BBC drama actress dies aged 43 two years after receiving ‘rare’ cancer diagnosis
Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne has died at the age of 43 after battling a rare adrenal gland cancer.
Dequenne died on Sunday evening in a hospital on the outskirts of Paris, her agent Danielle Gain announced to AFP.
The award-winning actress had revealed in October 2023 that she was suffering from adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare cancer of the adrenal gland.
Her death comes after a distinguished career spanning more than two decades in European cinema.
Born on August 29, 1981, Dequenne studied drama from an early age at Belgium’s Music & Spoken Word Academy in Baudour.
She joined the La Relève Theater troupe at age 12, developing her craft before landing her breakthrough role.
At just 17, Dequenne made her film debut in Rosetta, directed by the Dardenne brothers.
Her powerful portrayal of a teenager living in a caravan with an alcoholic mother earned her the Best Actress award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.
The film also won the prestigious Palme d’Or.
Following her Cannes triumph, Dequenne enjoyed a high-profile career throughout the 2000s.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Dianne Buswell fans rush to support her after Strictly star shares family news following sad lossGene Hackman confusion deepens as doctor claims wife ‘called me AFTER police say she died’Davina McCall shares painful admission about children as she reflects on brain surgery recovery
Quelle tragédie…
Quelle tristesse…
Émilie Dequenne est morte à l’âge de 43 ans d’un cancer. Elle se sera battue jusqu’au bout. C’est cruel de partir si jeune.
Elle sera à jamais cette Rosetta qui a débarqué à 18 ans dans nos cinéphilies. pic.twitter.com/oRzTmyHqry
— Mehdi Omaïs (@MehdiOmais) March 16, 2025
She appeared in Christophe Gans’ historic thriller The Brotherhood of the Wolf and Claude Berri’s The Housekeeper.
Her talents extended to English-language films with The Bridge of San Luis Rey, starring alongside Robert de Niro and Gabriel Byrne.
However, for regular viewers of BBC drama shows, the actress may be best known for starring opposite the likes of Keeley Hawes and David Morrissey in The Missing.
Other career highlights included Joachim Lafosse’s Our Children (2012), for which she won Best Actress at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section.
She also received acclaim for her role in Lukas Dhont’s Oscar-nominated film Close.
Dequenne returned to Cannes in 2024 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Rosetta and to promote her final film, Survive.
The English-language disaster movie was released that same year before illness forced her to stop working.
In an interview about Survive, Dequenne revealed she didn’t know she was sick during filming.
She was last seen on screen in the Belgian high school bullying drama TKT, playing the mother of a young victim who falls into a coma.
Dequenne had been married to actor Michel Ferracci since October 2014.
Prior to this, she was in a relationship with Alexandre Savarese, with whom she had a daughter, Milla, now 22.
Her daughter has followed in her footsteps and is also an actor.
Despite often portraying dark roles on screen, Dequenne once told The Guardian in 2013 that she had “a very playful personality” in real life.
Dequenne was open about her cancer battle, frequently documenting her health journey on social media.
In one of her last Instagram posts on February 4, she commemorated World Cancer Day with a smiling selfie.
“What a fight! And we don’t choose… All my love to all those who are struggling like me against their will. Take care of yourselves,” she wrote.
Adrenocortical carcinoma is considered aggressive, with approximately 50 percent of patients having a life expectancy of five years after diagnosis.