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Iconic actress Chantal Nobel died at her home in Ramatuelle, France on Thursday April 30 at the age of 77, just over 40 years after she was forced to retire from public life following a devastating car accident, which left her with lifelong disabilities. Her daughter Anne-Charlotte Julian confirmed the news to AFP, saying: "My mother passed away peacefully. She remained a fighter until the very end." No cause of death has been revealed, although it was announced her funeral will take place on May 7.

While her acting career began in the late 1960s in films such as The Black Hand in 1968 and La Honte de la famille in 1969, she found enormous fame playing Florence Berg in the successful French soap opera Châteauvallon in 1985. Sadly her world would be shattered in April that same year when she was seriously injured in a car accident following the broadcast of an episode of the television program Champs-Élysées.

She was a passenger in the car, which was being driven by popular singer Sacha Distel who was on the way to a stock-car championship when his Porsche went out of control.

She spent six weeks in a coma and was left with lifelong disabilities because of it leading to her retirement from public life and the end of her TV show.

She later filed a lawsuit against Distel, who had been only mildly injured in the crash, and he was sentenced to one year in prison for involuntary injuries although the sentence was suspended. Distel died in 2004 at the age of 71 following a long illness.

A further repercussion of the accident was a change to French law after three paparazzi entered her hospital room to take pictures of her.

This led the jurisprudence of the Court of Appeal of Paris on 17 March 1986, to expand the notion of domicile respect, ruling a hospital room is considered as the private domicile of the patient during the recovery.

Six months after her accident she married jeweller and philanthropist Jean-Louis Julian, who predeceased her in 2024.

Speaking to Télé Star about their quiet life in. Ramatuelle in 2010 she said: "I am radiant... Here, my life is peaceful and happy...

"I remain 80% disabled. Naturally, my life has completely changed. Of these twenty-five years, I remember my resurrection and the love that binds me to my husband."