Downton Abbey star dies aged 77 after battle with dementia

Ed Griffiths
Sat, 18 Apr 2026 10:17:42 +0000

Downton Abbey star Nathalie Baye has died aged 77 after a battle with dementia.

The multi-Cesar Award winner passed away at her home in Paris on Friday, her family told French news agency AFP.

Ms Baye portrays Madame de Montmirail in the 2022 feature film, Downton Abbey: A New Era.

In the blockbuster film, her character is a French aristocrat whose husband's past connection to the Dowager Countess, played by the late Maggie Smith, sets in motion a central mystery involving an inherited villa in the South of France.

TRENDING

Stories

Videos

Your Say

The actress also starred in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and appeared in more than 80 films across her distinguished career.

Her condition is understood to have worsened since the summer of 2025 as she fought against Lewy body dementia.

Ms Baye won the César Award, the French equivalent of the Oscars, four times, including two for Best Actress and two for Best Supporting Actress.

As one of the most decorated French actresses, she has received 10 nominations for Best Actress throughout her distinguished career, which began in the 1970s.

She burst onto the scene after first achieving fame with François Truffaut's 1973 film Day for Night.

The 77-year-old was recognised for her role in Every Man for Himself, Strange Affair, and La Balance.

Out of the spotlight, the actress was in a relationship with the late French rock star Johnny Hallyday.

The pair shared a daughter, actress Laura Smet.

Fans paid tribute on social media.

One wrote: "What sadness, this morning the beautiful Nathalie Baye leaves us. On tiptoe, discreetly, I constantly compared her to my mom. For her gentleness and her beauty."

Another added: "This morning, our hearts ache a little more tightly. Nathalie Baye left us yesterday, April 17, 2026, at the age of 77, taken by Lewy body disease. What an immense actress. What a luminous, elegant, authentic woman. Behind the talent, there was a discreet woman, a loving mother, an artist who crossed the eras without ever betraying her soul.

"Today, it’s all of French cinema that mourns one of its most beautiful voices, one of its most radiant lights. Thank you, Nathalie. Thank you for all those emotions, those laughs, those tears, those silences that said everything. You will remain forever in our memories and in our hearts."

A third wrote: "France loses a great figure. Nathalie Baye has passed away, embodying a certain idea of French cinema, demanding, elegant.

"Four César awards, unforgettable roles: it is a part of our heritage that vanishes."

Ms Baye collaborated with directors Maurice Pialat and Claude Sautet before working with Jean-Luc Godard on Détective in 1985.