She died aged 87 at Nemours near Paris, in the presence of her children, her agent told AFP. "She leaves us the legacy of a free and inspired woman both as a woman and as an artiste," Laurent Savry said in a message. Critics called her the "embodiment of postwar European glamour", and she was was packaged as such, both on screen and off. "The best compliment I ever got was from actor David Niven while filming 'The Pink Panther,'" Cardinale recalled. Her decades-long career has seen her star in 175 films and both the Venice and Berlin festivals awarded her honorary prizes.