ALFRED HITCHCOCK - FRENCH ACTRESS JADE DIES

FRENCH ACTRESS JADE DIES

CLAUDE JADE, the French actress who starred in several of director FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT's best-loved films, has died. She was 58. Jade died at a hospital in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt on Friday (01DEC06). She had been suffering from eye cancer, which spread, according to JACQUES RAMPAL, a playwright she had recently worked with. As a young actress, Jade caught Truffaut's attention while appearing onstage in Shakespeare's HENRY IV in the 1960s. He cast her as a young women in love in the 1968 film BAISERSVOLES (STOLEN KISSES), alongside leading man JEAN-PIERRE LEAUD. Truffaut continued the story of the characters' marriage and divorce in DOMICILE CONJUGAL (BED + BOARD) and L'AMOUR EN FUITE (LOVE ON THE RUN). Jade had a role in ALFRED HITCHCOCK's 1969 film TOPAZ, about a French spy network, and she also appeared alongside crooner JACQUES BREL the same year in MON ONCLE BENJAMIN (MY UNCLE BENJAMIN). Jade, who was a knight in France's prestigious Legion Of Honour, also had a thriving career on the stage and appeared in a play in Paris and in festivals this summer (06).