Jean Dorothy Seberg (November 13, 1938 – August 30, 1979) was an American actress who lived half her life in France. Her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film Breathless immortalized her as an icon of the French New Wave.
She was also one of the best-known targets of the FBI COINTELPRO project. Her targeting was in retaliation for her support of the Black Panther Party and was a smear directly ordered by J.Edgar Hoover.
Seberg died at the age of 40 in Paris, with police ruling her death a probable suicide. Writer Romain Gary, Seberg's second husband, called a press conference shortly after her death where he publicly blamed the FBI's campaign against Seberg for her death. Gary noted that the FBI planted false rumors with U.S. media outlets claiming her 1970 pregnancy was a Black Panther's child, and how the trauma led to the child's miscarriage. Romain Gary stated that Seberg had attempted suicide on numerous anniversaries of the child's death, August 25.
Notable roles include:
- Joan of Arc in Saint Joan (1957)
- Cécile in Bonjour Tristesse (1958)
- Helen Kokintz in The Mouse That Roared (1959)
- Patricia Franchini in Breathless (1960)
- Lilith Arthur in Lilith (1964)
- Elizabeth in Paint Your Wagon (1969)
- Tanya Livingston in Airport (1970)
