Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story

Jean Seberg was an original whose talent was unique. The role she's most remembered for is the neurotic young waif in BREATHLESS. From the time I first saw that movie in the late 1960s, I fell in love with her. After that she only made one more good movie, LILITH. Unfortunately, the movies she made after that were not that good. This biography tells about her life and helps shed light on why she committed suicide at the age of 40. She was the youngest of two sisters, and from the sketchy information about her childhood, it appears her older sister was her mother's favorite. I gather that both mother and older sister rejected young jean. At any rate she spend her life trying to get approval from people and trying to find herself. She was a rebel who supported the Black Panthers and lived in Paris, away from America (and her mother and sister). Toward the end she went crazy and was institutionalized again and again. Her life was s tragedy and this biography captures the highs and the lows. I recommend it if you want to find out more about this actress.

I read "Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story" by David Richards many years ago and still can remember how well written it was. It chronicles the life of actress Jean Seberg, from her humble beginnings in Iowa through her life as an actress in Hollywood and France, and then her suicide in Paris from a barbituate overdose at the tragically young age of 41. The book paints Seberg not so much as an anti-establishment rebel as has been written of her so often in the past (although she was involved in the anti-vietnam peace movement), instead as a vulnerable, tragic young woman who was pushed into the abyss of mental illness by the bizarre actions of the FBI who listed her as a "subversive" due to her association with some members of the Black Panther Party in the early 1970's. It also tells of her film career (her films include Joan Of Arc, Paint Your Wagon and Airport), and also her 3 marriages. Most compelling is the story Author Richards tells of her slow downward spiral into depression, then madness. A must read for Jean Seberg fans.