Roger Vadim

Vadim worked between 1928 and 2000 across actor, film director, screenwriter, journalist and stage actor and 3 further recorded occupations. This article rests on 17 published texts and 40 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Roger Vadim • Birth Name — Roger Vadim Plemiannikov • Born — 26 January 1928 • Birthplace — Paris, France • Died — 11 February 2000 • Place of death — Paris, France • Occupation — * Film director • screenwriter • producer • author • actor • artist • Years Active — 1950–1997 • Partner — * Catherine Deneuve (1961–1964) • Ann Biderman (1980–1987) • Children — 4, including Christian

Vadim was born Roger Vadim Plemiannikov in Paris. His father, Igor Nikolaevich Plemiannikov, a native of Kyiv hailing from an old noble family, White military officer and pianist, he fled to France to escape the horrors of the revolution and the civil war and become a naturalized French citizen. He was a vice consul of France to Egypt, stationed in Alexandria, later posting to Mersin, Turkey as a consul. Vadim's mother, Marie-Antoinette (née Ardilouze), was a stage actress. He had one sister, Hélène Plemiannikov (1929–2022). Although Vadim lived as a diplomat's child in Northern Africa and the Middle East in his early youth, the death of his father when Vadim was nine years old caused the family to return to France, where his mother found work running a hostel in the French Alps, which functioned as a way-station for Jews and other fugitives fleeing Nazism. Vadim studied journalism and writing at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), without graduating.

At age 19, he became assistant to film director Marc Allégret, whom he met while working at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt, and for whom he worked on several screenplays. He was an assistant director on Allegret's Blanche Fury (1948), a commercially unsuccessful melodrama which Allegret made for a British company in English. Vadim was one of several writers on Allegret's French-British The Naked Heart (1950), aka Maria Chapdelaine, starring Michèle Morgan, as well as serving as assistant director. It was shot in French and English versions. Blackmailed (1951) was another film Allegret directed in England, starring Mai Zetterling and Dirk Bogarde; Vadim was credited as one of the writers. He was also one of several writers on Allegret's, La demoiselle et son revenant (1952). Vadim did the screenplay and commentary for a documentary, Le gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Marti (1953), and was assistant director on Allegret's Julietta (1953), a popular romance with Jean Marais, Dany Robin and Jeanne Moreau. Vadim wrote Allegret's Loves of Three Queens (1954), with Hedy Lamarr. Vadim had begun a relationship with model-actress Brigitte Bardot. She was given a good role in a drama directed by Allegret, School for Love (1953), aka Futures Vedettes, starring Jean Marais; Vadim wrote the script with Allegret. The film was a commercial disappointment. However the next collaboration between Allegret, Bardot and Vadim, Plucking the Daisy (1956), aka Mam'selle Striptease, was a huge success at the French box office. So too was Naughty Girl (1956), with Bardot. This allowed Vadim to get backing for his first movie as director. Vadim's first film as director was based on an original story of his, And God Created Woman (1956). Starring Bardot, Curt Jurgens and Christian Marquand and produced by Raoul Levy it was not only a major success in France, but around the world, and established Bardot as a global icon. Vadim followed it with No Sun in Venice (1957) starring Françoise Arnoul and Marquand, produced by Levy, which was considerably less popular than And God Created Woman. Levy, Vadim and Bardot were to make Paris by Night with Frank Sinatra but Bardot refused to spend months in the US and Sinatra felt likewise about filming in France. Instead Vadim made The Night Heaven Fell (1958), starring Bardot and Stephen Boyd. He was one of several writers on Allegret's popular comedy, Be Beautiful But Shut Up (1958), starring Mylène Demongeot. Vadim's next film was an adaptation of the book Les liaisons dangereuses (1959), which he wrote and directed. It starred Moreau, Gérard Philipe (in his final film) and Annette Strøyberg, a Danish model who became Vadim's second wife. The film became a huge hit in France. Strøyberg was also in the vampire film Blood and Roses (1960). Vadim was reunited with Bardot for Please, Not Now! (1961), a popular comedy. He was one of several directors of the anthology film, The Seven Deadly Sins (1962). Vadim began a relationship with a young Catherine Deneuve. She starred in a segment of the anthology film Tales of Paris (1962), which was written by Vadim and directed by Allegret. She starred in a film Vadim helped write and produce, And Satan Calls the Turns (1962), and was also in Vice and Virtue (1963), which Vadim directed. Vadim had another success writing and directing for Bardot, Love on a Pillow (1962), but found less favour with Nutty, Naughty Chateau (1963) starring Monica Vitti. • Illustration — Vadim and Fonda in Rome in 1967 Vadim tried another adaptation of a classic erotic text, La Ronde (1964). He said at the time, "When I make a picture about relations between people, something erotic comes through; I can't help it! But sex has been an inspiration, the greatest inspiration, since art exists." One of the film's many stars was rising American actress Jane Fonda who began a romantic relationship with Vadim. Vadim devised a vehicle for Fonda, The Game Is Over (1966), based on a book by Émile Zola. Shot in French and English versions, it was very popular in France, though less so in the US. Dino de Laurentiis wanted Fonda to star in a science fiction sex comedy, Barbarella (1968) and she agreed provided Vadim would direct. Following this he directed Fonda in a segment of the omnibus horror film Spirits of the Dead (1968) along with her brother Peter Fonda. During his marriage to Fonda, Vadim would accompany her back to the US periodically while she made movies there. He directed Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971) for MGM, starring Rock Hudson and Angie Dickinson. It was a commercial disappointment. • Illustration — Cast of Pretty Maids All in a Row (L-R): (front row) June Fairchild, Joy Bang, Aimee Eccles; (middle row) Joanna Cameron, Gene Roddenberry, Rock Hudson, Roger Vadim; (back row) Margaret Markov, Brenda Sykes, Diane Sherry, Gretchen Burrell Vadim returned to France. He wrote and directed Hellé (1972), starring Gwen Welles, which was a flop. He was reunited with Bardot for Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (1973), which was Bardot's penultimate movie and a commercial disappointment. Not particularly successful either were Charlotte (1974), and Game of Seduction (1976) with Sylvia Kristel and Nathalie Delon. He directed a TV movie Bonheur, impair et passe (1977), starring Danielle Darrieux. In the 1980s Vadim based himself in the US. He directed Night Games (1980), where he attempted to make a star of Cindy Pickett, with whom he became romantically involved. He directed a caper film in Canada, The Hot Touch (1981), starring Marie-France Pisier. Back in France he wrote and directed Surprise Party (1983). He directed episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre (1984) and Deadly Nightmares (1986). Vadim attempted to recapture his former success with a new version of And God Created Woman (1988), with Rebecca De Mornay. Very different from the original – it only really used the same title – it failed critically and commercially. His final years were spent working in TV, where he directed Safari (1991) and wrote and directed Amour fou (1993), starring Marie-Christine Barrault who became his final wife. She was also in La Nouvelle tribu (1996) and its sequel Un coup de baguette magique (1997), which Vadim wrote and directed.

Vadim was celebrated for his romances and marriages to young beautiful actresses. In his mid-30s, he lived with a young Catherine Deneuve, by whom he had a son, Christian Vadim, between his marriages to Strøyberg and Fonda. He was also involved with Margaret Markov, Sylvia Kristel and Cindy Pickett. Later, he cohabited with screenwriter Ann Biderman for several years, announcing their engagement in 1984, but the couple never wed.

• Brigitte Bardot, 20 December 1952 – 6 December 1957 (divorced) • Annette Strøyberg, 17 June 1958 – 14 March 1961 (divorced); 1 daughter (Nathalie) b. 7 December 1957 • Jane Fonda, 14 August 1965 – 16 January 1973 (divorced); 1 daughter (Vanessa) b. 28 September 1968 • Catherine Schneider, 13 December 1975 – 10 June 1977 (divorced); 1 son (Vania) b. 6 April 1974 • Marie-Christine Barrault, 21 December 1990 – 11 February 2000 (his death) He also had two stepsons from his marriage to Schneider (younger sister of novelist Dominique Schneidre and heiress to the Schneider-Creusot steel and armaments firm), as well as adult stepchildren from Barrault's first marriage to Daniel Toscan du Plantier, also a friend of Vadim's, who called him "a happy man. He was someone in whom there was so much satisfaction to the end of his life. The films merely reflected his happiness." Nathalie, his eldest daughter, told Fonda biographer Patricia Bosworth: "Jane was the love of my father's life."

In addition to Vadim's theatre and film work, he also wrote several books, including the memoirs "Memoires du Diable", "Le Gout du Bonheur: Souvenirs 1940–1958" and an autobiography, D'une étoile à l'autre (From One Star to the Next) as well as a tell-all about his most famous exes, Bardot, Deneuve & Fonda: My Life with the Three Most Beautiful Women in the World, published in 1986. "My attitude is that if this book makes me a little money it will be a tiny compensation for all the money I helped those actresses make", Vadim explained. He also wrote several plays and books of fiction, including L'ange affamé.

Vadim died of lymphoma at age 72 on 11 February 2000. Widow Barrault and ex-wives Bardot, Fonda, Schneider and Strøyberg all attended his funeral; ex-girlfriends Biderman and Deneuve did not. He is buried at St. Tropez Cemetery.

• Pétrus (1946) • School for Love (1955) • Sweet and Sour (1963) • Ciao! Manhattan (1972) • The Assassinated Young Girl (1974) • Rich and Famous (1981) • Into the Night (1985)

Roger Vadim was born on 26 January 1928 in Paris. Vadim held the nationality of France. Married to: Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Annette Vadim, Marie-Christine Barrault and Catherine Marie Helene Schneider. Recorded partner: Catherine Deneuve and Ann Biderman. Recorded father: Igor Plemiannikov. Recorded child: Christian Vadim, Vanessa Vadim, Nathalie Vadim and Vania Plemiannikov. Recorded sibling: Hélène Plemiannikov. Vadim worked as actor, film director, screenwriter and journalist, and the authority record catalogues a further 4 occupations under the same name, among them stage actor, film actor, film producer and director. Vadim was active from 1950. Vadim was employed by Paris Match. Vadim worked in French. Vadim died on 11 February 2000 in Paris. Vadim is buried at Cemetery of Saint-Tropez.

Vadim worked for the screen, as film director, screenwriter and film producer. 28 films survive in the institutional catalogues, spanning 1957 to 1997. Among them are No Sun in Venice (1957), The Night Heaven Fell (1958), Les liaisons dangereuses (1959), Blood and Roses (1960), Please, Not Now! (1961) and Love on a Pillow (1962). The whole run is set out in the catalogue below.

• Year — Title — Original title — Notes • 1950 — The Naked Heart — Maria Chapdelaine — Writer only • 1951 — Blackmailed • 1956 — Plucking the Daisy — Mam'selle Striptease • And God Created Woman — Et Dieu... créa la femme • 1957 — No Sun in Venice — Sait-on jamais? • Be Beautiful But Shut Up — Sois belle et tais-toi — Writer only • 1958 — The Night Heaven Fell — Les Bijoutiers du Clair de Lune • 1959 — Dangerous Liaisons — Les liaisons dangereuses • 1960 — Blood and Roses —...Et mourir de plaisir (Le sang et la rose) • 1961 — Please Not Now! — La Bride sur le cou • 1962 — The Seven Deadly Sins — Les Sept péchés capitaux — Segment: "Pride" • Tales of Paris — Les Parisiennes — Segment: "Beds and Broads" • Love on a Pillow — Le Repos du guerrier • 1963 — Castle in Sweden — Château en Suède • Vice and Virtue — Le vice et la vertu • 1964 — Circle of Love — La ronde • 1966 — The Game Is Over — La Curée • 1968 — Spirits of the Dead — Histoires extraordinaires — Segment: "Metzengerstein" • Barbarella • 1971 — Pretty Maids All in a Row — American production • 1972 — Hellé • 1973 — Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman — Don Juan ou Si Don Juan était une femme • 1974 — The Murdered Young Girl — La jeune fille assassinée — Also known as Charlotte • 1976 — Game of Seduction — Une femme fidèle • 1977 — Unlucky Happiness — Bonheur, impair et passe — TV movie • 1980 — Night Games — Jeux de Nuit • 1981 — The Hot Touch — American-Canadian production • 1983 — Surprise Party • 1984 — Faerie Tale Theatre — Episode: "Beauty and the Beast" • 1986 — The Hitchhiker — Episode: "Dead Man's Curve" • And God Created Woman — Shares title with Vadim's 1956 film, but has a completely different story • 1991 — Safari — TV movie • 1993 — Mad Love — Amour fou • 1996 — The New Tribe — La Nouvelle tribu — TV miniseries • 1996 — My Father Was Right — Mon père avait raison — TV movie • 1997 — A Touch of Magic — Un coup de baguette magique