Alain Delon’s death, people are remembering his ex-partner the great screen star, Romy Schneider.

Delon, the star of films including Plein Soleil and Le Samouraï, died peacefully at his home in Douchy, France, his children confirmed. He was 88 years old.

Tributes from fans have poured in remembering the legendary actor, who had been in poor health in the years leading up to his death.

Alongside his illustrious film career, which saw him often cast as attractive leading men, he had a string of romances with women such as Brigitte Bardot, Dalida, and Mireille Darc.

One such relationship was with the late German-French actor Romy Schneider, whom he met at the Orly airport in 1958 before shooting their first film together, Christine.

The actors ended up falling in love on set of Pierre Gaspard-Huit’s romance-drama, a remake of a 1933 film Liebelei, in which Schneider’s mother, Magda Schneider, had played the same role.

Born in Vienna in 1938, Shcneider began her career aged 15 in When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (1953).

Her breakthrough role came in 1955 owing to her stellar performance as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the romantic biopic Sissi. She reprised the role in two sequels: Sissi – The Young Empress (1956) and Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress (1957).

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After falling in love on the set of Christine in 1958, Schneider left West Germany to join Delon in Paris. They announced their engagement one year later.

The relationship lasted five years, during which time they became a golden couple of French cinema.

During that time, Schneider enjoyed a steady career in France working with Orson Welles on The Trial (1962)  and John Ford for his stage play ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore in 1961. The following year, she played Anna in Sacha Pitoeff’s production of Chekhov’s The Seagull.

Delon and Romy Schneider in Jacques Deray’s ‘La Piscine’ (Getty Images)

In 1963, Schneider received a breakup letter from Delon, and the couple separated.

The following year, Delon got engaged to French model, actor and director Nathalie Delon, who was pregnant at the time. The couple married and gave birth to their son that same year. They divorced four years later in 1969.

After her breakup from Delon, Schneider had a brief but productive career in Hollywood, which included a role in 1964’s Good Neighbour Sam opposite Jack Lemmon and What’s New Pussycat? In 1965, in which she starred alongside Peter O’Toole, Peter Sellers, and Woody Allen.

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She and Delon remained close friends after their break-up, and continued to work together in films such as La Piscine in 1968 and The Assassination of Trotsky in 1972.

In 1966, she married German director and actor Harry Meyen in 1966, but divorced in 1975.

Schneider continued to work in France throughout the Seventies, and worked with director Claude Sautet on five films, including The Things of Life, which earned Schneider acclaim. Her 1975 film That Most Important Thing: Love was especially lauded, earning her the inaugural César Award for Best Actress.

In 1975, she married her private secretary Daniel Biasini; they divorced in 1975.

Schneider’s son, whom she had with Meyen, died in 1981, aged 14 after attempting to climb a spiked fence and accidentally puncturing his femoral artery.

She was found dead aged 43 in her Paris apartment a year later on 29 May 1982 due to cardiac arrest. She had undergone a kidney operation months before.

Delon arranged for her son to be buried in the same grave. He called Schneider the “love of my life” after her death.