Personal Life
In 1974, Schneider came out as bisexual. In early 1976, she abandoned the film set of Caligula and checked herself into a mental hospital in Rome for several days to be with her lover, photographer Joan Townsend. This, coupled with her refusal to perform nude, led to Schneider's dismissal and she was replaced by Teresa Ann Savoy.
The 1970s were turbulent years for Schneider, marked by drug addiction, overdoses, and a suicide attempt. Schneider said that she disliked the instant fame accorded to her from Last Tango in Paris. She suffered abuse and began taking drugs.
| “ | I was rock 'n' roll. About drugs, we did not know at the time, it was so dangerous. There was an ideal, to change society, and especially a thirst for novelty...I have lost seven years of my life and I regret it bitterly...I started using drugs when I became famous. I did not like the celebrity, and especially the image full of innuendo, naughty, that people had of me after Last Tango. In addition, I had no family behind me, who protect you ... I suffered abuse. People who come up to tell you unpleasant things on planes. I was tracked down, and I felt hounded. | ” |
By the 1980s, however, her life had improved:
| “ | "I was very lucky – I lost many friends to drugs – but I met someone in 1980 who helped me stop. I call this person my angel and we've been together ever since. I don't say if it's a man or a woman. That's my secret garden. I like to keep it a mystery." | ” |
She died from cancer on 3 February 2011 at age 58. Remembering her, Bertolucci said, "Her death came too soon, before I could hold her again tenderly, and tell her that I felt connected to her as on the first day, and for once, to ask her to forgive me." "Maria accused me of having robbed her of her youth and only today am I wondering whether there wasn't some truth to that," he added.
Her funeral was held on 10 February 2011 at Église Saint-Roch, Paris, attended by actors, directors and producers in French cinema such as Dominique Besnehard, Bertrand Blier, Christine Boisson, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, Andréa Ferreol, as well as her surviving partner, Pia, half-siblings Fiona and Manuel Gélin, and her uncle, Georges Schneider. Delon read a tribute from Brigitte Bardot, who took care of the teenaged Schneider and helped her begin her career in cinema. Schneider was cremated afterwards at Père Lachaise crematorium, and her ashes were later to be scattered at sea at the foot of the Rock of the Virgin in Biarritz, according to her last wishes.
Read more about this topic: Maria Schneider (actress)
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