To three generations of fans, Jean Seberg is a haircut: the side-swept pixie she wore in “Breathless,” the French cinema classic from 1960 that made her an international star. No blank-faced mannequin with a gamin crop, Seberg, who died at 40 in 1979, made more than 30 movies during her brief career. She left her native Iowa for Hollywood while still in her teens but eventually settled in Paris, becoming a darling of the French New Wave. She corresponded with André Malraux, wore Yves Saint Laurent and played poker with Françoise Sagan, as Rex Reed wrote in a 1969 profile. A lifelong champion of social justice, she persisted through the late 1960s in supporting civil rights causes, even after becoming a target of F.B.I.

Source: International New York Times December 11, 2019 16:30 UTC