With classic patrician features and an independent, non-conformist
personality, Capucine began her film debut in 1949 at the age of 21
with an appearance in the film
Jugend von heute (1949).
She attended school in France and received a BA degree in foreign
languages. Married for six months in her early twenties, she never
remarried. In 1957, she was discovered by director
Charles K. Feldman while working as a
high-fashion model for Givenchy in Paris and was brought to Hollywood
to study acting under Gregory Ratoff. She
was put under contract by Columbia studios in 1958 and had her first
leading part in the movie
Nur wenige sind auserwählt (1960). She
made six more major movies in the early to mid 1960s, two of which
(Patricia und der Löwe (1962) and
Beim siebten Morgengrauen (1964)) starred
William Holden, with whom she had
a two-year affair. Moving from Hollywood to a penthouse apartment in
Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1962, she continued making movies, mostly in
Europe, until her suicide in 1990.
