The French cinema is in mourning. On Friday, April 17, Nathalie Baye, 77, passed away at her Paris home after a battle with Lewy body disease, a neurodegenerative disorder. Her health had been a concern for several months, especially after her absence in August 2025 at the Rose Days event in Doué-la-Fontaine. Even before that, she had been hospitalized in 2020 for bronchopulmonary complications that alerted her loved ones.
On Friday, April 24, her loved ones gathered at the Saint-Sulpice church in the 6th arrondissement of Paris to pay their final respects. To honor her mother’s memory, Laura Smet organized the funeral to reflect the late actress’s image.
Who is Christian Lancrey-Javal, the priest chosen by Laura Smet? According to reports from Le Parisien, the choice of the priest is Christian Lancrey-Javal, Laura Smet’s brother-in-law. He had previously married Laura Smet to Raphaël Lancrey-Javal in 2018 in a discreet ceremony at the 7th arrondissement town hall in Paris. Christian Lancrey-Javal also baptized their son Léo, now five years old. The priest delivered a laudatory speech about the French cinema icon: “Not complaining was her motto in life and in her illness,” describing her as “the French woman, the French soul.”
Nathalie Baye was buried in a white coffin, similar to the one chosen by Johnny Hallyday. At the end of the ceremony, Laura Smet also gave a touching message to her mother, highlighting her remarkable qualities. Other special gestures were made during the ceremony, such as a humorous password “grenouille” required at the church entrance, a nod to the actress’s animal rights activism. Another poignant symbol was Nathalie Baye being buried in a white coffin, resembling the one chosen by Johnny Hallyday for his own funeral in 2017. Jacques Weber summarized the ceremony as “simple, in her image, with a lot of class.”
