Early years

She was born Arielle Laure Maxime Sonnery in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Jean-Louis Melchior Sonnery de Fromental, a silk manufacturer, and Francion Garreau-Dombasle. She descends from French-American immigrants in Mexico under her grandfather's diplomatic tenure. The family's surname was created in 1912, when Dombasle's grandfather René Sonnery (1887-1925), an industrialist from Lyon, married Anne-Marie Berthon du Fromental. Arielle took the pseudonym Arielle Dombasle in memory of her mother who died at the age of 36.

Dombasle and her brother Gilbert were raised in Mexico by their maternal grandparents after their mother's death in 1964. She attended the Lycée Franco-Mexicain. She was also raised at Château de Chaintré (fr), the Sonnery family estate near Saumur, Maine et Loire. Her maternal grandfather, Maurice Garreau-Dombasle, was a close friend of and advisor to Charles de Gaulle and served as the French ambassador to Mexico. Her maternal grandmother was Manha Dombasle (née Germaine Massenet, 1898-1999), a writer and poet who translated Rabindranath Tagore's works into French and was a longtime friend of the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who dedicated his 1972 novel The Halloween Tree to her.

Career

Dombasle embarked on a career as an actress and singer after attending the Conservatoire Internationale de Musique de Paris and further studies in Mexico. Dombasle has appeared in several Hollywood productions, but most of her acting work has been in French, as are her albums. She directed and wrote the scripts for two films, Les Pyramides Bleues and Chassé-croisé. She once described her own looks as "a Crazy Horse dancing girl".

Personal life

She is the third wife of French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy. They got married on June 19, 1993 at Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the Côte d'Azur where they have a villa. She has two stepchildren, Antonin-Balthazar Lévy and Justine Lévy, a novelist. She was previously married to Dr. Paul Albou, described by Vanity Fair as a "playboy society dentist, 32 years her senior."

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1978	Perceval le Gallois	Blanchefleur
1979	Tess	Mercy Chant
	Je te tiens, tu me tiens par la barbichette	Une actrice film publicitaire	uncredited
1980	Justocoeur
1981	Putain d'histoire d'amour	Antonella
	Les Fruits de la passion	Nathalie	érotique
	La Femme de l'aviateur		Singer ("Paris m'a séduit")
	Une robe noire pour un tueur	La jeune droguée à la moto
1982	Le Beau mariage	Clarisse
	Chassé-croisé	Ermine	also Singer, director, writer, composer
	Laissé inachevé à Tokyo	Sophie
1983	Sans soleil	Herself
	Pauline à la plage	Marion
	La Belle captive	La femme hystérique
	Rosette sort le soir
	Un été nommé désir	Arielle
1984	Mode in France	Herself
	Lace	Maxine Pascal
	Rosette prend sa douche
	Penelope Last
	Los Motivos de Berta: Fantasía de Pubertad
1985	La Nuit porte-jarretelles	La secrétaire
	Lace II	Maxine Pascal
1986	The Boss' Wife	Louise Roalvang
	Flagrant Désir (fr)	Marguerite Barnac
1987	Jeux d'artifices	Arielle
1988	Les Pyramides bleues	Elise	Director, writer
1989	El sueño del mono loco	Marion Derain
	Try This One for Size	Maggie
1991	Lola Zipper	Loretta
	Mémoires
1992	La vie crevée	Angèle
	Villa Mauresque	Sandra
	Hors Saison	Mme. Studer
1993	Grand bonheur	L'actrice
	Miroslava	Miroslava (adult)
	L'Arbre, le maire et la médiathèque	Bérénice Beaurivage
	L'absence
1994	Un indien dans la ville	Charlotte
	Fado majeur et mineur	Leda
1995	Raging Angels	Megan
	Un bruit qui rend fou (The Blue Villa)	Sarah La Blonde
	À propos de Nice, la suite
	Celestial Clockwork	Céleste	also Singer, Soundtrack
	Fado majeur et mineur	Leda
	Les Cent et une nuits	La chanteuse à la Garden-party
1996	Three Lives and Only One Death	Helene
	Two Dads and One Mom	Delphine
	Soyons amis!	Arielle
1997	Jeunesse	Clémence	also Singer
	J'en suis!	Rose Petipas
	Day and Night	Laure	By her husband, Bernard-Henri Lévy
1998	L'ennui	Sophie
	Hors jeu	Arielle Dombasle
	Let There Be Light	Dieu la blonde
	Bo Ba Bu
	Que la lumière soit	Blond God
1999	Les Infortunes de la beauté	Daphné
	C'est pas ma faute!	Vanessa Goudard
	Le Temps retrouvé	Madame de Farcy
	Astérix et Obélix contre César	Mme Agecanonix / Frau Methusalix
2000	30 Years	Geneviève
	Amazon	Margot
	Vatel	Princess de Condé	also Singer
	Le libertin	La Marquise de Jerfeuil
	Les Eléphants de la planète Mars
2001	Les âmes fortes	Madame Numance
	Gamer	Valérie Fisher
2002	Deux	Professor Barbez
	Hideous Man	Crying woman
2003	Lovely Rita, sainte patronne des cas désespérés	Mademoiselle Lecas
2004	Quand je serai star	Diane de Montalte
	Genre humain - première partie: Les parisiens, Le	Sabine Duchemin
	Albert est méchant	Barbara Lechat
2005	Le Courage d'aimer	Sabine Duchemin
2006	Nouvelle chance	Bettina
	C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle	Léïla / Gradia
2008	La Possibilité d'une île	Déléguée Mexicaine	aka Possibility of an Island
	Sagan	Astrid
2009	King Shot
2010	El Baile de San Juan	Virreina
2015	Valentin Valentin	Valentin's mother

Discography

Singles

• "Paris m'a séduit" (1980)
• "Cantate 78" (1985)
• "Je te salue mari" (1986)
• "Nada más" (1988)
• "Amour symphonique" (1989)
• "Liberta" (2000)
• "Odysseus" (2000)
• "Rhum and Coca-Cola" (2004)
• "C'est si bon" (2006)
• "Où tu Veux" (2007)
• "Extraterrestre" (2009)
• "Hasta siempre" (2010)
• "Porque te vas" (2011)
• "Mambo 5" (2011)
• "Ave Maria" (2013)
• "Cold Song" (2013)

Albums

• Liberta (2000)
• Extase (2002)
• Amor Amor (2004)
• Arielle en concert (2005)
• C'est si bon (2006)
• Glamour à mort (2009)
• Diva Latina (2011)
• By Era (2013)
• French Kiss (2015, with The Hillbilly Moon Explosion)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]