Michel Bouquet
Acting • Born 1925-11-06 – Died 2022-04-13
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
111 credits
Mississippi Mermaid
Movie • 1969
Comolli
Night and Fog
Movie • 1956
Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Les Anneaux de Bicêtre
Movie • 1977
Maugras
The Bride Wore Black
Movie • 1968
Coral
The Breach
Movie • 1970
Ludovic Regnier
Two Men in Town
Movie • 1973
Commissioner Goitreau
Les Misérables
Movie • 1982
Inspector Javert
Cop au Vin
Movie • 1985
Hubert Lavoisier
The Unfaithful Wife
Movie • 1969
Charles Desvallées
Borsalino
Movie • 1970
Maître Rinaldi
The Suspects
Movie • 1974
Prosecutor Delarue
How I Killed My Father
Movie • 2001
Maurice
Monsieur Vincent
Movie • 1947
Le tuberculeux
The Serpent
Movie • 1973
Tavel
White Paws
Movie • 1949
Maurice
Malpertuis
Movie • 1972
Charles Dideloo
Our Agent Tiger
Movie • 1965
Jacques Vermorel
Vagabond Humor
Movie • 1972
Marcel Bingeot and 19 other roles
The Chops
Movie • 2003
le Vieux
The Last Mitterrand
Movie • 2005
Le Président
No Escape
Movie • 1958
Commissioner
Toto the Hero
Movie • 1991
Old Thomas
The Toy
Movie • 1976
Pierre Rambal-Cochet, powerful businessman
God Chose Paris
Movie • 1969
Narrator
Just Before Nightfall
Movie • 1971
Charles Masson
The Little Bedroom
Movie • 2011
Edmond
Elisa
Movie • 1995
Samuel
The Cop
Movie • 1970
L'inspecteur Favenin
Mina de Vanghel
Movie • 1953
Narrator (voice)
Tower of Lust
Movie • 1955
Louis X
Secret Ceremony
Movie • 2022
The Sorceress
Movie • 1982
Jules Michelet
The Road to Corinth
Movie • 1967
Sharps
The Assassination
Movie • 1972
Lempereur
Renoir
Movie • 2012
Auguste Renoir
Where There's Smoke
Movie • 1973
Morlaix
Tartuffe
Movie • 1971
Tartuffe
The Conspiracy
Movie • 1973
Lelong
Défense de savoir
Movie • 1973
Paul Cristiani
France, Incorporated
Movie • 1974
The Frenchman
Pierre Richard... en mode Veber
Movie • 2022
Self
Katia
Movie • 1959
Bibesco
Last Leap
Movie • 1970
Jauran
Kisses Till Monday
Movie • 1974
Nez-D'Boeuf
Last In, First Out
Movie • 1978
Banquier Muller
The Prince's Manuscript
Movie • 2000
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
A Look at Madness
Movie • 1962
Narrator (voice)
Le malade imaginaire
Movie • 2008
Argan
Milice, film noir
Movie • 1997
Narrator (voice)
State Reasons
Movie • 1978
Francis Jobin
Three Women
Movie • 1952
Monsieur Lesable (segment "Zora")
Juste avant la nuit - Michel Bouquet
Movie • 2022
self
Il segno del comando
Movie • 1992
Marquis of Santerre
Les grands sentiments font les bons gueuletons
Movie • 1973
Claude Reverson
Bloody Sun
Movie • 1974
Doctor
Thomas
Movie • 1975
André, the father
Beyond Fear
Movie • 1975
Claude Balard
The Double Contempt
Movie • 1967
Reciter (voice)
A Wall in Jerusalem
Movie • 1968
Narrator (citations) (voice)
The Angels
Movie • 1973
Maurice
A Christmas Carol
Movie • 1984
Ebenezer Scrooge
Lamiel
Movie • 1967
Le docteur Sansfin
The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas
Movie • 2004
Monsieur Andesmas
The Origin of Violence
Movie • 2016
Marcel Fabre (2014)
Papa, the Lil' Boats
Movie • 1971
Marc the Boss
Vincent Put the Donkey in a Meadow (And Went Into the Other)
Movie • 1976
Pierre Vergne
The Art Dealer
Movie • 2015
Raoul
Le Sourire
Movie • 1960
Récitant (Commentaires bouddhique) (voice)
Bloody Murder
Movie • 1974
Georges Noblet
Les Jeunes Filles
Movie • 1979
Récitant / Narrator
Albert Camus, la tragédie du bonheur
Movie • 1999
Narration (Voice)
3000 Million Without an Elevator
Movie • 1972
Albert
Countdown to Vengeance
Movie • 1970
Valberg
All the Mornings of the World
Movie • 1991
Baugin
Trees
Movie • 2001
Narrator
The Holy Family
Movie • 1973
Storm
Two Pennies Worth of Violets
Movie • 1951
Maurice Desforges, le frère de Thérèse
Criminal Brigade
Movie • 1947
Le tueur
Velvet Paws
Movie • 1987
Quid
Rebecca
Movie • 2014
À la recherche de Jean Grémillon
Movie • 1969
Self
The Lives of Albert Camus
Movie • 2020
Self
This Special Friendship
Movie • 1964
Father Trennes
Manon
Movie • 1949
Second
Rodolphe Bresdin
Movie • 1962
Narrator
Villa Caprice
Movie • 2021
Marcel Germon
Muriel Robin, oser être soi...
Movie • 2018
Self
The Life and Work of Claude Chabrol
Movie • 2006
Self
Le Curé de Tours
Movie • 1980
L'abbé Troubet
Le volet
Movie • 1972
Narrator (voice)
Paulina 1880
Movie • 1972
Monsieur Pandolfini
The Secret of Mister L
Movie • 1983
Victor Lumen
Histoire du petit Chaperon rouge
Movie • 1981
La danse de mort
Movie • 1982
Edgar
À la recherche de... Pierre Richard
Movie • 2017
Self - Actor (archive footage)
La Légende du siècle
Movie • 1972
Self
Visages de Paris
Movie • 1955
Voix
La Joie de vivre
Movie • 1993
Monsieur Charme
Marco the Magnificent
Movie • 1965
Narrator (uncredited)
The Eye of Vichy
Movie • 1993
Narrator (voice)
Stéphane Audran, la complice de Chabrol
Movie • 2026
Self (archive) - actor
La Case du siècle
TV • 2010
Arnaud de Roquefeuil (old) (voice)
28 minutes
TV • 2012
Self
Mozart
TV • 1982
Leopold Mozart
Spécial cinéma
TV • 1974
Self
Le Regard dans le miroir
TV • 1985
Mathias
Champs-Elysées
TV • 1982
Self
Discorama
TV • 1959
Self
Vivement dimanche
TV • 1998
Self
Samedi soir
TV • 1971
Self
Maigret
TV • 1991
Le juge Forlacroix