Emmanuelle Riva, the veteran French actress who became the oldest Best Actress nominee in Oscar history for her role in Michael Haneke’s 2012 drama “Amour,” died Friday at the age of 89, according to the Associated Press.
Riva, who died in a Paris clinic after a long illness, launched her 60-year career with an early role in director Alain Resnais’ acclaimed “Hiroshima Mon Amour” in 1959.
Other noteworthy movies include the 1959 Oscar nominee “Kapo,” 1961’s “Priest” opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo, and 1993’s “Three Colors: Blue,” in which she played Juliette Binoche’s mother.
While she continued to work in both movies and on stage in France, she is perhaps best known for her role in “Amour,” a warts-and-all depiction of an aging couple in which she starred opposite another veteran French actor, Jean-Louis Trintignant.
The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and Riva herself won the BAFTA and Cesar awards.
Riva made her first trip to Los Angeles for the 2013 Oscars — which took place on her 86th birthday.
“This adventure, this gift, in the last stage of my life — it’s not easy to measure up — but it’s the exact moment in my life when I could do it,” she told TheWrap. “Before would have been too early. Later might have been too late.”
Riva worked into last year, shooting in Iceland for “Alma,” which is still being filmed and edited and will be the last movie to feature Riva, her agent, Anne Alvares Correa, told the AP.
She also will appear in “Paris Barefoot,” which is due to be released in French cinemas in March.