According to rumor, Capucine was remembered in the wills of William Holden (to the tune of $50,000) and Peter Sellers as well as that of 20th Century-Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck.
She was a longtime friend of Audrey Hepburn, the two having met while modeling in Paris in the late 1940s. A manic-depressive, Capucine's life had on several occasions been saved by her friend (both women lived at the time in Switzerland) after repeated suicide attempts.
When she committed suicide in March 1990 at the age of 62, her obituary in the New York Times stated that her only known survivors were her three cats.
Died in Lausanne, Switzerland, after jumping from her eighth-story apartment.
Born Germain Lefebvre, she took the stage name "Capucine" during her modeling days. The name--pronounced "Kap-oo-seen"--is French for the Nasturtium flower.
Nickname to close friends was "Cap".
Had a two-year relationship with actor William Holden, who was married at the time.
She was a witness to the 1969 wedding of longtime friend Audrey Hepburn to Dr. Andrea Dotti in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she lived for many years until her death.
Considered one of the great beauties of Europe.
She was born in Saumur, France, the same small town on the Loire as one of her famous patrons from her modeling days, Coco Chanel.
At 21 she met her spouse on the set of the 1949 film Rendezvous in July (1949) (her first screen appearance) and married him the following year. The marriage lasted six months.
Her French bourgeois family wanted her to become a school teacher. When she balked at that, they suggested she work in a bank.
Was riding in a carriage in Paris when a commercial photographer noticed her. She soon became a top fashion model for Maggy Rouff, Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy.
On a certain Wednesday in 1956, she realized she was bored. Having never been to America, she flew there on Friday. She modeled in New York for a while, and one night at the Pavilion she met actor John Wayne and agent/producer Charles K. Feldman. Feldman signed her to a contract (she later moved in with him) and sent her to California to learn English. She made her English-speaking debut as Princess Carolyne in Song Without End (1960).
In 1952 she got a two-week job modeling clothes in fashion shows aboard a French cruise ship. She shared a cabin with a 17-year-old dancer working in the chorus of the ship's "nightclub"--Brigitte Bardot.
Remained a close friend of her Song Without End (1960) co-star Dirk Bogarde, and often visited him at his home in France.
Personal Quotes
"The camera has a love affair with her face." [Director George Cukor]
"Men spoil women in America. A woman needs to know that the man is her master." Capucine.
"Every time I get in front of a camera, I think of it as an attractive man I am meeting for the first time. I find him demanding and aloof - so I must do all in my power to interest him." Capucine.
Men look at me like I'm a suspicious-looking trunk, and they're customs agents.