Sylvia Kristel, the Dutch actress who is considered by many to be the first adult film star, passed away at the age of 60 after a long battle with cancer.

Kristel acted in dozens of movies, but she is mostly remembered for her starring role in the soft-core erotic classic Emmanuelle.

In the film, Kristel plays a model that is married to a much older man. They move to Bangkok where she embarks on many extramarital affairs.

Emmanuelle played for almost a dozen years at a theater on the famed Parisian area of Champs-Elysees and became one of the most popular French films ever made and it spawned countless sequels.

Famed film critic Roger Ebert spoke highly of Kristel’s performance in 1975 writing: “What makes the film work is the performance of Sylvia Kristel… [who] projects a certain vulnerability that makes several of the scenes work… The performers in most skin flicks seem so impervious to ordinary mortal failings, so blase in the face of the most outrageous sexual invention, that finally they just become cartoon characters. Kristel actually seems to be present in the film, and as absorbed in its revelations as we are.”

She is survived by a son named Arthur who she had with Belgian author Hugo Claus.