French actress and model Catherine Deneuve was BOTD in 1943. Born Catherine Fabienne Dorléac in Paris to an acting family, she made her first film appearance at 12. She became an international star in Jacques Demy’s 1964 musical romance The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, then terrified audiences as a psychotic blonde in Roman Polanski’s psychological horror Repulsion. Hailed as the most beautiful woman in the world, she became one of the key faces of the Swinging 1960s, moving to London with photographer husband David Bailey and becoming a muse for fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent. In 1967, she reunited with Demy for The Young Girls of Rochefort, co-starring her sister Françoise Dorléac, who was killed in a car accident months later. Her most iconic role, as a bourgeoise housewife doubling as a sex worker in Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour, established her as an icy mysterious blonde, a persona she continued in Buñuel’s Tristana and much of her later work. Her iconic status was confirmed in 1985 when she became the model for Marianne, France’s national symbol of liberty. She transitioned effortlessly into middle-age, scoring international hits with François Truffaut’s Le Dernier Métro (The Last Metro), the historical melodrama Indochine, Lars von Trier’s death penalty musical Dancer in the Dark and François Ozon‘s ensemble comedy 8 femmes (8 Women). After her marriage to Bailey ended, Deneuve had high-profile relationships with actor Marcello Mastroianni (with whom she had a daughter, the actress Chiara Mastroianni) and TV executive Pierre Lescure. She developed a devoted lesbian fanbase after starring in Tony Scott’s 1982 film The Hunger as a bisexual vampire who seduces both David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. The 1990s lesbian magazine Deneuve was named in her honour, until she sued them for copyright infringement. Shrugging off speculation about her sexuality with a nonchalant Gallic shrug, she has also campaigned for the worldwide decriminalisation of homosexuality.