The Marshalltown teenager plucked from Iowa to Hollywood who became a face of the French New Wave.
Jean Seberg was born on November 13, 1938, in Marshalltown, Iowa. At seventeen she was chosen from thousands in a nationwide search to star as Joan of Arc in Otto Preminger's “Saint Joan” (1957).
She became an icon of the French New Wave through Jean-Luc Godard's “Breathless” (1960) and worked on both sides of the Atlantic. Her later years were shadowed by FBI surveillance during the civil-rights era; she died in Paris in 1979.
Seberg's short, luminous career left a lasting mark on modern cinema, and Marshalltown honors its hometown star. Her story — small-town Iowa to Paris stardom — remains striking.
She is one of Iowa's most internationally recognized actors.
The Marshalltown teenager plucked from Iowa to Hollywood who became a face of the French New Wave.
Jean Seberg was from Marshalltown, Iowa.
1938–1979.
Curious about your own family's story? We trace it through the public record and write it up as a documented history.
See how it works →This profile presents only publicly reported facts, drawn from the sources above. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the family or its companies.
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons (public domain or freely licensed).