PARIS — Deneuve's family said in a statement released on Wednesday that the 76-year-old actress suffered a "very limited and therefore reversible" stroke.

The statement, by the actress' representative, Artmedia, says "fortunately, she has no motor deficits (but) must, of course, take some time to rest".

Deneuve was hospitalised in Paris but the family did not disclose the name of the facility. Deneuve has been filming "De son vivant" directed by Emmanuelle Bercot.

Nicknamed the "Ice Maiden" because of her exquisite, fragile beauty and detached manner, Deneuve became France's leading screen actress and a top international star in the 1960s.

French actress Catherine Deneuve at the Premiers Plans film festival in the western French city of Angers in 2018. - AFP/VNA Photo

She won fame for her portrayal of an umbrella seller's daughter in Jacques Demy's 1963 musical Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) for which she won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1993, she was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Indochine.
Often described as the embodiment of French womanhood, the blonde Deneuve was a fixture at Paris fashion shows and was known for her biting wit.
Last year, she and 99 other French women denounced a backlash against men following the Harvey Weinstein scandal, saying the #Metoo campaign against sexual harassment amounted to "puritanism". — AFP