10 fascinating facts about Iowa’s own Jean Seberg
Here are 10 facts about Jean Seberg, a Marshalltown native who led a fascinating and ultimately tumultuous life as a Hollywood actress.
Iowa native Jean Seberg was a famed actress in the 1950s and 60s, making a particularly big name for herself as part of the French New Wave film movement. Read on to learn some interesting facts about this star of the screen from a bygone era with Iowa roots.
Facts about Jean Seberg
1. She was born in Marshalltown.
Jean Dorothy Seberg was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, on November 13, 1938. Her parents were Dorothy (Benson) and Edward Seberg. Her mother was a substitute teacher, and her father was a pharmacist. Her father was of Swedish descent, and it is said that her grandfather, upon immigrating to the United States from Sweden in 1882, changed the family name from Carlson to Seberg in memory of the water and mountains of his native land.
2. She was one of four children.
Seberg had one older sister, Mary Ann, born two years before her. She also had two younger brothers. Kurt was born in 1942, and David was born in 1950. Sadly, her youngest brother, David, died in a motorcycle accident when he was just 18.
3. Her early babysitting days have a Hollywood tie.
As a teen, Seberg was known to do some babysitting for other families in Marshalltown. One of the children she babysat was Mary Supinger, who would later become the stage and film actress Mary Beth Hurt. A three-time Tony award-nominated actress, Hurt is best known for her work in “Interiors,” “The World According to Garp,” “The Age of Innocence,” and “Six Degrees of Separation.”
4. She studied filmmaking but got a big break.
As a teen, Seberg had an interest in theater, having performed in summer stock shows. After graduating from high school in Marshalltown, Seberg enrolled at the University of Iowa. She started studying dramatic arts but later switched to filmmaking.
Then, just one month before her 18th birthday, she beat out some 18,000 other young women to land the title role in the 1957 film “Saint Joan.” It is said that her neighbor entered her name into the contest. Seberg’s Hollywood career was well on its way.
5. She starred in a total of 34 films in the US and Europe
Her next film, “Bonjour Tristesse,” was only mildly successful, but it took her to France. It was her role in the 1960 film “Breathless” that Seberg is perhaps best known and most admired for. In all, Seberg starred in more than 30 films during her lifetime, including “The Mouse That Roared,” “Moment to Moment,” “A Fine Madness,” “Paint Your Wagon,” “Airport,” “Macho Callahan,” and “Gang War in Naples.” Her personal favorite film that she starred in was “Lilith.”
6. Speaking of favorites …
Seberg was a huge fan of the Hollywood heartthrob Marlon Brando. She fell in love with him and his work after seeing his screen debut in “The Men” in 1950. While still a teen, Seberg wrote a letter to Brando inviting him to stay with her family in Iowa. When the two met in real life years later, it is said Brando asked her to extend the invitation again.
7. She married young, and several times.
Seberg met her first husband, François Moreuil, in France while filming Bonjour Tristesse. The couple married–Seberg was just 19–in a ceremony in Marshalltown. The couple divorced in 1960. She then met and married Romain Gary in 1962. The couple had a son (Alexandre Diego Gary) and lived in Paris, Greece, Southern France, and Majorca during their time together. They divorced in 1970. Seberg also married Dennis Berry. The couple got together in 1972 but separated in 1976. They were never officially divorced at the time of her death in 1979, so Berry is considered her widow. In 1979, Seberg was in a relationship with a 19-year-old Algerian named Ahmed Hasni.
8. She supported the Civil Rights Movement and became an FBI target
Seberg was a known supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. She donated to the NAACP and contributed $500 to purchase basketball uniforms for students at the Meskawki settlement near her hometown. The FBI soon became aware of contributions, upwards of $10,000, that Seberg had donated to the Black Panther Party. She became the target of an FBI investigation. Seberg became the poster actress for the undercover smear campaign by the FBI (as part of their COINTELPRO project). They spread rumors about her that some argue led to her being blacklisted as a Hollywood actress and contributed to her struggles with depression. There were defamation lawsuits, surveillance, stalking, and break-ins meant to intimidate Seberg. This charge was led by J. Edgar Hoover, and documentation related to it can be found in FBI inter-office memos. After her death, the FBI released a statement admitting its defamation of Seberg.
9. She died in Paris, France in 1979
Sadly, Seberg died by probable suicide while living in France in 1979, at just 40 years old. After being reported missing from her apartment, Seberg was found ten days later with a bottle of barbiturates, an empty bottle of mineral water, and a note written in French to her son. Her then-estranged husband contended that the FBI’s investigation of her over the years contributed to her mental health crises. But the circumstances surrounding her death were mysterious. Seberg had extremely high levels of alcohol in her system as well, which would have left her comatose. Some French police theorized someone was present at the time of Seberg’s death but didn’t seek help. Despite a re-examination of the case in June 1980, it was never satisfactorily concluded. Seberg is buried in the exclusive Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, France.
10. Admirers of her work live on.
Seberg was considered an icon of the French New Wave, or Nouvelle Vague. Emerging in the late 1950s, the movement rejected traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and iconoclasm. While she would spend extended periods of time in the US, she would live mostly in France for the remainder of her life and adored her time abroad.
Nods to Seberg have cropped up in pop culture over the years as well. A musical based on her life was presented at the National Theatre in London in 1983. It is said that in 1986, Madonna took inspiration from Seberg’s look (the iconic pixie blonde haircut, French striped jersey shirt, and black capris) in “Breathless” for her music video “Papa Don’t Preach.” In the early 90s, actress Jodie Foster wished to star in a biopic of Seberg, but the project never came to fruition. Then, in 2019, a drama about Seberg starring Kristen Stewart was released. Seberg’s hometown of Marshalltown has hosted the Jean Seberg International Film Festival several times in the past decade to honor the iconic, albeit tragic, actress.
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