Actress From ‘Catch Me If You Can’ and ‘Downton Abbey’ Movie Dead at 77: RIP to Nathalie Baye

Nathalie Baye, a prolific French actress known in the U.S. for her roles in a Downton Abbey film and Catch Me If You Can, has died. She was 77.

Baye died at home in Paris following a Lewy body dementia diagnosis, her family announced via the Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday.

Lewy body dementia occurs when protein deposits develop in nerve cells in the brain, affecting brain regions involved in thinking, memory and movement, as per the Mayo Clinic. Lewy body dementia causes a decline in mental abilities that gradually gets worse over time.

Born on July 6, 1948, Baye graduated from the Simon Course for the Academy in 1972 and would go on to star in around 80 films throughout her acting career. Baye also took home four César Awards, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards, for her performances in Every Man for Himself (1980), Strange Affair (1981), La Balance (1982), and The Young Lieutenant (2005).

Her career took a more international turn later in her career, and she appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Catch Me If You Can as Paula Abagnale and in the 2022 Downton Abbey: The New Era movie as Madame Montmirail.

Following the news of Baye’s death, French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to her with a post on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “We loved Nathalie Baye so much.”

“With her voice, her smile and her grace, she has been a constant presence in French cinema over the past few decades, from François Truffaut to Tonie Marshall,” he continued. “[She was] an actress with whom we have loved, dreamed and grown up.”