An Oxford graduate who spoke five languages, she had an early career as a siren before finding critical acclaim in masterworks by Federico Fellini and Roman Polanski.
Yvonne Furneaux, a French-born English actress known for her icy beauty and continental air who brought jet-setting panache to critically acclaimed films like Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” and Roman Polanski’s “Repulsion,” died on July 5 at her home in North Hampton, N.H. She was 98.
Her son, Nicholas Natteau, said the cause was complications of a stroke.
Ms. Furneaux, an Oxford University graduate who studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, got her start on the British stage, including in productions of “The Taming of the Shrew” and “Macbeth.”
Despite her credentials, however, she was often singled out more for her fashion model looks than for her acting prowess.
In a review of a 1955 production of Jean Giraudoux’s “Ondine,” the august British theater critic Kenneth Tynan wrote Ms. Furneaux off as a “buxom temptress” who was “more impressive in silhouette than in action.” The Daily News of New York described her in a 1958 headline as an “English peach.”
Accordingly, after she made the transition to film, she was often cast as a siren or a damsel in distress in period adventure movies, including two starring Errol Flynn.
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Source: Movies - nytimes.com
