The iconic French actress, discovered by Francois Truffaut, passed away on Sunday, May 3rd at the age of 97. She was notably featured in “The 400 Blows”, “La Cage aux Folles”, “Amelie”, and “A Family Resemblance”. On this Sunday, May 3rd, the actress Claire Maurier, whose career was adorned with numerous supporting roles, passed away at the age of 97.
For some, she will be remembered as the former equestrian dancer who became the owner of the Montmartre cafe in the cult film “Amelie”. Others will recall her performance as Jean-Pierre Leaud’s mother in Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows”, one of the most iconic films of the Nouvelle Vague and the one that launched her career in 1959.
Named for the Cesar and Moliere awards Born Odette-Michelle-Suzanne Agramon in 1929 in Ceret, in the Pyrenees-Orientales, she chose the stage name “Claire Maurier” to begin her career, both on stage and on television, in the early 1950s. A small role in “Back to the Wall” (Edouard Molinaro) anchored her in cinema. Several others followed, including in “Butter Sauce” – where she played Bourvil’s wife – and later in “La Cage aux Folles” – where she portrayed Simone, the former partner of Renato Baldi, who owns a cabaret for transvestites in Saint-Tropez. All of these roles showcase her talent for inhabiting memorable supporting roles.
She thus marked several generations of viewers. In 1981, she was nominated for a Cesar Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Madeleine in Claude Sautet’s “A Bad Son”.
In 1995, she was nominated for a Moliere Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mother Menard in the theatrical version of “A Family Resemblance”, by Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri. She portrayed this toxic mother again in the film adaptation of the play directed by Cedric Klapisch, two years later. In 2006, she was seen in “The Ambitious” by Catherine Corsini, then in “An Artist’s Life” by Marc Fitoussi in 2007, and in “The Hedge of Fallow” in 2010. In 2013, she played her last supporting role: that of the grandmother in “The Katz Family”.
