French actress Claire Maurier died in France at age 97. Her husband Jean-Renaud Garcia announced her death on May 3 to French media, which did not report a cause. The star, born Odette Michelle Suzanne Agramon, was best known for her role in Amélie, one of the highest-grossing French films in America. Maurier began her career early in French theater and movies, choosing to attend the Bordeaux Conservatory at age 16. She played roles in Lysistrata in 1954, and later in Tennessee Williams’s Sweet Bird of Youth and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She got her big break in François Truffaut’s 1959 New Wave film The 400 Blows, where she played the neglectful mother of a troubled Parisian boy. Maurier continued working in the French film industry, appearing in films such as La Cuisine au Beurre in 1963 and La Cage Aux Folles in 1978. Her most famous role was as a bistro owner in the 2001 French breakout Amélie. Most recently, she starred in the French television series La Famille Katz. She is survived by her husband, Jean-Renaud Garcia.
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