RIP Sylvia Kristel: a life in photos

we didn’t have much time but decided to take the risk and make the picture. Sylvia, dressed in nightgown and bathrobe, seemed at ease on her way to Istanbul. When we heard the train was going to leave we had to get off in a hurry, jumped out of the coach and escaped an early death by an inch when another train, that rushed upon us on the other track, nearly hit us. Sylvia pulled me away right before it would run us over and during that split second, while railway coaches were narrowly thundering along, I experienced relativity stronger than ever and suddenly realized all could be over in a second… Actress Sylvia Kristel, the Dutch star of the hit 1970s erotic movie Emmanuelle, has died of cancer at age 60. Her agent, Features Creative Management, said in a statement today that Kristel died in her sleep on Wednesday night. Kristel, a model who turned to acting in the 1970s, had been fighting cancer for several years. Her breakthrough came in Emmanuelle, a 1974 erotic tale directed by Frenchman Just Jaeckin, about the sexual adventures of a man and his beautiful young wife, played by Kristel, in Thailand. She went on to star in several sequels to Emmanuelle, as well as in Hollywood movies including Private Lessons in 1981. In Hollywood, she sank into a world of drink and drugs. "I wish I could have skipped that part of my life, she said in a 2005 interview with Dutch newspaper De Volkkrant.RIP Sylvia Kristel, 28 September 1952-17 October 2012. She ddi the impossible: she made wicker look sexy. A life in photos: