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| Constantin Film Verleih GmbH/Ben King |
Alexandre Dumas created one of literature's most enduring and dangerous villains in The three musketeers. Milady de Winter is a master spy, an assassin, and a survivor whose fleur-de-lis brand marks a dark and traumatic past. Over the decades, cinema has repeatedly attempted to capture her deadly charm, relying on some of Hollywood's most captivating actresses to bring her to life.
Here is a look at the iconic women who have donned the corsets and wielded the daggers to play the ultimate femme fatale, as well as the fascinating real-life woman who inspired it all.
Lana Turner: the golden age glamour (1948)
When MGM adapted the classic tale in 1948, they cast Lana Turner, bringing pure Old Hollywood allure to the role. Turner’s Milady was draped in lavish, brightly colored gowns, masking her ruthless ambition behind a radiant, smiling facade. Her portrayal leaned heavily into the classic archetype of a seductress who uses beauty as her primary weapon, making her betrayal of the musketeers feel all the more shocking to 1940s audiences.
Faye Dunaway: the ruthless pragmatist (1973)
Richard Lester's star-studded 1973 adaptation (and its 1974 sequel) brought us Faye Dunaway in the role. Dunaway played Milady with an icy, calculating edge that perfectly fit the grittier, slightly satirical tone of the films (1). She wasn't just a seductress; she was a highly capable political operative for Cardinal Richelieu. Her execution scene remains one of the most haunting and emotionally complex moments in the franchise's history.
Rebecca De Mornay: the emotional manipulator (1993)
The 1993 Disney adaptation took some liberties with the source material, but Rebecca De Mornay delivered a memorable performance. De Mornay's Milady was deeply tied to the emotional core of the film, particularly through her tragic romantic history with Athos. She brought a sense of vulnerability to the villainess, making her feel less like a pure monster and more like a woman who had learned to survive in a man's world by any means necessary (2).
Milla Jovovich: the action star (2011)
In Paul W.S. Anderson's highly stylized and steampunk-inspired 2011 version, Milla Jovovich transformed Milady into a full-blown action hero. This iteration of the character was as likely to engage in wire-fu combat and dodge booby traps as she was to manipulate court politics. Jovovich’s performance emphasized physical agility and modern blockbuster spectacle over the subtle espionage of Dumas's original novel.
Eva Green: the gothic mastermind (2023)
The recent French two-part epic brought Eva Green into the lineage of Milady. Green's casting felt inevitable; she possesses a natural gothic intensity that perfectly suits the character's dark backstory. Her Milady is feral, dangerous, and deeply psychological. She captures the character's traumatic past and her unyielding drive for revenge, delivering a performance that feels the closest to the dangerous antiheroine Dumas originally envisioned.
The historical inspiration: Lucy Hay
While the actresses above brought Milady to life on screen, Dumas drew his initial inspiration for the character from a very real historical figure: Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle.
Born Lucy Percy (1599–1660), she was an English noblewoman who became deeply entangled in the espionage and political plots of the seventeenth-century English court. Her connection to Dumas's famous villainess comes directly from a real historical anecdote recorded in the memoirs of the French writer François de La Rochefoucauld.
According to La Rochefoucauld, Lucy Hay had been a lover of George Villiers, the 1st Duke of Buckingham. When Buckingham became dangerously infatuated with Anne of Austria—the Queen of France—a jealous Lucy Hay supposedly sought revenge by stealing diamond pendants from Buckingham's clothes during a ball.
Dumas adopted this exact anecdote to create the famous "Queen's diamonds" plot in The three musketeers, transforming the Countess of Carlisle into the dangerous Lady Clarik, and eventually into Milady de Winter.
While the historical Lucy Hay never bore a fleur-de-lis brand or murdered a Duke with poison, she was a highly ambitious political operative. During the English Civil War, she acted as a double agent, playing opposing factions against each other, hiding her true loyalties, and using her beauty and intellect to manipulate the most powerful men in the country. Dumas simply took her real-life penchant for espionage and elevated it into literary infamy.
No matter the decade, Milady de Winter remains a highly coveted role for actresses who want to sink their teeth into a character who is unapologetically wicked, incredibly smart, and fiercely independent.
