Isabelle Yasmine Adjani is a French film actress and singer.
Adjani grew up speaking German fluently as a first language. After winning a school recitation contest, she began acting in amateur theater by the age of twelve. At the age of 14, she starred in her first motion picture Le Petit bougnat (1970).
She first gained fame as a classical actress for her interpretation of Agnès, the main female role in Molière's L'École des femmes, but soon left the Comédie française she had joined in 1972 to pursue a film career. After minor roles in several films, she enjoyed modest success in the 1974 film La Gifle. The following year, she landed her first major role in François Truffaut's The Story of Adèle H. Critics enthused over her performance, with Pauline Kael calling her acting talents "Prodigious". All this attention resulted in a nomination for the Best Actress Oscar and offers for rôles in Hollywood films, such as Walter Hill's 1978 crime thriller The Driver.
In 1981, Adjani received the Cannes Film Festival's best actress award for the Merchant Ivory film Quartet. She was chosen by People magazine as one of the '50 Most Beautiful People' in the world. Her fourth César win was for the 1994 film Queen Margot, an ensemble epic directed by Patrice Chéreau.
Adjani has two sons: Barnabé Nuytten (born c. 1980) with cinematographer Bruno Nuytten, and Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis from her six-year relationship (c.1988–1994) with Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Gabriel-Kane was born in New York City in 1995, several months after her relationship with Day-Lewis ended.
Adjani was also engaged to composer Jean Michel Jarre, but they broke up publicly in 2004. She was also engaged to Dr Stéphane Delajoux, a surgeon, who operated on Johnny Hallyday.
Adjani was also romantically linked to actor Warren Beatty from c.1986 to 1987.
In 1987, some French media outlets incorrectly reported that Adjani was dying of AIDS, forcing her to appear on television to deny it.
In 2009, she denounced statements by Pope Benedict XVI claiming that condoms are not an effective method of AIDS prevention, despite massive scientific evidence to the contrary.