PARIS — Isabelle Caro, a French actress and model whose emaciated image was used in an anti-anorexia ad campaign and whose eating disorder and career were followed by others suffering from the ailment, has died at 28. Her longtime acting instructor, Daniele Dubreuil-Pre vot, said Wednesday that Caro died Nov. 17 after returning to France from a job in Tokyo.
Dubreuil-Prevot said she did not know the cause of death but that Caro “had been sick for a long time,” referring to her anorexia.
Caro was featured in an ad campaign by Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani in 2007 for an Italian fashion house. Under the headline “No Anorexia,” images across newspapers and billboards showed a nude Caro, vertebrae and facial bones protruding. She said she weighed about 59 pounds when the photos were taken.
Caro said on her blog and in interviews that she had suffered from anorexia since she was 13. She wrote a book published in France in 2008 titled “The Little Girl Who Didn’t Want to Get Fat.”
The Italian ad campaign came as the fashion industry was under an unusually bright spotlight after a 21-year-old Brazilian model died from anorexia.
Her agent, Sylvie Fabregon, said the campaign was intended “to show what it is like to be anorexic.” Caro spoke out about her anorexia and her efforts to recover, and the menace of eating disorders in the fashion industry.
Her acting instructor described years in and out of hospitals. Her death and her illness “are an absolute waste,” Dubreuil-Prevot said.
Caro’s Facebook page said she was born Sept. 12, 1982. She took violin lessons and then acting lessons in Nantes and Versailles.
Her father told a few close friends about her death, and a funeral service was held in Paris.
