Michel Serrault

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Michel Serrault at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival

Michel Serrault (born January 24, 1928 in Brunoy near Paris , † July 29, 2007 in Honfleur in Lower Normandy ) was a French actor . While at the beginning of his career he played mainly in comedies and the boulevard, he became known in the second half of his life as the character actor of "monstres sacrés", as a performer of eccentric people, egocentrics and outsiders.

life and work

As a child, his career aspirations fluctuated between clown and priest . After a few weeks he broke off studying theology to learn acting at the “Center dramatique”. He later became one of the youngest members of the Comédie-Française . It was there that he met Jean Poiret , with whom he brought cabaret programs, comedies and skits to Parisian stages. Under Poiret's direction he played more than 900 times at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal from 1973 the role of "Albin Mougeotte", the lover of a homosexual nightclub owner and star in his club, in the play A Cage Full of Fools . With the film of the same name (1978) Serrault achieved his breakthrough as a well-known film actor.

He played over 150 film and television roles, was recognized worldwide as a character actor and was considered one of the best stage actors in plays by Shakespeare and Molière in France .

Serrault was nominated eight times for the most important French film award, the César for best leading actor , and won it three times: 1979 for A Cage Full of Fools, 1982 as a murder suspect in The Interrogation and 1995 as the aging lover in Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud alongside Emmanuelle Béart .

Michel Serrault was married to Juanita (Nita) Saint-Peyron since 1958 and had two daughters, (* 1959) and (* 1962); the older one was killed in a car accident in 1977.

Serrault died at the age of 79 from complications from polychondritis . He was buried in 2007 on the "Cimetière Sainte-Catherine" in Honfleur . In 2009 the remains were reburied in the "Ancien Cimetière" (Old Cemetery) in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine .

Quotes

"I'd rather play an interesting role in a bad film for five minutes than a mundane role in a good film for 90 minutes."

- Michel Serrault : Michel Serrault is dead. In: Die Zeit from July 30, 2007

“With my game I like to let the assumption grow that we are all poor beings who can do unsightly things. Whether someone becomes a hero or a bastard sometimes only depends on the flapping of a butterfly's wings. I'm a kind of fallow where I don't know what secret thrives. In the worst characters I try to portray that moment of greatest need, which removes the horror and in which - for the duration of a second - the ability for grace can arise, which changes everything. I have to sow doubts and buy back even lost souls. "

- Michel Serrault : Michel Serrault, laughing over abysses. In: The time of July 31, 2007

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Michel Serrault: ... vous avez dit Serrault? . Éditions Florent Massot, Paris 2001, ISBN 978-2845880351 (autobiography, French)
  • Nathalie Serrault: Michel Serrault par Nathalie Serrault . Kero, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2366580563 (French)
  • Adolph Kurt Böhm : Music and Humanity . Morisken Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-944596-08-2 (Böhm documents his friendship with Serrault in several places in words and pictures, for example her youthful pranks and theater performances in the 1940s in the chapter "Michel Serrault", p. 28 –45, and Serrault's funeral in "Abschied von Michel", pp. 199–201)

Web links

Commons : Michel Serrault  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Obituaries

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Michel Serrault
  2. ^ "Michel Serrault is dead" , Die Zeit , July 30, 2007
  3. ↑ "Michel Serrault, laughing at the abyss" , Die Zeit, July 31, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Serrault, Michel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French actor
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Brunoy near Paris
DATE OF DEATH July 29, 2007
Place of death Honfleur