The French fashion model and actress came to fame in Hollywood in the 1960s in The Pink Panther with Peter Sellers and The Lion with William Holden.
Born Germaine Lefebvre, she took the name of an exotic South American flower for her career in 40 movies and television shows. She was married just once, for eight months, to French actor Pierre Tranaud. She had affairs with producer Charles Feldman and William Holden.
Her last years were spent in seclusion with her three cats in an apartment in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she had lived for 28 years. Suffering from poor health and depression she seldom left the apartment and passed most of the time reading.
On March 17, 1990, Capucine jumped to her death from the eighth-floor. She was 62. She had no survivors.