TV and Movie Actress Found Unconscious in Pool: Nadia Farès Dies After Week-Long Coma

Nadia Farès, the Moroccan-French actress best known for her role in The Crimson Rivers, died on Friday after being found unconscious in a swimming pool the previous week. She was 57.

Farès, who had been in a coma for almost a week following the pool incident, died Friday of cardiac arrest, her daughters confirmed in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

“It is with immense sadness that we announce the passing of Nadia Farès this Friday. France has lost a great artist, but for us, it is above all a mother whom we have just lost,” Cylia and Shana Chasman wrote in a statement, translated from French.

Farès had been found unconscious in a gym swimming pool at the Blanche sports complex in Paris on April 11, according to French newspaper Le Figaro, and was rescued by a fellow swimmer who administered CPR before she was rushed to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital.

There, doctors placed Farès into a medically-induced coma, and on Friday, she suffered fatal cardiac arrest. An investigation has been opened into the circumstances surrounding her death, but Le Figaro reports that “no offense has been identified at this stage.”

Following Farès’ death, her daughter Cylia paid tribute to the late actress on Instagram, writing that this was “a heartbreak [she] will never get over.”

“I know you fought your very hardest for your babies. Thank you. Thank you for fighting, thank you for giving me life, thank you for every memory, thank you for the laughs, for the cries,” she continued, writing that she knew her mother “tried [her] best to stay” until she passed.

“You have shown me how fast life can change literally overnight,” she continued. “I will take that with me everyday and make every day count for you. …Rest so peacefully maman. Be my angel forever. I need it.”

Born Dec. 20, 1968, in Marrakesh, Farès grew up in Nice before eventually moving to Paris to pursue acting. Farès’ film debut came with 1992’s My Wife’s Girlfriends, but she is best known for her role in the 2000 police thriller The Crimson Rivers, which also starred Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel.

She would continue on to appear in the 2007 action thriller War and the 2007 horror film Storm Warning before stepping away from acting in 2009 and moving to the U.S. with her husband, producer Steve Chasman.

In 2016, she returned to acting for Netflix’s drama series Marseille, and in 2022, Farès and Chasman separated, and she moved back to France.

Farès is survived by her two daughters, Cylia and Shana.