As the daughter of two English professors employed at a Protestant University in Dijon, Claude Jade — christened Claude Jorré — attended her native city's Conservatory of Dramatic Art, where she trained extensively as a stage actor. The teenage Jade displayed prodigious dramatic promise and, at the tender age of 18, netted the Conservatory's highly coveted Best Actress prize for her interpretation of the role of Agnès in Molière's L' École des Femmes. From there, the young woman traveled to Paris, where she studied under the tutelage of Jean-Laurent Cochet at the Edouard II theater and signed on for a production of Pirandello's Henri IV, mounted by Sacha Pitoeff at the Théâtre Moderne.

Serendipitously, François Truffaut happened to catch one of the performances of Henri IV, and, delighted with Jade, instantly cast her as Christine, the love interest and eventual wife of his onscreen alter-ego, Antoine, in Baisers Volés (1968), the third installment of the Antoine Doinel…  » Read more