Michel Serrault

Biography: life and films

One of French cinema's most prolific and versatile actors, Michel Serrault was born at Brunoy, in the suburbs of Paris, on 24th January 1928. Originally destined for the priesthood, he dropped out after a short time in a seminary and took a course in drama. He began as a stage actor in 1946, appearing on tour in Germany in Molière's Les Fourberies de Scapin and André Obey's Revenu de l'étoile. After a break during which he did his military service in Dijon, he returned to Paris and starred in Robert Dhéry's stage production of Dugudu.

In 1952, Serrault met another young actor, Jean Poiret, at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt; it was the start of a long and fruitful partnership with the two actors appearing alongside one another on numerous occasions on stage and in films. One of their most notable film collaborations was Sacha Guitry's final film Assassins et voleurs (1957).

Serrault's long and illustrious film career began in 1954 with Jean Loubignac's Ah! Les Belles bacchantes and Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques. Over the next twenty years, he would appear in around 80 films, in a rich variety of supporting roles that ranged from the absurdly comedic to the deadly serious, reflecting his innate flair for comedy and his consummate skill as a character actor par excellence.

It was not until the late 1970s that the actor passed from being a comparatively minor stage and film actor to an international star. His breakthrough was his portrayal of the outrageously camp drag artiste Albin in Edouard Molinaro's hit film La Cage aux folles (1978). He had spent the past five years playing the part in a hugely popular stage version, written by his friend Jean Poiret. This was to be Serrault's most famous role, and the one that earned him the Best Actor César in 1979.

Serrault's film career flourished in the 1980s, and included roles which were the polar opposite of the likeable Albin that had brought him celebrity. He became known for playing much more complex and tragic characters, often with dark psychopathic tendencies masked by a seemingly benign or whimsical exterior - for example, in Claude Chabrol's Les Fantômes du chapelier 1982) and Claude Miller's Mortelle randonnée (1983). One of his darkest roles was that of a suspected child killer in Claude Miller's Garde à vue (1981), a part for which he won his second César.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the actor showed a careless lack of discrimination in the films he acted in, with the result that he would often be seen in some very mediocre films - such as: La Cage aux folles 3 (1985), Les Rois du gag (1985) and Vieille canaille (1992). Yet he still had some notable successes, films such as Etienne Chatilliez's Le Bonheur est dans le pré (1995) and Claude Sautet's Nelly et M. Arnaud (1995), the latter of which earned him his third César. In 1999, he was awarded the Légion d'Honneur in recognition of his great contribution to French culture.

With an energy and enthusiasm that seemed to be unbounded, Serrault was active well into his 70s, averaging between two and three films a year right up until the end. His later successes include Christian Carion's poignant Une hirondelle a fait le printemps (2001) and Pierre Boutron's gripping TV drama L'Affaire Dominici (2003). He died on July 30th 2007, at his home in Honfleur, Normandy, from a cancer-related illness. He leaves a wife, Juanita, and daughter, Nathalie.

In the course of a film career that spanned 53 years and around 130 films for cinema and 30 for television, Serrault became one of the most respected actors of his generation, a face known throughout France, and a man who had a tireless commitment to his art.

Filmography

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