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Romy Schneider a.k.a. Romy Schneider-Albach
(September 23, 1938 - May 29, 1982) was an
Austria|Austrian list of notable
actresses|actress. She was born Rosemarie
Magdalena Albach-Retty in Vienna into a family of
actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa
Albach-Retty, her father Wolf Albach-Retty and her
mother Magda Schneider. After Magda's divorce in
1945, she took care of Romy and eventually also
supervised the young girl's career, often
appearing alongside her daughter, who had made her
film debut already in 1953, aged 15. Young Romy's
career was also overseen by her stepfather,
Hans-Herbert Blatzheim, a noted restaurateur who
Schneider indicated had an unhealthy interest in
her.

In the film Mädchenjahre einer Königin (Girlhood
of a Queen, Ernst Marischka, 1954) Romy Schneider
for the first time portrayed a royal.
Interestingly, this Austrian movie is about the
early years of Victoria of the United
Kingdom|Queen Victoria, in particular her first
encounter with Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha|Prince
Albert. Schneider's breakthrough, however, came
with her portrayal of Princess Elisabeth of
Bavaria -- later to become Empress Elisabeth of
Bavaria|Elisabeth of Austria -- in the romantic
biopic Sissi (movie)|Sissi (1955) and its two
sequels (1956 and 1957).

Fed up with the saccharine image these movies had
bestowed upon her, Schneider leapt at the chance
to star in the much more sombre Christine (1958),
a remake of Max OphĂĽls's 1933 film Liebelei
(itself based upon a play by Arthur Schnitzler).
It was during the filming of Christine that
Schneider fell in love with French list of notable
actors|actor Alain Delon, who co-starred in the
movie. Schneider became engaged to Delon in 1959,
and the couple moved to Paris.

This meant the beginning of Schneider's
international film career, which also brought her
to Hollywood (Good Neighbor Sam, a 1964 comedy
film|comedy with Jack Lemmon, and the 1965 movie
What's New, Pussycat? with Woody Allen). Mainly,
however, Schneider stayed in France, working with
list of notable film directors|film directors such
as Orson Welles (Le Procès of 1963, based upon
Franz Kafka's The Trial) and Luchino Visconti
(Ludwig, a 1972 film about the life of King Ludwig
II of Bavaria, in which she played a much more
mature Elisabeth of Austria). "Sissi sticks to me
just like oatmeal," Schneider once said.

Romy Schneider's private life was rather
turbulent. Dumped by Delon in 1963, she married
(1966) and divorced (1975) Harry Meyen (1924 -
1979), a German actor who committed suicide. The
couple had a son, David-Christopher (1966 –
1981). In 1975 Schneider  married Daniel Biasini,
her private secretary; they separated in 1981. Her
daughter by her second marriage, Sarah Magdalena
Biasini (b. July 14, 1977), an actress,
startlingly resembles her mother and has been a
target of German tabloids for quite some time.

Even after the breakup of her relationship with
Alain Delon,  Schneider continued starring in
films with Delon (La Piscine -- The Swimming Pool
-- of 1969). Of her other films, the macabre Le
Trio infernal (1974) with Michel Piccoli is worth
mentioning. Her last film was La Passante du
Sans-Souci (The Passerby, 1982).

A heavy tobacco smoking|smoker all her life,
Schneider also took to drinking in her later
years, especially after the sudden death, on July
5, 1981, of her 15-year-old son, who was found
impaled on a fence at his stepfather's parents'
house, which he was apparently attempting to
climb. When Romy Schneider was found dead in her
apartment in Paris, France in 1982, aged only 43,
rumour had it that she had committed suicide by
taking a lethal cocktail of alcohol and sleeping
pills. However, no post-mortem examination was
carried out and she was officially declared to
have died of cardiac arrest.

==External links==

*http://www.fembio.org/women/romy-schneider.shtml
Biography at FemBio – Notable Women
International
*http://www.romy-schneider.com Romy Schneider