When Europe learned that Romy Schneider was dead, many immediately thought of the princess who had made millions of spectators dream.
But the woman who left in Paris on 29 May 1982 had lived a much more complex life than that film fairy tale.
Romy was just 43.
She was found lifeless in her house, next to a letter that was unfinished. Death was attributed to cardiac arrest, but it came after months marked by a pain that had profoundly changed its existence.
A year earlier he lost his son David.
He was only 14 years old when, in July 1981, he was mortally wounded while trying to cross a gate.
For a mother it was an impossible tragedy to shorten.
Romy continued to work, he continued to show himself to the public, but who knew her told that after David's death something in her was no longer the same.
Yet his story began very far from that suffering.
She was born in Vienna on 23 September 1938 under the name Rosemarie Magdalena Albach, daughter of two actors already known in the world of German cinema.
The fame came very early.
Still a teenager portrayed Elizabeth of Austria in the trilogy dedicated to Sissi and, almost suddenly, her face became that of a beloved princess throughout Europe.
That success, however, had a price.
The audience saw in her the romantic image of Sissi. Romy wanted to become something more: an actress capable of interpreting complex characters, adults, far from the fairy tale that made her famous.
It was also for this reason that he sought a new professional road, especially in France.
There he built the most mature part of his career and worked with important European directors, slowly getting rid of the image he had accompanied from adolescence.
In France, Alain Delon also entered his life.
At the end of the Fifties were two beautiful young actors, famous and constantly observed by the press. In the eyes of the public they seemed to embody one of the great love stories of European cinema.
Their relationship ended, but the relationship between the two survived separations and years.
When Romy died, Delon was among the most affected.
In the following days he dedicated a public letter, “Adieu ma Puppelé”, published by Paris Match. It was not only the greeting of a former companion, but the testimony of an affection that time could not completely erase.
Romy Schneider's death caused a huge mourning in France, Germany, Austria and many other European countries.
For a whole generation it was first the young Empress of Sissi films and then one of the most intense interpreters of European cinema.
And maybe that's why his story still hits today.
On the big screen he embodied elegance, romance and beauty.
In real life he had to struggle to get rid of an image that no longer belonged to her, cross difficult loves, transform his career and finally face the most terrible pain a parent might know.
Behind the face of the princess there was a woman who had spent most of her life simply trying to be seen for what she really was.