Anna Karina, an icon of French New Wave cinema, has died at the age of 79, reports the BBC.
The Danish-French actress died in a hospital in Paris after living with cancer, her agent told AFP news agency.
French culture minister Franck Riester tweeted in tribute: "Today, French cinema has been orphaned. It has lost one of its legends."
Karina rose to prominence as the muse of her director ex-husband Jean-Luc Godard in the 1960s.
She got her big break as a teenager, soon after moving to Paris from her native Denmark, when she was spotted by Godard.
He wanted to cast her in his first and most famous film Breathless, Karina recalled years later, but she turned him down because the role required nudity.