Claire Maurier has died. The actress from the famous films “Amelie” and “The Mad Cage” was 97 years old

Theater and film actress Claire Maurier, who starred in several French cinema hits including La Cage aux folles (1978) and Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001 – better known simply as Amélie), died on Sunday at the age of 97, her husband announced on Monday for AFP.

Born Odette Agramon in 1929 in Céret (in the south of France), near Spain, she chose the stage name Claire Maurier, then began her career in the theater in the early 1950s, alongside filming for television productions.

Her film career took off in 1959 with the role of Jean-Pierre Léaud's mother in François Truffaut's Les Quatre cents coups, one of the most iconic films of the New Wave.

In 1963, she starred with Fernandel and Bourvil in “La cuisine au beurre”, a phenomenal success of French cinema in the early 1960s. She played the wife of the two characters played by the star actors of the era.

Her career then slowed, but in the late 1970s, she starred in La Cage aux folles. This comedy released in 1978, adapted from a stage play, is a resounding success, including abroad, especially in the United States.

In the film, Claire Maurier plays the role of Simona, the former partner of Renato Baldi, owner of a transvestite cabaret in Saint-Tropez.

In 1981, she was nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Claude Sautet's Un mauvais fils, in which she starred alongside Patrick Dewaere and Brigitte Fossey.

And in 2001, she starred in another highly acclaimed film that became a cult film: “Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain”, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

In “Amelie”, she plays Suzanne, a former dancer turned cafe owner in the famous Paris district of Montmartre, who hires the young waitress Amélie Poulain.

Her lonely and eccentric character, with a deeply human gaze, is characteristic of the figures who populate this film with an unusual destiny. The film had over eight million viewers in France.

Claire Maurier was married to actor Jean-Renaud Garcia.