Émilie Dequenne died this Sunday, March 16 at Gustave Roussy Hospital in Val-de-Marne. At 43, the Belgian actress suffered from aggressive and very rare cancer.
She had made a shattering entry into the world of cinema at only 17 years old. Émilie Dequenne died this Sunday, March 16, 2025 in a room at Gustave Roussy Hospital in Villejuif, in Val-de-Marne, announced her family and her agent Danielle Gain to AFP. Aged only 43 years old, the Belgian actress died of cancer as rare as it is aggressive.
Émilie Dequenne suffered from endocrine system cancer, a corticosurrenaloma, which only affects one to two people out of one million inhabitants per year in France. The interpreter of Rosetta In the eponymous film of the Dardenne brothers did not make a secret of his illness. She had announced the arrival of the crab in her life in October 2023 in a message posted on Instagram: “Since mid-August, where I have undergone a heavy emergency operation, I continue to heal myself. It is not easy every day, but I am determined to defeat this rare cancer who decided to come and upset my life. I will not be done,” she said. And time first agreed to him: a few months later, in April 2024, the actress announced that she was in remission.
Cancer, however, returned to the field last December plunging the multi -thorough actress into the relapse. Émilie Dequenne had expressed her condition on TF1 that with this increasingly aggressive disease she would not live “as long as expected”. The Belgian made a good heart against bad fortune, keeping a smile on her social networks, but remained lucid: “We will never talk about healing.”
Several times awarded as the best actress
Émilie Dequenne was kept away from the film sets and the theater boards in recent months, because of the recurrence of her cancer. But the actress had time to mark the world of cinema before going out with a career started in 1999, she was not yet 18 years old, and filled with success. The first obtained from his first role under the objective of the Dardenne brothers for the film Rosetta which will earn him the prize for female interpretation at the Cannes Film Festival. She was again awarded the Croisette in 2012 for her role in To lose the reason.
Five times appointed to the César, Émilie Dequenne was finally devoted in 2021 by winning the prize of best actress in a supporting role for The things we say, the things we do. The actress had made a raid at home, in Belgium, with several victories at the Magritte du Cinéma, the Belgian equivalent of the César. She had won the Best Actress Prize in 2013, 2015 and 2018 respectively for her roles in To lose the reason,, Not his genre And With us. In 2023, it was the price of best actress in a supporting role that had been given to her for the film Closed.
A long career of more than 25 years, rich and varied with roles in large productions and successes in authors’ films. Émilie Dequenne left a trace in French cinema underlines the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, who reacted to the death of the actress: “We were all marked by her overwhelming interpretations in strong roles. French -speaking cinema loses, too early, a talented actress who still had so much to offer her”.