MARITAL STATUS
Profession Actress
French nationality
Birth September 2, 1945 (Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France)
Death September 27, 2023
BIOGRAPHY
Born on September 2, 1945 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Catherine Lachens trained in comedy at the end of the 1960s, after having hitchhiked and moped across Europe for a year and a half. She took lessons from Jean Périmony then Jean-Laurent Cochet. She then studied at the National Conservatory of Paris where, unusually, she graduated with three First Prizes (classical, contemporary and foreign).
After having a series of small food jobs, including usherette at the Le Palace cinema, Catherine Lachens made her film debut in What A Flash! in 1972. Very quickly, the actress found herself opposite big names in French cinema, such as Francis Huster and Brigitte Bardot in The Very Good and Very Joyful Story of Colinot trousse-chemise (1973), Jean-Paul Belmondo in L’Incorrigible (1975), Philippe Noiret in Monsieur Albert (1976) and Alain Delon in Flic Story (1975). She will also find the latter in Le Gang , Le Toubib and Un amour de Swann .
Until the beginning of the 1990s, her career in cinema was flourishing and she toured under the direction of Claude Zidi ( Bête, mais discipliné ), Yves Boisset ( The Price of Danger ), Claude Chabrol (the TV film Le Sang des autres carried by Jodie Foster ) and Pierre Richard ( I’m shy, but I look after myself ). In opposite registers, directors Georges Lautner and Paul Vecchiali direct it on several occasions. The first in Cop or Thug , Death of a Rotten Man , The Dissolute Life of Gérard Floque and These Sorcerers Are Crazy . The second in Rosa la rose, fille publique then eighteen years later in À vot’ bon coeur . Marriage counselor, upper middle class woman, prostitute, abandoned wife,… Catherine Lachens lets her cheekiness and exuberance express themselves in all repertoires.
An eclecticism that continues on the theater stage, where she performs classic pieces by Molière, Ionesco or Racine, as well as contemporary works, directed by renowned directors such as Roger Planchon and Andrzej Wajda. Rarer on screens since the 1990s, we could see the actress in Gazon Maudit(1994), for an episode of the series Scènes deménages on M6 and Les Beaux Jours (2013). His last appearance dates back to 2015 in the comedy Pension complet carried by Franck Dubosc and Gérard Lanvin .
