Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (French: [ʁɔʒe vadim]; 26 January 1928 – 11 February 2000) was a French screenwriter, film director and producer, as well as an author, artist and occasional actor.[1] His best-known works are visually lavish films with erotic qualities, such as And God Created Woman (1956), Blood and Roses (1960), Barbarella (1968), and Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971).
Roger Vadim
26 January 1928
11 February 2000 (aged 72)
Film director, screenwriter, producer
1950–1997
- Catherine Deneuve (1961–1964)
- Ann Biderman (1980–1987)
4, including Christian
Early life[edit]
Vadim was born Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (sometimes transliterated Plemiannikoff) in Paris. His father, Igor Nikolaevich Plemiannikov (И́горь Никола́евич Племя́нников), a White Russian military officer and pianist, had emigrated from the Russian Empire and become a naturalized French citizen. He was a vice consul of France to Egypt, stationed in Alexandria, later posting to Mersin, Turkey as a consul. Vadim's mother, Marie-Antoinette (née Ardilouze),[2] was a French actress.[3] Although Vadim lived as a diplomat's child in Northern Africa and the Middle East in his early youth,[4] the death of his father when Vadim was nine years old caused the family to return to France, where his mother found work running a hostel in the French Alps, which functioned as a way-station for Jews and other fugitives fleeing Nazism.[3]
Vadim studied journalism and writing at the University of Paris, without graduating.[3]
Personal life[edit]
Romances[edit]
Vadim was famous for his romances and marriages to young beautiful actresses.[6] In his mid-30s, he lived with the teenaged Catherine Deneuve, by whom he had a child, Christian Vadim, prior to his marriage to Fonda.[7] He was also involved with American actresses Margaret Markov[8] and Cindy Pickett.[9] Later, he cohabited with screenwriter Ann Biderman for several years, announcing their engagement in 1984,[10] but the couple never wed.[7]
Writing[edit]
In addition to Vadim's theatre and film work, he also wrote several books, including the memoirs "Memoires du Diable", "Le Gout du Bonheur: Souvenirs 1940–1958" and an autobiography, D'une étoile à l'autre (From One Star to the Next) as well as a tell-all about his most famous exes, Bardot, Deneuve & Fonda: My Life with the Three Most Beautiful Women in the World, published in 1986.[12] "My attitude is that if this book makes me a little money it will be a tiny compensation for all the money I helped those actresses make", Vadim explained.[13] He also wrote several plays and books of fiction, including L'ange affamé.
Death[edit]
Vadim died of cancer at age 72 on 11 February 2000. Ex-wives Bardot, Fonda, Schneider and Stroyberg were all in attendance at his funeral.[14] He is buried at St. Tropez Cemetery.