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Emmanuelle star critical after suffering heart failure

Sylvia Kristel was found unconscious at her home

Sylvia Kristel, the star of the 70s soft-core 'Emmanuelle' movies, is reportedly fighting for her life in hospital after suffering heart failure.

The Dutch actress, who is 59, was found unconscious at her home in Amsterdam.



Kristel was treated for lung cancer 10 years ago, but had made a partial recovery since then.

Her son Arthur told the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws: “I would like to be able to say she will soon be well again, but we have to remain realistic.”

Kristel starred in five of the French-produced 'Emmanuelle' films from 1974 into the 1990s, and several of the spin-off TV movies, as well as starring in such films as 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' in 1981.

The 'Emmanuelle' series were largely credited with bringing soft-core adult films into the mainstream, but her 2006 memoir 'Undressing Emmanuelle' told of her struggles with drugs and alcohol.



She also lived with British actor Ian McShane, star of 'Lovejoy' and more recently 'Deadwood', in the 1980s while in Los Angeles.