Émilie Dequenne, an award-winning Belgian actress, passed away at the age of 43 from cancer. When Dequenne won the best actress prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival at the age of 18, it catapulted her to stardom.
She received a Cesar, one of France’s highest cinema honors, for Les Choses Qu’on Dit, les Choses Qu’on Fait (The Things We Say, the Things We Do) in 2021, and another Cannes prize for À Perdre la Raison (Our Children) in 2012.
She mostly acted in French-language movies, however she also starred in the 2014 BBC TV drama The Missing as Laurence Relaud, a police officer. Dequenne’s debut on-screen part was in the moving story Rosetta, which tells the story of a teenager who must overcome a life of sorrow.
When she was chosen for the position, she was unemployed after losing her work in a food plant. She portrayed Laurence Relaud in the film The Missing, which starred James Nesbitt as the father of a youngster who vanishes while on vacation with his family.
Close, a 2022 Cannes nominee, Pas Son Genre (Not My Type), and La fille du RER (The Girl on the Train) were among her other features. French Culture Minister Rachida Dati was among those who paid their respects, writing: “Francophone cinema has lost, too soon, a talented actress who still had so much to offer.”
In October 2023, Dequenne disclosed that she had adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), an adrenal gland cancer.
