French beauty Anne Parillaud paid her dues in teen pictures and B-dramas before earning international acclaim as Luc_Besson's unforgettable Nikita (La Femme Nikita) (1990). Raised in Paris, Parillaud made her film debut as - the girl with the kitten, in Un Amour de Sable (1977). Still in high school, she hoped to pursue a law career until a more substantial role in Michel_Lang's teen comedy L'Hotel de la Plage (The Beach Hotel) (1978) (which she filmed during summer break) made her love acting. Parillaud earned a reputation for playing promiscuous teens in Ecoute Voir (Look See) (1978), Girls (1980), and Patrizia (Patricia) (1980). She went on to star in two thrillers for her then-boyfriend Alain Delon, Pour La Peau d'un Flic (For a Cop's Hide) (1981), and Le Battant (The Cache) (1983).

She did not fare any better opposite Gabriel Byrne and Leonardo Di Caprio in the flop The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) or with William Baldwin and Graham Greene in Shattered Image (1998). Yet, the indomitable and talented Parillaud continued to work steadily into the new millennium, appearing in Claude Lelouch's romantic comedy Une Pour Toutes (One 4 All) (2000), Olivier Marchal's action flick Gangsters (2002), and Catherine Breillat's farce Sex Is Comedy (2002).