Valerie Quennessen
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Valerie Quennessen (December 18, 1957 – March 1989, France) was a French film actress. She was born in Paris and dedicated much of her childhood to pursuing her dream of becoming an acrobat. She quickly reached a level of competence and received an award for her expertise at the age of ten.
By her teens, she had given up acrobatics and enrolled in acting classes, not because she particularly wanted to get into show business, but to help her overcome social anxiety. She found that she not only overcame her shyness via acting, but she also enjoyed performing. She continued studying drama at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts et Techniques du Theatre in Paris and appeared in several theater productions.
She made her first film appearances in a trio of French films: Le Plein de Super, La Tortue sur le Dos, and Martin et Lea. Although she would continue to appear in the occasional French film and television show, in 1979 she landed one of the main roles in the American film French Postcards, working alongside the yet-to-be famous Debra Winger and Mandy Patinkin. She followed up that film by playing the princess in Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1982 film Conan the Barbarian.
It would be her next film, Summer Lovers, that was the peak of her career for American audiences. During the filming of the movie, in which she played an archaeologist, Valerie actually discovered several pieces of pottery at the Akrotiri site that were more than 3,500 years old.
After Summer Lovers, Valerie virtually retired from acting, choosing to concentrate on having a family. Tragically, in 1989 Valerie died in a car accident at the age of 31.
