Michel Bouquet

DOB: 1925-11-06

DOD: 2022-04-13

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.

Starred In

1959
Movie

Night and Fog

1970
Movie

The Breach

1973
Movie

Two Men in Town

1982
Movie

Les Misérables

1985
Movie

Cop au Vin

1970
Movie

Borsalino

1974
Movie

The Suspects

1947
Movie

Monsieur Vincent

1973
Movie

The Serpent

1949
Movie

White Paws

1971
Movie

Malpertuis

1965
Movie

Our Agent Tiger

1972
Movie

Vagabond Humor

2003
Movie

The Chops

1958
Movie

No Escape

1991
Movie

Toto the Hero

1976
Movie

The Toy

1969
Movie

God Chose Paris

2011
Movie

The Little Bedroom

1995
Movie

Elisa

1970
Movie

The Cop

1953
Movie

Mina de Vanghel

1955
Movie

Tower of Lust

2022
Movie

Secret Ceremony

1982
Movie

The Sorceress

1972
Movie

The Assassination

2012
Movie

Renoir

1971
Movie

Tartuffe

1973
Movie

The Conspiracy

1973
Movie

Défense de savoir

1959
Movie

Katia

1970
Movie

Last Leap

1974
Movie

Kisses Till Monday

1978
Movie

Last In, First Out

1962
Movie

A Look at Madness

1997
Movie

Milice, film noir

1978
Movie

State Reasons

1952
Movie

Three Women

1974
Movie

Bloody Sun

1975
Movie

Thomas

1975
Movie

Beyond Fear

1973
Movie

The Angels

1984
Movie

A Christmas Carol

1967
Movie

Lamiel

2015
Movie

The Art Dealer

1960
Movie

Le Sourire

1974
Movie

Bloody Murder

1979
Movie

Les Jeunes Filles

2001
Movie

Trees

1973
Movie

La Sainte Famille

1947
Movie

Criminal Brigade

1987
Movie

Velvet Paws

2014
Movie

Rebecca

1949
Movie

Manon

1962
Movie

Rodolphe Bresdin

2021
Movie

Villa Caprice

1980
Movie

Le Curé de Tours

1972
Movie

Le volet

1972
Movie

Paulina 1880

1982
Movie

La danse de mort

2012
Tv

28 minutes

1982
Tv

Mozart

1959
Tv

Discorama

1971
Tv

Samedi soir