Yvonne Furneaux obit

Yvonne Furneaux, Actress in Fellini’s ‘La Dolce Vita’ and Polanski’s ‘Repulsion,’ Dies at 98

She also appeared in Antonioni’s breakout film and starred alongside Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in ‘The Mummy.’ 

She was not on the list.

Yvonne Furneaux, the glamorous actress who had memorable performances in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Le Amiche, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, has died. She was 98.

Furneaux died July 5 at her home in North Hampton, New Hampshire, of complications from a stroke, her son, Nicholas Natteau, told The Hollywood Reporter.

She also was the female lead in the Hammer horror film The Mummy (1959), starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Though she considered the project less than ideal, she said she ultimately learned from those actors that “if you don’t take a film like The Mummy seriously and put your heart and soul into it, then you can bring it down,” she explained in Mark A. Miller’s 2010 book, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and Horror Cinema.

She starred in Italian, French, German and Spanish films during her career.

In Le Amiche (1955), a hit at the Venice Film Festival that proved to be Antonioni’s breakthrough movie, Furneaux played a vindictive socialite, and she was Emma, the desperately in love fiancée of Marcello Mastroianni’s tabloid journalist, in the Fellini masterpiece La Dolce Vita (1960).

In Polanski’s psychological thriller Repulsion (1965), she portrayed the older sister of Catherine Deneuve’s disturbed Carol Ledoux.

Elisabeth Yvonne Scatcherd was born to British parents on May 11, 1926, in Roubaix, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. She and her family moved to England, and she attended St. Hilda’s College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1951.

Furneaux — that was her mother’s maiden name — appeared onstage in Macbeth and The Taming of the Shrew and showed up in her first films, Meet Me Tonight and the Merle Oberon-starring Affair in Monte Carlo, in 1952.

The next year, she acted in The Beggar’s Opera, directed by Peter Brook and starring Laurence Olivier, and Michael Anderson’s The House of the Arrow and portrayed Errol Flynn’s mistress in The Master of Ballantrae. (She also worked opposite Flynn in 1954’s Crossed Swords and 1955’s The Warriors.)

Her résumé also included the features Lisbon (1956), Claude Autant-Lara’s Le meurtrier (1963), The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (1964) and Claude Chabrol’s The Champagne Murders (1967) and a 1965 episode of the British TV show Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan.

She was married to French cinematographer Jacques Natteau — they met while filming 1961’s The Story of The Count of Monte Cristo — from 1962 until his death in 2007. Survivors also include her daughter-in-law, Leiva.

 

Actress

Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie (1984)

Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie

2.4

Matilda 'Tillie' Frankenstein

1984

 

Versuchung im Sommerwind (1972)

Versuchung im Sommerwind

8.1

Frau des Professors

1972

 

Vittorio Gassman, Franco Angrisano, Maria Teresa Albani, Gianfilippo Carcano, Checco Durante, Edda Ferronao, Yvonne Furneaux, Ely Galleani, Piero Nuti, Enrico Ragusa, Simonetta Stefanelli, and Ugo Tognazzi in In the Name of the Italian People (1971)

In the Name of the Italian People

7.5

Lavinia Santenocito

1971

 

The Champagne Murders (1967)

The Champagne Murders

5.8

Christine Belling

1967

 

The Man Who Never Was (1966)

The Man Who Never Was

7.8

TV Series

Paula

1966

1 episode

 

Steve Forrest in The Baron (1966)

The Baron

7.1

TV Series

Selina Travis

1966

2 episodes

 

The Man in a Looking Glass

7.0

TV Movie

Selina Travis

1965

 

Alfred Lynch in Hereward the Wake (1965)

Hereward the Wake

9.0

TV Series

Torfrida

1965

11 episodes

 

Patrick McGoohan in Secret Agent (1964)

Secret Agent

8.2

TV Series

Lisa Lee

1965

1 episode

 

Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion (1965)

Repulsion

7.6

Helen Ledoux

1965

 

Mark Forest and Yvonne Furneaux in The Lion of Thebes (1964)

The Lion of Thebes

5.1

Elena di Troia

1964

 

Wolfgang Preiss, Yvonne Furneaux, O.E. Hasse, Valéry Inkijinoff, Walter Rilla, and Peter van Eyck in The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (1964)

The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse

4.8

Gilda Larsen (as Yvonne Fourneaux)

1964

 

I 4 tassisti (1963)

I 4 tassisti

6.2

Corinna (segment "Caccia al tesoro")

1963

 

Slave Queen of Babylon (1963)

Slave Queen of Babylon

5.4

Semiramide

1963

 

Enough Rope (1963)

Enough Rope

6.2

Clara Saccard

1963

 

Night Train to Milan (1962)

Night Train to Milan

6.5

Angela

1962

 

Charge of the Black Lancers (1962)

Charge of the Black Lancers

5.5

Jassa

1962

 

Caccia all'uomo (1961)

Caccia all'uomo

5.4

Maria (as Yvonne Fourneaux)

1961

 

The Story of the Count of Monte Cristo (1961)

The Story of the Count of Monte Cristo

6.5

Mercédès

1961

 

Il carro armato dell'8 settembre (1960)

Il carro armato dell'8 settembre

7.2

1960

 

Via Margutta (1960)

Via Margutta

7.0

Marta

1960

 

A noi piace freddo...! (1960)

A noi piace freddo...!

6.1

Rosalina

1960

 

La Dolce Vita (1960)

La Dolce Vita

8.0

Emma

1960

 

The Mummy (1959)

The Mummy

6.6

Isobel Banning

Princess Ananka

1959

 

Lui, lei e il nonno (1959)

Lui, lei e il nonno

6.1

Helen

1959

 

Carta al cielo (1959)

Carta al cielo

1959

 

ITV Play of the Week (1955)

ITV Play of the Week

6.8

TV Series

Kathi Lutterwell

1957

1 episode

 

Maureen O'Hara and Ray Milland in Lisbon (1956)

Lisbon

5.9

Maria Madalena Massenet

1956

 

Adventure Theater (1956)

Adventure Theater

TV Series

Vanessa

1956

1 episode

 

Nom-de-Plume

TV Series

The Countess

1956

1 episode

 

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1955)

The Scarlet Pimpernel

7.0

TV Series

Suzanne de Fleury

1955

1 episode

 

Valentina Cortese, Madeleine Fischer, Yvonne Furneaux, Anna Maria Pancani, and Eleonora Rossi Drago in The Girlfriends (1955)

The Girlfriends

7.1

Momina De Stefani

1955

 

Il principe dalla maschera rossa (1955)

Il principe dalla maschera rossa

5.8

Laura

1955

 

Yvonne Furneaux and Wayne Morris in Cross Channel (1955)

Cross Channel

5.1

Jacqueline Moreau

1955

 

The Warriors (1955)

The Warriors

5.8

Marie

1955

 

The Three Princes

TV Movie

Princess Yasmin

1954

 

Crossed Swords (1954)

Crossed Swords

5.7

Woman (uncredited)

1954

 

Paul Douglas in The Javanese Dagger (1954)

The Javanese Dagger

Short

Vanessa - Tresall's 2nd Wife

1954

 

The House of the Arrow (1953)

The House of the Arrow

6.4

Betty Harlowe

1953

 

The Master of Ballantrae (1953)

The Master of Ballantrae

6.4

Jessie Brown

1953

 

Rheingold Theatre (1953)

Rheingold Theatre

8.5

TV Series

Suzie Rochard

1953

1 episode

 

The Genie (1953)

The Genie

Suzie (segment "The Genie")

1953

 

The Beggar's Opera (1953)

The Beggar's Opera

6.1

Jenny Diver

1953

 

Merle Oberon in Affair in Monte Carlo (1952)

Affair in Monte Carlo

5.0

Henriette (uncredited)

1952

 

Tonight at 8:30 (1952)

Tonight at 8:30

6.1

Elena (segment "Ways and Means")

1952

 

Soundtrack

The Beggar's Opera (1953)

The Beggar's Opera

6.1

performer: "When Gold Is At Hand" (Uncredited)

1953