Michel Bouquet
Born: 1925-11-06 in Paris, France
Died: 2022-04-13
Known For: Acting
Biography
Michel Bouquet (6 November 1925 – 13 April 2022) was a French stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1947 to 2020. He won the Best Actor European Film Award for Toto the Hero in 1991 and two Best Actor Césars for How I Killed My Father (2001) and The Last Mitterrand (2005). He also received the Molière Award for Best Actor for Les côtelettes in 1998, then again for Exit the King in 2005. In 2014, he was awarded the Honorary Molière for the sum of his career. He received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 2018. Michel François Pierre Bouquet was born on 6 November 1925 in Paris. When he was seven years old, he was sent to a boarding school where he stayed until the age of 14. He aspired to become a doctor but had to quit school at the age of 15 after his father had been taken prisoner during World War II. Bouquet worked as a baker's apprentice, then a bank clerk, to provide for the family. After a short stay in Lyon, he returned with his mother to Paris. Marie Bouquet was passionate about theater, and that helped the young Bouquet to find his vocation. He took acting classes under the tutelage of Maurice Escande, a member of the Comédie Française, and made his stage debut in the play La première étape in 1944. Then he studied at the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris where he met Gérard Philippe. In the mid-1940s Michel Bouquet began working with the playwright Jean Anouilh and director André Barsacq, who staged plays at the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Montmartre. In 1946, Anouilh gave Bouquet a part in Roméo and Jeannette, followed by The Rendez-vous of Senlis and The Invitation to the Castle in 1947. In the 1950s, the actor met another stage director, Jean Vilar, with whom he would frequently collaborate. Bouquet played many roles from the classical repertoire at the Festival d'Avignon, created by Vilar in 1947 (Henry IV in 1950, The Tragedy of King Richard II in 1953, and The Miser in 1962). Bouquet regularly worked with Anouilh until the early 1970s, then helped popularize in France the works of the British author Harold Pinter: The Collection in 1965, The Birthday Party in 1967 and No Man's Land in 1979. At the same time, at the end of the 1970s, Michel Bouquet was appointed professor at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts and taught there until 1990. In the 1980s-1990s, he returned to the Théâtre de l'Atelier where he once began his career. In 1994, he played in Exit the King by Eugène Ionesco, the role he would perform many times until 2014. In 1998 he received the Molière Award for Best Actor for Bertrand Blier's Les côtelettes, then again for Exit the King in 2005. In 2014, he was awarded the Honorary Molière for the sum of his career. A year later, the actor received accolades for his performance in Taking Sides by the British playwright Ronald Harwood. Bouquet announced his retirement from stage in 2019. ... Source: Article "Michel Bouquet" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Filmography
2026
- Stéphane Audran, la complice de Chabrol as Self (archive) - actor
2022
2021
- Villa Caprice as Marcel Germon
2020
- The Lives of Albert Camus as Self
2018
- Muriel Robin, oser être soi... as Self
2017
- À la recherche de... Pierre Richard as Self - Actor (archive footage)
2016
- The Origin of Violence as Marcel Fabre (2014)
2015
- The Art Dealer as Raoul
2014
2012
- 28 minutes as Self
- Renoir as Auguste Renoir
2011
- The Little Bedroom as Edmond
2010
- La Case du siècle as Arnaud de Roquefeuil (old) (voice)
2008
- Le malade imaginaire as Argan
2006
2005
- The Last Mitterrand as Le Président
2004
- The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas as Monsieur Andesmas
2003
- The Chops as le Vieux
2001
- How I Killed My Father as Maurice
- Trees as Narrator
2000
- The Prince's Manuscript as Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
1999
- Albert Camus, la tragédie du bonheur as Narration (Voice)
1998
- Vivement dimanche as Self
1997
- Milice, film noir as Narrator (voice)
1995
- Élisa as Samuel
1993
- The Eye of Vichy as Narrator (voice)
- La Joie de vivre as Monsieur Charme
1992
- Il segno del comando as Marquis of Santerre
1991
- Maigret as Le juge Forlacroix
- Toto the Hero as Old Thomas
- All the Mornings of the World as Baugin
1987
- Velvet Paws as Quid
1985
- Le Regard dans le miroir as Mathias
- Cop au Vin as Hubert Lavoisier
1984
- A Christmas Carol as Ebenezer Scrooge
1983
- The Secret of Mister L as Victor Lumen
1982
- Champs-Elysées as Self
- Les Misérables as Inspector Javert
- Mozart as Leopold Mozart
- The Sorceress as Jules Michelet
- La danse de mort as Edgar
1980
- Le Curé de Tours as L'abbé Troubet
1979
- Les Jeunes Filles as Récitant / Narrator
1978
- State Reasons as Francis Jobin
- Last In, First Out as Banquier Muller
1977
- Les Anneaux de Bicêtre as Maugras
1976
- The Toy as Pierre Rambal-Cochet, powerful businessman
- Vincent Put the Donkey in a Meadow (And Went Into the Other) as Pierre Vergne
1975
- Thomas as André, the father
- Beyond Fear as Claude Balard
1974
- Spécial cinéma as Self
- The Suspects as Prosecutor Delarue
- France, Incorporated as The Frenchman
- Bloody Murder as Georges Noblet
- Bloody Sun as Doctor
- Kisses Till Monday as Nez-D'Boeuf
1973
- Two Men in Town as Commissioner Goitreau
- The Serpent as Tavel
- Défense de savoir as Paul Cristiani
- The Conspiracy as Lelong
- Where There's Smoke as Morlaix
- The Angels as Maurice
- Les grands sentiments font les bons gueuletons as Claude Reverson
- The Holy Family as Storm
1972
- Malpertuis as Charles Dideloo
- The Assassination as Lempereur
- 3000 Million Without an Elevator as Albert
- Paulina 1880 as Monsieur Pandolfini
- Vagabond Humor as Marcel Bingeot and 19 other roles
- La Légende du siècle as Self
- Le volet as Narrator (voice)
1971
- Samedi soir as Self
- Just Before Nightfall as Charles Masson
- Tartuffe as Tartuffe
- Papa, the Lil' Boats as Marc the Boss
1970
- Borsalino as Maître Rinaldi
- The Breach as Ludovic Regnier
- The Cop as L'inspecteur Favenin
- Countdown to Vengeance as Valberg
- Last Leap as Jauran
1969
- The Unfaithful Wife as Charles Desvallées
- Mississippi Mermaid as Comolli
- À la recherche de Jean Grémillon as Self
- God Chose Paris as Narrator
1968
- The Bride Wore Black as Coral
- A Wall in Jerusalem as Narrator (citations) (voice)
1967
- Lamiel as Le docteur Sansfin
- The Road to Corinth as Sharps
- The Double Contempt as Reciter (voice)
1965
- Marco the Magnificent as Narrator (uncredited)
- Our Agent Tiger as Jacques Vermorel
1964
- This Special Friendship as Father Trennes
1962
- A Look at Madness as Narrator (voice)
- Rodolphe Bresdin as Narrator
1960
- Le Sourire as Récitant (Commentaires bouddhique) (voice)
1958
- No Escape as Commissioner
1956
- Night and Fog as Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
1955
- Tower of Lust as Louis X
- Visages de Paris as Voix
1953
- Mina de Vanghel as Narrator (voice)
1952
- Three Women as Monsieur Lesable (segment "Zora")
1951
- Two Pennies Worth of Violets as Maurice Desforges, le frère de Thérèse
1949
- Manon as Second
- White Paws as Maurice
1947
- Monsieur Vincent as Le tuberculeux
- Criminal Brigade as Le tueur