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Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story
Traces the troubled life of actress Jean Seberg, the all-American girl from Iowa, discussing her Hollywood career, marriages, political involvement, and suicide in Paris at the age of forty
381 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1981
164 people want to read
About the author
David Richards
6 booksLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 21, 2013
Sweet Jean, not too bright. She got entrapped in politics and wanted to emulate Vanessa (who probably worked for MI-Oh-My!) Actors who open their big, dumb mouths : what can one say? Sweet Jean, who became the darling of New Wave directors, gets huge credit for surviving pig Otto Disgustinger.
August 12, 2014
One of the more tragic stories of rags-to-riches-to-rags in Hollywood history.
Jean Seberg was literally plucked from middle America at age 18 to star in a major Hollywood movie--a biopic of Joan of Arc titled Saint Joan. The masculine haircut she received for the role gave her a striking, iconic image--it set a fashion trend that would resonate into the next decade. Before long, her star began to fall. She left Hollywood and found her greatest success in Paris, where she co-starred with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's dazzling debut film, Breathless.
From there, she had rare successes in the 60s, probably culminating with the underrated Lilith, in which she played a mentally ill woman opposite a young Warren Beatty. Her last significant roles in Hollywood were in the flop Paint Your Wagon opposite Clint Eastwood, and in the 1970 epic Airport. After that, she disappeared from the big screen.
Seberg supported radical political causes for much of her adult life, including the Black Panthers in the US and Algerian extremist causes in France. Her ties to radical groups attracted the attention of the FBI, which ran a smear campaign to discredit her.
Seberg married three times (allegedly four) and had two children--both born from extramarital affairs. In the 70s she starred in two-bit productions trying to capitalize on her name, but she was never able to reestablish herself in American cinema. Her personal demons gradually consumed her, and she died at the early age of 40 in a car on a side street in Paris, her adopted home.
I think her defenders are quick to complain that she was hounded by the feds and claim that was what shortened her life--but as covered in this biography, I think her demise was largely a mess of her own making. She made questionable friendships, had a string of misbegotten relationships, and made poor personal choices, all of which eroded the early fame she had in the film business. Hers is one of Hollywood's lesser known cautionary tales.
Jean Seberg was literally plucked from middle America at age 18 to star in a major Hollywood movie--a biopic of Joan of Arc titled Saint Joan. The masculine haircut she received for the role gave her a striking, iconic image--it set a fashion trend that would resonate into the next decade. Before long, her star began to fall. She left Hollywood and found her greatest success in Paris, where she co-starred with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's dazzling debut film, Breathless.
From there, she had rare successes in the 60s, probably culminating with the underrated Lilith, in which she played a mentally ill woman opposite a young Warren Beatty. Her last significant roles in Hollywood were in the flop Paint Your Wagon opposite Clint Eastwood, and in the 1970 epic Airport. After that, she disappeared from the big screen.
Seberg supported radical political causes for much of her adult life, including the Black Panthers in the US and Algerian extremist causes in France. Her ties to radical groups attracted the attention of the FBI, which ran a smear campaign to discredit her.
Seberg married three times (allegedly four) and had two children--both born from extramarital affairs. In the 70s she starred in two-bit productions trying to capitalize on her name, but she was never able to reestablish herself in American cinema. Her personal demons gradually consumed her, and she died at the early age of 40 in a car on a side street in Paris, her adopted home.
I think her defenders are quick to complain that she was hounded by the feds and claim that was what shortened her life--but as covered in this biography, I think her demise was largely a mess of her own making. She made questionable friendships, had a string of misbegotten relationships, and made poor personal choices, all of which eroded the early fame she had in the film business. Hers is one of Hollywood's lesser known cautionary tales.
March 22, 2021
A sad story of a naive girl's journey from a small town in Iowa to dying alone in a car in Paris. After watching Seberg, I was fascinated with an actress who dared to express views of equality and support the Black Panther movement. The FBI deliberately ruined her life with a scurrilous rumor that was leaked to the press in order to deter others from similar associations. She never fully got over it, and her last years were tragic ones with Jean going in and out of mental institutions, gradually going broke, alienating most of her friends, and being taken advantage of by the same losers she still tried to help.
December 12, 2020
This was tough to read, emotionally. Life lesson: if the CIA & FBI are set on destroying your reputation then they will succeed even if you become an expat. I have never been so happy to read an epilogue IN MY LIFE.
May 6, 2020
Beautiful, talented actress done in by a first role too high profile, the FBI and ultimately herself. Fascinating, ultimately sad biography.
May 26, 2025
Jean Seberg's tragic rise and fall is often cited as a "cautionary tale" by biographers who compare her to Marilyn Monroe and other blonde starlets who died young and suffered from addiction to booze, drugs and sleeping around.
For me, the real cautionary tale is to stay clear of "white saviors" like Seberg. Though she claimed to support the NAACP and donated lots of money to the Black Panthers, I found her hypocritical and unconsciously racist. When she first sees black mothers with their children, she describes the latter as being cute, like "black beans." Later in her life, she makes a point of worshipping Algerian men just because they are Algerian, an act that author states is "reverse racism."
Seberg, like so many egocentric, privileged blondes who are put on a pedestal from an early age (thanks to white supremacy and its worship of anything fair-haired), was used to being the center of attention. Addicted to the spotlight, she did everything she could to maintain that aura of "specialness" (including joining the Black Panthers, a majority black organization). At the same time, she felt insecure and guilty about her success (deep down, she knew people loved her only for her looks).
This combination haunts her involvement with the Black Panthers. Like other sheltered, inexperienced whites who never experienced real hardship, she sees them as objects, not people. Though she gives the group money and claims to believe in racial equality, she has no qualms about breaking up the marriage between a Black Panther supporter (Jamal) and his hardworking wife who was responsible for the success of the "Free breakfast program" for black kids. For all her banter about "equality," Jean thinks only about Jean and gratifying her desires. When she wants sex with Jamal, she goes for it, and doesn't care if her actions cause the abandoned black woman to lose morale and end the breakfast program.
Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda and Seberg are all similar in that they think they're doing "good" by embracing radical causes but are blind to the destruction their philosophies may cause. They're shielded from consequences because they are rich and well connected. The fact that Seberg is the only one who died from "a smear campaign" by the FBI has made her a martyr among the left, with the idea that she "died for her ideals."
But what was the essence of the "smear"? It was a piece in Newsweek that claimed she was pregnant with a Black Panther's baby.
Given her support of the Black Panthers, we would expect that Jean would remain defiant and celebrate the impending birth of her "black baby." Instead Jean, revealing her innate racism, railed against the "smear" and went into premature labor. She even puts the baby in a see-through coffin to "prove" that it is a "white" child.
This is the act of a racist person. Why? If Jean was truly non-racist, she would have been unashamed of carrying a black man's child. Instead, she sided with her accusers, sharing their "disgust" and took pains to show that no, she was a "good girl" who wouldn't have a "black baby."
The author does a good job at presenting Seberg as she really was - a bundle of contradictions, not the simplified "hero" of the left. But the myth of Seberg as a left wing radical and supporter of racial equality lives on...
For me, the real cautionary tale is to stay clear of "white saviors" like Seberg. Though she claimed to support the NAACP and donated lots of money to the Black Panthers, I found her hypocritical and unconsciously racist. When she first sees black mothers with their children, she describes the latter as being cute, like "black beans." Later in her life, she makes a point of worshipping Algerian men just because they are Algerian, an act that author states is "reverse racism."
Seberg, like so many egocentric, privileged blondes who are put on a pedestal from an early age (thanks to white supremacy and its worship of anything fair-haired), was used to being the center of attention. Addicted to the spotlight, she did everything she could to maintain that aura of "specialness" (including joining the Black Panthers, a majority black organization). At the same time, she felt insecure and guilty about her success (deep down, she knew people loved her only for her looks).
This combination haunts her involvement with the Black Panthers. Like other sheltered, inexperienced whites who never experienced real hardship, she sees them as objects, not people. Though she gives the group money and claims to believe in racial equality, she has no qualms about breaking up the marriage between a Black Panther supporter (Jamal) and his hardworking wife who was responsible for the success of the "Free breakfast program" for black kids. For all her banter about "equality," Jean thinks only about Jean and gratifying her desires. When she wants sex with Jamal, she goes for it, and doesn't care if her actions cause the abandoned black woman to lose morale and end the breakfast program.
Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda and Seberg are all similar in that they think they're doing "good" by embracing radical causes but are blind to the destruction their philosophies may cause. They're shielded from consequences because they are rich and well connected. The fact that Seberg is the only one who died from "a smear campaign" by the FBI has made her a martyr among the left, with the idea that she "died for her ideals."
But what was the essence of the "smear"? It was a piece in Newsweek that claimed she was pregnant with a Black Panther's baby.
Given her support of the Black Panthers, we would expect that Jean would remain defiant and celebrate the impending birth of her "black baby." Instead Jean, revealing her innate racism, railed against the "smear" and went into premature labor. She even puts the baby in a see-through coffin to "prove" that it is a "white" child.
This is the act of a racist person. Why? If Jean was truly non-racist, she would have been unashamed of carrying a black man's child. Instead, she sided with her accusers, sharing their "disgust" and took pains to show that no, she was a "good girl" who wouldn't have a "black baby."
The author does a good job at presenting Seberg as she really was - a bundle of contradictions, not the simplified "hero" of the left. But the myth of Seberg as a left wing radical and supporter of racial equality lives on...
February 7, 2015
Rags/riches/ruins. Starts softly, with inspirational nuances, plays out as a whisper from a lonely, misunderstood woman whose main role in life was to be a screen, projected upon by everyone in her life, personal and private.
August 1, 2011
Almost unbearably sordid and sad...we still have Patricia from "Breathless" but it's a shame that Jean Seberg wasn't as tough as her signature character...
October 31, 2011
The story of actress Jean Seberg from Cinderella beginning to a nightmare ending.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews