Isabelle Adjani (born June 27, 1955 in Paris' 17th arrondissement) is a French film actress.

She is of German-Algerian parentage, and performs in her native French, English, and German. She has also been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actress and was awarded the César award four times.

Isabelle Adjani grew up in Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine to an Algerian father and a German mother. She was drawn to acting at a young age, playing in amateur theater by the age of twelve. As a fourteen-year-old, she appeared in her first motion picture

Career
 
Isabelle Adjani has appeared on numerous magazine covers.She first gained notoriety as a classical actress for her interpretation of Agnès, the main female role in Molière's L'École des femmes, but soon left the prestigious Comédie française she had joigned in 1972 to pursue a movie career.

After minor roles in several films, she received positive reviews and much public acclaim for her performance in the 1974 film La Gifle (or The Slap). The following year, she was cast in her first starring role in François Truffaut's The Story of Adele H. which brought her international acclaim; it resulted in a nomination for the Best Actress Oscar and offers for roles in Hollywood films.

In 1981, Isabelle Adjani received the Cannes Film Festival's best actress award for the Merchant Ivory film Quartet based on the novel by Jean Rhys, and for the horror film Possession.

Next year, she received her first César award for Possession, which is considered by some to be her best role (if not also the most extreme) as she portrays a frustrated woman going mad.

In 1983, she won the César, for her depiction of a vengeful woman in the French blockbuster One Deadly Summer.

In 1989, she co-produced and starred in a biopic of the tragic French sculptor Camille Claudel.

She received her third César and second Oscar nomination for her role in the film, which was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Following this publicity, she was chosen by People magazine as one of the '50 Most Beautiful People' in the world.

Her fourth César win was for the 1994 film Queen Margot, an ensemble epic directed by Patrice Chéreau.

Personal life

Isabelle Adjani has two sons: Barnabé Nuytten with Bruno Nuytten, and Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis from her six-year relationship with Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Gabriel-Kane was born in New York City in 1995, several months after her relationship with Day-Lewis ended.

Isabelle Adjani was also engaged to French composer Jean Michel Jarre, but they broke up publicly in 2004. In 1987, some French media outlets incorrectly reported that she was dying of AIDS, forcing her to appear on television to deny it.

Filmography

• The Story of Adele H. (1975)
• Barocco (1976) |The Tenant (1976)
• The Driver (1978)
• Nosferatu(1979) | The Bronte Sisters (1979)
• Quartet (1981)
• Possession (1981)
• Antonieta (1982)
• One Deadly Summer (1983)
• Subway (1985)
• Ishtar (1987) | Camille Claudel (1987)
• Queen Margot (1994)
• Diabolique (1996)
• Adolphe (2002)
• Bon Voyage (2003)