French actress Maria Schneider was BOTD in 1952. Born in Paris, she was raised alone by her mother after her father, the actor Daniel Gélin, refused to acknowledge paternity. At 15, she returned to Paris, living on the streets and supporting herself as a film extra and model. She was mentored by Brigitte Bardot, who offered her a home and introduced her to film producers, leading to bit-player film work. At 19, she was cast as Marlon Brando’s love interest in Bernardo Bertolucci’s erotic drama Last Tango in Paris. The film became an international sensation, praised and condemned for its nudity and (for the time) explicit sex, including one controversial scene where Brando anally rapes Schneider’s character using butter as lubricant. Years later, Schneider revealed that Bertolucci and Brando forced the scene on her without rehearsal to elicit her distress, an experience she described as rape. The film made her infamous, compounded by her breezy admissions to journalists that she was bisexual. She made a vivid supporting appearance in Antonioni’s film The Passenger with Jack Nicholson, but turned down roles in Caligula, That Obscure Object of Desire and Novecento, annoyed with her typecasting as a sex object. Much of her latter career was affected by her struggles with depression, drug addiction and suicide attempts. She made a discreet comeback in the 1990s with roles in Bunker Palace Hôtel, Cyril Collard‘s AIDS drama Les nuits fauves (Savage Nights) and Franco Zeffirelli‘s adaptation of Jane Eyre. She also became an advocate for improving on-set working conditions for actresses, citing her experiences with Bertolucci. She had a highly-publicised affair with American photographer Joan Townsend (checking herself into a mental hospital in Rome so they could be together) and a long-term relationship with Maria Pia Almadio, whom she credited with helping her get sober. In 2010, she was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest civilian honour. She died in 2011 after a long illness, aged 58. She was played by Anamaria Vartolomei in the 2025 biopic Being Maria, focusing on the making of Last Tango.