Marjane Satrapi Dies: Iranian-French 'Persepolis' & 'Radioactive' Director Was 56

[68er]

Source: Deadline

Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French artist, animator and Oscar-nominated director best known internationally for her 2007 biographical animated feature Persepolis and Rosamund Pike-starring film Radioactive, has died. She was 56.

“Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” read a statement from close friends and family announcing her death on June 3, sent to the AFP newswire. Satrapi’s husband, the producer, acto and screenwriter Ripa, died on April 8, 2025.

Iran-born artist and director Satrapi had lived in France since the early 1990s after her parents sent her to Europe to study as a teenager to escape the restrictions of living under the Islamic Republic regime and encouraged her to make her permanent home there.

Born on November 22, 1969, in Rasht in northwestern Iran, Satrapi had an upper middle class upbringing in Tehran, where she attended the French lycée as a child. Her parents were politically active and supported leftist activism against the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and then the restrictions of the Islamic Republic.




Read more: https://deadline.com/2026/06/marjane-satrapi-dead-iranian-french-persepolis-56-1236940629/

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What a loss. Her graphic novel work was great. And "died of sadness" would seem to leave a bit of room for... interpretation.

[slightlv]

1. I've heard there are actual physical reasons for people dying of "sadness" over the loss of a loved one.

I can't remember what it was called; maybe someone else around here has heard of it, as well. But such a sad story. I loved her graphic novel. Such a wonderful, sensitive woman. May she RIP and strength with her husband.

[LisaL]

2. Broken heart syndrome.

But that might not be why she is dead.