The actress Nadia Farès, found unconscious in a Parisian swimming pool less than a week ago and since plunged into a coma, died on Friday April 17, at the age of 57, her daughters announced.
“It is with immense sadness that we announce the death this Friday of Nadia Farès. France has lost a great artist, but for us, it is above all a mother that we have just lost,” wrote Cylia and Shana Chasman in a message sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Nadia Farès died at La Pitié Salpêtrière, where she was hospitalized, Sunday April 12, after being brought to the surface, unconscious, from a swimming pool at a private club on rue Blanche, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. “Observed by several people in a yoga position at the bottom of the water”, she was taken care of “first by the firefighters then taken to the hospital”, explained the prosecution. An investigation was opened but no offense has been noted at this stage.
Brain surgery in 2007
Nadia Farès was due to shoot her first feature film as screenwriter and director next September. “Through hard work, questioning and persistence, I found a great team, we are working together on an action comedy with TF1 Studios,” she explained in a last interview published by Gala in January.
She also revealed that she had undergone “brain surgery in 2007, due to an aneurysm that was far from small”. “A time bomb that needed to be addressed urgently. And in four years, I had three heart operations,” added the woman who said she swims four times a week.
Born in 1968 in Marrakech, Morocco, Nadia Farès grew up in Nice before moving to Paris to try an artistic career. She started in cinema in the 1990s, playing for renowned directors such as Alexandre Arcady, Claude Lelouch and Bernie Bonvoisin.
She finally established herself in the eyes of the general public in 2001 thanks to her role in Les Rivières pourpres by Mathieu Kassovitz, alongside Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel. This role opened the doors to the international scene for her and she continued her career in a few Anglo-Saxon action films (Rogue: The Last Stand or Insane) while playing in French films like Wasp’s Nest or The Ex-Woman of My Life by Josiane Balasko.
A career on hiatus before a return in 2016
Then she decided to put her career on hold and lived in the United States with American producer Steve Chasman. “By following my husband to Los Angeles, I really needed to build a family of my own, to devote all my time to it,” Nadia Farès told Gala.
They separated four years ago and she returned to live in France. “I have always followed my heart. To the detriment of a career, certainly,” said the actress.
She made a professional return in 2016, for the Netflix series Marseille, in which she played the president of the Bouches-du-Rhône departmental council alongside Gérard Depardieu and Benoît Magimel. She then rather starred in series, TV films or films intended for streaming platforms.
“Of course, as an actress, I would like to film more, but I consider myself extremely privileged in many ways, so I have no right to complain, to whine,” she confided again last January.
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
