Claude Piéplu

Biography: life and films

Claude Piéplu was born in Paris on 10 May 1923. His first job was as a messenger boy for a bank but he decided at an early age that he would become an actor. Having studied drama under Maurice Escande, he made his stage debut in 1944 at the Théâtre des Mathurins, appearing alongside Gérard Philipe and Maria Casarès in Mérimée's Federigo. A short time after, having failed twice to enter the Paris Conservatoire, he joined Jacques Fabbri's theatre company. He made his first film appearance in Christian-Jaque's D'homme à hommes (1948), but for the next decade, Piéplu devoted himself entirely to his stage work, and would not return to the cinema until the end of the 1950s. In total Piéplu appeared in over 170 stage plays.

It was in the 1960s that Claude Piéplu began to become a familiar face to cinema audiences in France, cropping up frequently in mainstream comedies such as Robert Dhéry's La Belle Américaine (1961) and Julien Duvivier's Le Diable et les dix commandements (1962). He was a habitué of Louis de Funès comedies, making memorable appearances in Le Gendarme de St. Tropez (1964), Hibernatus (1969) and Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob (1973). Over the following decade, his talents were put to good use by some of the most distinguished filmmakers working in France, including Claude Chabrol (Les Noces rouges, 1973), Luis Buñuel (Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie, 1972), Bertrand Blier (Les Valseuses, 1976) and Costa-Gavras (Section spéciale, 1975).

A natural comic performer with a subtly sinister edge, Piéplu was well-suited for the part of The Professor he played in Michel Deville's Paltoquet (1986), the film that earned him his one and only César nomination. His final film appearance was in Claude Zidi's hit comedy Astérix et Obélix contre César (1999), in which he played the druid Panoramix. In a career that spanned more than fifty years, Claude Piéplu, a character actor par excellence, appeared in around 100 films for cinema and television. He is also fondly remembered for voicing the animated television series Les Shadoks, which began airing in 1968. He died in Paris on 24th May 2006 after a long illness, aged 83.

Filmography

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