Paris (AFP)

More than 150 films and serials, a hundred plays: discrete star of French cinema, Michel Aumont, has led a huge career where he has excelled in the supporting roles, from Chabrol to Tavernier through Francis Veber.

If the cinema did not give him roles of young first, the actor, died Wednesday at 82 years, was a giant of the theater from the 60s, embodying the Miserable Avare marvelously for 20 years within the Comédie-Française of which he had been an honorary member since 1994. He notably saw Isabelle Adjani begin on the stage.

The smile a little weary, the eye all finesse, this man modest and full of humor, endowed with a "mouth", fell in love with the scene following from a young age at the Festival d'Avignon his mother actress, Hélène Gerber, playing children's roles in small shows.

Born October 15, 1936 in Paris, he entered the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art at the age of 18 and, two years later, won a first prize in modern comedy before being hired at the Comédie-Française.

- Policeman or politician -

"Michel Aumont belongs to the brotherhood of comedians of the discomfort, ready and able to interpret the most demanding jobs of the in between, at the same time heartbreaking or mocking, natural or composed, disturbing or amusing", maybe we read in the card dedicated to the actor on the site of the "House of Molière".

On the big screen as well as on stage, he knows how to let contradictory emotions filter and gives a deeply human touch to his characters.

In the cinema especially, he plays a cascade of supporting roles, often as a police commissioner, lawyer or politician.

"The sustain, the intonation, the phrasing, the accuracy, the discrete irony never very far and this kind of human thickness that serves the major roles.One of his titles suits him well: The eye of the master", has reacted former Cannes Film Festival President Gilles Jacob after the announcement of his death.

Awarded many Molières, his best memory on stage is "Richard III", in Avignon in 1972, where he triumphs by taking over the role played by Robert Hirsch, "my greatest memory and my biggest fear", will say he.

He plays everything from Shakespeare to Woody Allen, through Feydeau and Beckett and the greatest directors ask for it: Jean-Paul Roussillon, Antoine Vitez, Jean-Pierre Vincent, etc.

- "The ease of the big ones" -

Minister of Culture Franck Riester praised "a popular actor who had won the hearts of the French, from theater to cinema with the discreet generosity that filled each of his roles (...), he had the ease big ones".

He turns for television ("The ladies of the coast") and will launch at 35 years in the cinema, with "The Woman in Blue" (1973) Michel Deville, "Nada" Claude Chabrol (1974), " spoiled children "(1977) and" A Sunday in the Countryside "(1984) by Bertrand Tavernier or" Edith and Marcel "by Claude Lelouch (1983).

He expresses his comic fiber playing in the saga of "Ripoux", in front of the camera of Francis Veber ("The Closet", 2001), "The Lining", (2006) and head of protocol in "Royal Palace!" (2005) by Valérie Lemercier.

He admits, in an interview with the Parisian in 2002, that he had problems with alcohol: "it's so good that dirt! Fortunately, I stopped everything fifteen years ago."

His main character trait is "naivety", he confided to the Express, admitting to suffer from a lack of confidence in him "bordering on cowardice". He added: "I did not become a star, but at my small level, I was pretty successful."

He was married and had a daughter.

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