Actress Emilie Dequenne Dies of Cancer at 43

'Life is disgusting sometimes,' director says
Posted Mar 17, 2025 5:45 PM CDT
Rosetta Star Emilie Dequenne Dies at 43
Emilie Dequenne appears at the premiere of the film "Close" in Cannes, southern France, on May 26, 2022.   (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

Belgian actress Emilie Dequenne has died at age 43, less than two years after she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. She made her film debut in 1999's Rosetta, filmed when she was 17, and was best known for that movie and the 2012 drama Our Children, the New York Times reports. She won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for Rosetta, which was directed by brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. "It's terrible, life is disgusting sometimes," director Luc Dardenne said Monday. "That's too young, she still had so much to do."

"Acting was her life. She was an actress who could have done many things and whom people loved," Dardenne told France Info radio. Dequenne's family said she died in a hospital near Paris on Sunday night. She revealed in October 2023 that she had been diagnosed with adrenocortical carcinoma, a cancer of the adrenal glands, reports Variety. In April last year, she said she was in remission, but in December, she said the cancer had returned, People reports.

Dequenne had more than 50 film credits to her name. Her last film was the English-language disaster movie Survive, which came out last year. She is survived by her husband, author Michel Ferracci, and her daughter, Milla Savarese, from a previous relationship with Alexandre Savarese. Her final Instagram post was a Valentine's Day message to Ferracci. (More obituary stories.)

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