‘Last Tango in Paris’ actress Maria Schneider dies

French actress Maria Schneider, best known for playing opposite Marlon Brando in the 1972 film “Last Tango in Paris,” has died aged 58 after a long illness, her family told AFP.

Schneider was 19 when she made the film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci whose graphic sex scenes sparked controversy and led to it being banned in several countries.

“Last Tango in Paris,” the tale of a French girl and a middle-aged man who meet in a dilapidated flat in Paris to have anonymous sex, won Oscar nominations for Bertolucci and Brando and catapulted Schneider to global fame.

Schneider acted in a string of films in her career, including alongside Jack Nicholson in “The Passenger,” but none achieved the same notoriety as the Bertolucci classic.