Actor / Director Profile

Marion Cotillard, who won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role as Édith Piaf in La vie en rose (2007) (retitled "La Vie en Rose" in the United States), is the second actress to win an acting Oscar performing in a language other than English next to Sophia Loren who won for Two Women (1960). Only two male performers (Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful (1997) and Robert De Niro for The Godfather: Part II (1974)) have won an Oscar for solely non-English parts.A Libran born in Paris on September 30, 1975, Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. Raised in Orléans, France, she made her acting debut as a child with a role in one of her father's plays. She studied drama at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Orléans.While still a teenager, Cotillard made her cinema debut in the film L'histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse (1994). Her first prominent screen role was as "Lilly Bertineau" in Taxi (1998/I), a role which she reprised in two sequels. Director Olivier Dahan cast Cotillard to play Édith Piaf, the legendary French singer, in La vie en rose (2007) because to him her eyes were like those of "Piaf". The fact that she can sing also helped Cotillard land the role of "Piaf", although most of the singing in the film is that of Piaf's.Her turn as Piaf brought Cotillard the Oscar, the César (France's equivalent to the Oscar), a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe among other prizes. Trevor Nunn called her portrayal of "Piaf" "one of the greatest performances on film ever". At the Berlin International Film Festival, where the film premiered, Cotillard was given a 15-minute standing ovation.