Maria Schneider Dies former star of ‘Last Tango in Paris’

Maria Schneider died Thursday in Paris at the age of 58, the French actress whose sex scenes with Marlon Brando in “Last Tango in Paris” set a new standard for explicitness onscreen.

Last Tango in Paris

a 1972 Italian romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci which portrays a recent American widower who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman. It stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, and Jean-Pierre Léaud. Source: Wikipedia

It was reported that the former actress died after a long illness but provided no other details.

Ms. Schneider was only 19 when the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci chose her above a hundred other actresses for the role of the free-spirited, mysterious Jeanne in “Last Tango” because, he once said, she seemed “like a Lolita, but more perverse.”

The highly criticized movie turned Maria Schneider a sex symbol and not what she wanted which is a movie star or actress. In 2007, Schneider told The Daily Mail of London,

"I felt very sad because I was treated like a sex symbol,”
 “I wanted to be recognized as an actress, and the whole scandal and aftermath of the film turned me a little crazy and I had a breakdown. Now, though, I can look at the film and like my work in it.”

Rest in peace to Maria Schneider.