Michel Galabru

Biography: life and films

Michel Galabru was born on 27th October 1922 in the Moroccan city of Safi. The son of a construction engineer, he spent the early part of his childhood in Morocco, before settling with his family in the Hérault department of southern France. His older brother died from tuberculosis at the age of 18. In his youth, Galabru harboured ambitions to become a professional footballer. Instead, it was acting he chose for his métier, and having graduated from the Conservatoire, France's top drama school, he was accepted into the Comédie Française in 1950, where he stayed for the next seven years. During this time, Galabru began appearing in films, in minor roles, and it wasn't until the 1960s that his screen career began to take off. His first important role was in Yves Robert's La Guerre des boutons (1961) but his big break came when director Jean Girault gave him the role of Adjudant Gerber opposite Louis de Funès in Le Gendarme de St. Tropez (1964), the first in a series of hit comedies.

For the next decade, Galabru's film career was dominated by popular comedies and it wasn't until the mid-1970s that he was able to prove himself capable of taking on serious dramatic roles. In Costa-Gavras's Section spéciale (1975), he revealed a very different persona, preparing us for his next important role, a mentally deranged killer in Bertrand Tavernier's Le Juge et l'assassin (1976), the film that won him a Best Actor César. As he broadened his repertoire, Galabru continued playing comedy roles, most famously in La Cage aux folles (1978) and Papy fait de la résistance (1983).

Throughout the 1980s, Michel Galabru took on an increasingly diverse range of roles, alternating comedy and drama and working with a very distinguished roll call of directors that included Alain Corneau (Le Choix des armes, 1981), Bertrand Blier (Notre histoire, 1984), Luc Besson (Subway, 1985) and Claude Berri (Uranus, 1990). From the 1990s, his screen appearances were fewer but he always left his mark, even in mainstream hits such as Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (2008) and Le Petit Nicolas (2009). Always a respecter of talent, he showed he was as willing to work with established directors as with promising first timers such as Katell Quillévéré (Un poison violent, 2010). In the course of a career that already spans more than 60 years, Michel Galabru has appeared in almost 300 roles for cinema and television and he remains active on both stage and screen, a tradition that his children Jean and Emmanuelle look set to continue for many years.

Filmography

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