Marie Laforêt, known as “the girl with golden eyes” after one of her most well-known films, died at the age of 80. She appeared in 35 films and has over 35 million albums sold.

Laforêt, who held French and Swiss nationality, died on Saturday in Genolier, Switzerland, between Lausanne and Geneva, according to her relatives. The cause of death has yet to be determined.

“Marie Laforêt died Saturday in Genolier.

His daughter has just announced,” Dominique Segall, press secretary for director Lisa Azuelos, Marie Laforêt’s daughter, told AFP reporter Dominique Segall.

Maténa Doumenach, her real name, was born in Soulac-sur-Mer, France, on October 5, 1939, the daughter of an entrepreneur.

In 1963, she released her debut song, Vendanges de l’amour, which made her famous as a vocalist.

Ivan, Boris et moi, Il a neigé sur Yesterday (in homage to The Beatles), Viens sur la montagne, Marie douceur, Marie colère, and Que calor la vida were among the numerous hits.

In a 2008 interview with the French newsmagazine VSD, Ms. Laforêt described herself as coming from “a bourgeois milieu” and a family that was “passionate about music.” “The tea was brought on a silver platter at 5 p.m.,” she recounted, adding, “My parents used the formal address ‘vous.’ My mother changed for dinner.”

She took inspiration from American and European folk music while singing in French and Spanish.

She worked as an actor alongside Georges Lautner, Henri Verneuil, Pierre Granier-Deferre, Michel Deville, and Jean-Pierre Mocky, among others. She shared the screen with Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Plein Soleil (Purple Noon), a 1960 criminal thriller starring Alain Delon and directed by René Clement, was her debut picture. It was partially inspired on Patricia Highsmith’s crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley.

“My career is odds and ends but my life is filled from start to finish,” said the woman, who had five husbands and worked as a theater actor, writer, antique dealer, and auctioneer.

“What do you say I loved him, I love him and I will love him (…) so beautiful memories with Mary, ” Laurent Ruquier, who staged the artist’s last recital in 2006 at Bouffes-Parisiens, said on his Twitter account.

“Marie Laforêt embodied a form of total freedom, freedom in her artistic choices, freedom in her life, led with love and passion as the only compasses, and the disappearance of the golden-eyed girl. the snow falls like so many tears,” said the Minister of Culture, Franck Riester on his twitter account.