Arielle Dombasle
Arielle Dombasle (born April 27, 1953) is an American-born French singer, actress, director and model. Her breakthrough roles were in Éric Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach (1983) and Alain Robbe-Grillet's The Blue Villa (1995). She has worked with a wide variety of filmmakers, including Werner Schroeter on Two (2002), Philippe de Broca on Amazon (2000), Roman Polanski on Tess (1979), Jean-Pierre Mocky on Crédit pour tous (2011) and Raoul Ruiz on Savage Souls (2001).
Also recorded as Arielle Laure Maxime Sonnery · Arielle Sonnery De Fromental · Arielle Laure Maxime Sonnery de Fromental
Arielle Dombasle

Studio Harcourt · Studio Harcourt Paris (http: studio-harcourt.eu/) · CC BY 3.0
- Born
- 1953.
- Nationality
- France and United States.
- Occupation
- singer, film actor, film director, radio personality, screenwriter, model, composer, actor, director and musician.
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Arielle Dombasle (born April 27, 1953) is an American-born French singer, actress, director and model. Her breakthrough roles were in Éric Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach (1983) and Alain Robbe-Grillet's The Blue Villa (1995). She has worked with a wide variety of filmmakers, including Werner Schroeter on Two (2002), Philippe de Broca on Amazon (2000), Roman Polanski on Tess (1979), Jean-Pierre Mocky on Crédit pour tous (2011) and Raoul Ruiz on Savage Souls (2001).
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Arielle Dombasle (born 1953) is an actor, composer and director, among other activities, of French and American nationality. The actor was born Arielle Laure Maxime Sonnery de Fromental in Hartford.
Arielle Dombasle was educated at Cours Simon and Lycée Franco-Mexicain. The actor worked for RTL.
Languages used include English, French and Spanish. Honours include Knight of the Legion of Honour.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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wikidata · Q284731 · wikipedia · Arielle Dombasle
In this article
Early life
Early life
She also starred in the 1984 ABC miniseries Lace and its 1985 sequel Lace II and appeared as a guest on Miami Vice ("Definitely Miami" of Season Two). Dombasle has released thirty-four singles and eleven albums and has directed six movies.
She was born Arielle Laure Maxime Sonnery in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Jean-Louis Melchior Sonnery de Fromental, a silk manufacturer, and Françoise Garreau-Dombasle. She descends from French-American immigrants in Mexico under her grandfather's diplomatic tenure. The family's surname was created in 1912, when Dombasle's grandfather René Sonnery (1887–1925), an industrialist from Lyon, married Anne-Marie Berthon du Fromental. Arielle took the pseudonym Arielle Dombasle in memory of her mother who died at the age of 36. She was raised as a Roman Catholic. Dombasle and her brother Gilbert were raised in Mexico by their maternal grandparents after their mother's death in 1964. She attended the Lycée Franco-Mexicain. She was also raised at Château de Chaintré, the Sonnery family estate near Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire. Her maternal grandfather, Maurice Garreau-Dombasle, a close friend of and advisor to Charles de Gaulle, was a long time commercial attaché for the French Embassy, who resigned from his post on September 3, 1940, declaring that he would "never work 'under German control'," and on June that year was one of the founders of France Forever, had later served as the French ambassador to Mexico. Her maternal grandmother was Man'ha Garreau-Dombasle (née Germaine Massenet, 1898–1999), a writer and poet who translated Rabindranath Tagore's works into French and was a longtime friend of the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who dedicated his 1972 novel The Halloween Tree to her.
Career
Career
Dombasle embarked on a career as an actress and singer after attending the Conservatoire International de Musique de Paris and further studies in Mexico. Dombasle has appeared in several Hollywood productions, but most of her acting work has been in French, unlike her albums which are mostly in Spanish and English. She directed four films, Les Pyramides Bleues, Chassé-croisé, Opium and Alien Crystal Palace. She once described her own looks as "a Crazy Horse dancing girl". In 2006, she released both albums Amor Amor and C'est si Bon in the USA. In September 2006, she also performed three nights in a row at the Supper Club in New York City in front of Michael Douglas, John Malkovich, Lauren Bacall, Salman Rushdie, Andrée Putman and Charlie Rose. The latter invited Arielle Dombasle to promote her albums on The Charlie Rose Show. Arielle Dombasle then released several albums in France; Glamour à Mort!, Diva Latina, Arielle Dombasle by ERA and La Rivière Atlantique with French rocker Nicolas Ker. Dombasle joined Les Grosses Têtes, a French radio programme, in January 2016. That same year, Arielle Dombasle released her fragrance, Le Secret d'Arielle, within Mauboussin. The promotional campaign was created by the French artist Leonardo Marcos. Dombasle is the first contestant who was confirmed for the eighth season of Danse avec les Stars (the French version of Dancing with the Stars). In 2018, along with Mareva Galanter, Inna Modja and Helena Noguerra, Arielle Dombasle recreated the French band Les Parisiennes. In 2019, Arielle Dombasle directed and released a movie entitled Alien Crystal Palace with actors such as Nicolas Ker, Michel Fau, Asia Argento, Christian Louboutin, Thaddaeus Ropac. A year later, in 2020, Arielle Dombasle announced she would be releasing a second joint album with Nicolas Ker, named Empire. The album was supposed to be released on April 24, 2020, but was postponed to June 16, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, Dombasle directed and released the movie Les Secrets de la princesse de Cadignan based on Honoré de Balzac's Comédie Humaine. In 2024, Arielle Dombasle released an album entitled Iconics along with a single entitled "Olympics" that she wrote, recorded and produced for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Later that year, in December, she released her first Christmas single, a cover of the song "Jingle Bells" she performed in French, English and Spanish.
Personal life
Personal life
Dombasle is the third wife of writer Bernard-Henri Lévy. They married on June 19, 1993, at Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the Côte d'Azur where they have a villa. She has two stepchildren, Antonin-Balthazar Lévy and Justine Lévy, a novelist. She was married to Dr. Paul Albou, described by Vanity Fair as a "playboy society dentist, 32 years her senior." In 2009, she signed a petition in support of Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl, after Steve Cooley, the then Los Angeles District Attorney, tried to prosecute him. Dombasle is vegetarian. In 2016, she campaigned against abattoirs (slaughterhouses) for PETA.
Singles
Singles
"Paris m'a séduit" (1980) "Cantate 78" (1985) "Je te salue mari" (1986) "Nada más" (1988) "Amour symphonique" (1989) "Liberta" (2000) "Odysseus" (2000) "Rhum and Coca-Cola" (2004) "C'est si bon" (2006) "Où tu Veux" (2007) "Extraterrestre" (2009) "Hasta siempre" (2010) "Porque te vas" (2011) "Mambo 5" (2011) "Ave Maria" (2013) "Cold Song" (2013) "My Love for Evermore" (2015) "I'm Not Here Anymore" (2016) "Carthagena" (2016) "Point Blank" (2016) "Ah c'qu'on est bête" (2018) "Il fait trop beau pour travailler" (2018) "Le chant des sirènes (We Bleed for the Ocean)" (2020) "Just Come Back Alive" (2020) "Le Grand Hotél" (2020) "Humble Guy" (2020) "Twin Kingdom Valley" (2020) "The Palace Of Virgin Queen" (2020) "Desdemona" (2020) "Fever" (2022) "Barbiconic" (2022) "Boys in the Backroom" (2024) "Diamonds are Forever" (2024) "Olympics" (2024) "Jingle Bells" (2024)
Albums
Albums
2000: Liberta 2002: Extase 2004: Amor Amor 2006: C'est Si Bon 2009: Glamour à Mort! 2011: Diva Latina 2013: Arielle Dombasle By Era 2015: French Kiss (with The Hillbilly Moon Explosion) 2016: La Rivière Atlantique (with Nicolas Ker) 2018: Les Parisiennes (with Mareva Galanter, Inna Modja & Helena Noguerra) 2020: Empire (with Nicolas Ker) 2024: Iconics

Arielle Dombasle photographed by Studio Harcourt Paris
DOMBASLE_Arielle-24x30-2006.jpg: Studio Harcourt derivative work: Materialscientist (talk) · DOMBASLE_Arielle-24x30-2006.jpg

Arielle Dombasle au festival de Cannes
Georges Biard
Primary material
Documents and archives
institutional register
- MusicBrainz artist record for Arielle Dombasle
Unverified · MusicBrainz
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q284731: Arielle Dombasle
Unverified · Wikidata
reference work
- “Arielle Dombasle”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Dombasle's year of birth has been a subject of much debate, and various sources have given dates ranging from 1953 to 1958.
- 2.Labadie, Pauline. Val-de-Grâce contre Arielle Dombasle: "Une tempête dans un verre d'eau". Le Figaro. June 7, 2013.
- 3.Keylor, William R. Charles de Gaulle: A Thorn in the Side of Six American Presidents. Rowman & Littlefield. 42. December 7, 2020. 978-1-4422-3676-9.
- 4.French Diplomat Quits Embassy Job – Trade Counselor for 13 Years Declares He Will Never Work 'Under German Control' – Defies Recall to France – Garreau-Dombasle Says He Will Remain in U.S. to Aid 'Liberated Part of Empire'. The New York Times. September 4, 1940. 0362-4331.
- 5.France: Troubled Exiles. Time. March 10, 1941. 0040-781X.
- 6."A Woman at Home in Many Worlds", The New York Sun, May 24, 2006
- 7."Bernard Henri-Levy: France's Prophet Provocateur", vanityfair.com; January 2003.
- 8.Pariscabaret.fr. crazy horse avec paris cabaret.
- 9.Arielle Dombasle — Charlie Rose. Charlie Rose. September 13, 2006.
- 10.Martin, Thomas. Arielle Dombasle rejoint Les Grosses Têtes !. RTL. January 22, 2016.
- 11.Moreau, Charlotte. "Danse avec les stars" s'offre Arielle Dombasle. Le Parisien. July 19, 2017.
- 12.Uzal, Marcos. «Alien Crystal Palace», fou artistique. Libération. January 22, 2019.
- 13." Just Come Back Alive " le premier single extrait d'Empire !. Arielle-Dombasle.com. March 28, 2020.
- 14.Joudet, Murielle. « Les Secrets de la princesse de Cadignan » : Arielle Dombasle s'offre un ego trip en costumes. Le Monde. September 13, 2023.
- 15.Dejan, Alexandra. Arielle Dombasle célèbre le girl power et les icônes avec son nouvel album. Numéro. May 24, 2024.
- 16.Guigui-Servouze, Théo. Arielle Dombasle chantera lors de l'arrivée de la flamme olympique à Paris : « Avec le feu, on peut tout ! ». Le Parisien. June 20, 2024.
- 17.Arielle Dombasle joue les reines de Noël avec son single « Jingle Bells » en trois langues. 20 Minutes. December 16, 2024.
- 18.Signez la pétition pour Roman Polanski !. La Règle du jeu. November 10, 2009.
- 19.Beaudoin, Anne-Cécile. Arielle Dombasle, nouvelle icône végétarienne de PETA. Paris Match. September 29, 2016.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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