The icon of strong female roles: Faye Dunaway turns 85

Faye Dunaway has been in front of the movie cameras for over half a century, mostly as Hollywood's cool power woman. At the age of 76, the actress took on a role in the thriller "Deadly Desire" (2017). In it, she played the suspicious mother of a family man played by Nicolas Cage.

In 2022, she appeared in front of the camera for Italian actor and director Franco Nero together with Kevin Spacey for the independent film "L'uomo che disegnò Dio" ("The Man Who Drew God"). Dunaway turns 85 on January 14.

Female roles that brought men to their knees

For decades, the actress took on the strongest men and casually brought them to their knees. As an ice-cold gangster's moll in "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967), she taught Warren Beatty to fear. In "Thomas Crown" (1968), she was just as cold-blooded as her on-screen partner Steve McQueen.

As a cool, opaque blonde, she upset Jack Nicholson in "Chinatown" (1974). She gave Robert Redford a run for his money in the spy thriller "The Three Days of the Condor" (1975).

In the black comedy "Network" (1976), Dunaway struck as a calculating career woman - and received her only Oscar to date. She had previously been nominated twice for the coveted film prize ("Bonnie and Clyde", "Chinatown").

Standing up for her own rights as a woman

The Hollywood beauty with the striking green eyes and high cheekbones won the "Leopard Club Award" at the 2013 Locarno International Film Festival. "I was often allowed to portray strong, headstrong women. This made me understand how important it is for women to stand up for their rights, to fight for what they believe in," she said at the time, looking back on her long career. "Fortunately, there were directors who challenged me and encouraged me as a result."

In the documentary "Faye", released in 2024, she talks openly about the highs and lows in her life - with bipolar depression, a difficult childhood and her escape into acting. She was often very moody and depressed, the star admits. But these feelings also made her a strong person.

She had a reputation for being headstrong. During the filming of "Chinatown", director Roman Polanski and the leading actress allegedly had violent outbursts of anger. Her affair with Marcello Mastroianni also made headlines at the time.

Childhood dream fulfilled

In her memoirs ("Looking for Gatsby", 1995), Dunaway wrote that she wanted to be an actress from the age of five. She learned her craft at New York's Lincoln Center under the guidance of the legendary Elia Kazan, among others. She returned to her beginnings as an actress in 2019 with the one-person play "Tea at Five". On the theater stage in Boston, Dunaway transformed herself into the film legend Katharine Hepburn.

"Without the craft of theater and knowing how to give a lively and real performance, I wouldn't have been able to make movies," Dunaway told The Boston Globe in 2019.

Two marriages, one child

After her Oscar win in 1977, Dunaway's career in Hollywood initially collapsed. She moved to England, where she married photographer Terry O'Neill, and her adopted son Liam was born in 1980.

After the failure of her second marriage - she was married to rock musician Peter Wolf in the 1970s - Dunaway returned to Hollywood. She celebrated a comeback with her portrayal of a drunk in the Bukowski film "Barfly" (1987) alongside Mickey Rourke. "Hollywood is a tough place to survive," she confided to the US magazine "Esquire" in 1999.

"Bonnie Parker was my first role, she's the most like me in many ways," the actress summed up in "Esquire" about her debut as a young gangster's moll in "Bonnie and Clyde". "She was a girl from a small town in the South, she came from nothing, hungry and determined. She wanted to do something meaningful and be successful. She had a certain poetry in her soul."

Oscar mishap

With her then co-star Warren Beatty, Dunaway unintentionally catapulted herself into the limelight at the 2017 Oscars. The now-greying 'Bonnie and Clyde' couple were supposed to announce the winner of the top trophy for Best Picture at the end of the show.

But the wrong card was in the supposed winner's envelope - Dunaway reads "La La Land" aloud. Only after minutes of horror is the situation corrected: "Moonlight" is the winner. It was the fault of the helpers backstage, but Dunaway and Beatty received the first criticism.

A small consolation: Dunaway and Beatty were able to make up for the slip-up at the following Oscar Gala in 2018. They presented Best Picture again, flawlessly for "Shape of Water".