Tunc, Irène

ACTOR (FRANCE)
BORN 25 Sep 1934, Lyon: 4e arrondissement - DIED 16 Jan 1972, Versailles, Yvelines
BIRTH NAME Tunc, Irène Pierrette Louise
CAUSE OF DEATH road accident
GRAVE LOCATION Lyon: Cimetière de la Croix-Rousse, 63 Rue Philippe de Lassalle (Nouveau Cimetière, Division 14, Allée 17)

Irène Tunc was the daughter of a furniture dealer. She worked as a mannequin and in 1953 she was elected Miss Côte d'Azur in Juan-les-Pins. In 1954 she became Miss France when she was nineteen years old. In the same year she made her first two films in Italy, "Operazione notte" by Giuseppe Bennati and "Camilla" by Luciano Emmer.

She studied acting in Paris at the school of Françoise Rosay and had further movie parts. In Italy she was able to get better parts than in France and she appeared in Edmondo Lozzi's "La sposa" in 1958. In that year she married film maker Ivan Govar. After she cheated on him he attempted suicide and a divorce followed in 1964.

At the time of the Nouvelle Vague her star rose in France as well. She had parts in Jean-Pierre Melville's "Léon Morin, prêtre" (1961) and in "Vivre pour vivre" (1967) by Claude Lelouch. In 1965 director Alain Cavalier became her second husband and she appeared in two of his movies, "Mise à sac" (1967) and "La Chamade" (1968).

In 1971 she was one of 343 women who publicly declared to have had an abortion in the "Manifesto of 343". In 1972 she was involved in a car crash in Versailles and died of her injuries, aged only 37. In 2009 Cavalier based his movie "Irène" on her diaries and dedicated it to her.

Images

The grave of Irene Tunc at the Cimetière de la Croix-Rousse, Lyon.
Picture by Androom (06 Nov 2009)

 

Sources
Irène Tunc — Wikipédia


Türk, Emmy

Published: 07 Apr 2015
Last update: 11 May 2022