Catherine Deneuve was born Catherine Dorleac, October 22, 1943, in Paris. She is the third of four daughters of French actors Maurice Dorleac and Renee Deneuve.
Deneuve appeared in her first film at age 13. At 21, when she came into the international limelight for her performance in Jacques Demy's musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, she already had nine films to her name. In most of these, Deneuve had been cast, appropriately, as a beautiful young girl, growing up, falling in love, etc. However, she proved her versatility as an actress in Roman Polanski's 1965 Repulsion, in which she played a murderous schizophrenic. She gained further acclaim still in Luis Bunuel's 1967 Belle de jour and Jacques Demy's
