Known for his roles in "Peau d'âne" or "Le Crabe-drum", actor, filmmaker and producer Jacques Perrin died on Thursday April 21 at the age of 80.
"The family has the immense sadness to inform you of the disappearance of filmmaker Jacques Perrin, who died on Thursday April 21 in Paris. He passed away peacefully at the age of 80," his family announced in a statement sent. to AFP by his son, Mathieu Simonet.
Death of the immense Jacques Perrin, actor, producer and director of documentaries.
Two roles among others, that of Maxence in "the young ladies of Rochefort" and second lieutenant Torrens in "the 317th section".
pic.twitter.com/MN0VU7Rs76
— Olivier Varlan (@VarlanOlivier) April 21, 2022
Member since 2019 of the Academy of Fine Arts, actor in more than 70 feature films at the cinema since the 1950s, notably with Pierre Schoendoerffer and Jacques Demy, he will also have been the co-producer of around fifteen films since the end of the 1960s, from "Z" by Costa-Gavras to "Himalaya: the childhood of a chef", and lent his soft voice to many works.
popular actor
Child of the ball, Jacques Perrin was born in Paris on July 13, 1941 under the name of Jacques André Simonet.
Son of a manager at the Comédie-Française who became a prompter at the TNP, Alexandre Simonet, and an actress, Marie Perrin, he went on stage at the age of 15, then entered the Conservatoire.
He began his film career in 1958 with an appearance in "Les Tricheurs" by Marcel Carné, before a first important role in "La Fille à la suitcase" by Valerio Zurlini.
Actor with the appearance of a young romantic first, he then played in particular in "La Vérité" by Henri-Georges Clouzot or "Compartment tueurs" by Costa-Gavras, but distinguished himself above all in the films of Pierre Schoendoerffer, starting with "La 317e section" (1965), in which he played a second lieutenant.
A film that "means a lot in his career", he will say.
Then he will turn with him "The Crabe-drum" (1977) and "The Honor of a captain" (1982).
The other great director who counted in his career at the time was Jacques Demy, who made him work alongside Catherine Deneuve in "Les Demoiselles de Rochefort" (1967) and "Peau d'âne" (1970).
"That he called me was a surprise, I did not know the filmmakers of the New Wave, even if Jacques Demy, he was always a bit apart. For 'Les Demoiselles de Rochefort', I told him that I didn't know how to dance or sing. No problem, he replied," he said.
Memorable in the costume of the prince of "Peau d'âne", he will continue to play regularly in the cinema, with certain outstanding roles such as in "Cinema Paradiso" (1989), while starting a producer activity, through which he strives to support films that are committed to or defend the planet.
committed defender of nature
Jacques Perrin has also been the co-producer of some fifteen films since the end of the 1960s, including "Z" by Costa-Gavras (1968) or "Les Choristes" (2004) by his nephew Christophe Barratier, in which he played also (8.6 million admissions).
A committed defender of nature, he has co-produced several documentaries on this theme, including "The Monkey People" (1989), "Microcosmos: the people of the grass" (1996) or "Himalayas: the childhood of a chief". (1999).
Subsequently, he himself co-directed notable documentaries, including "Le Peuple migrateur", devoted to birds (2001, 2.8 million viewers in France), then "Oceans" (2010, 2.9 million viewers ), awarded the César for best documentary in 2011.
"To be interested in nature is to take up arms to defend it. Cinema is obviously one of the most relevant weapons, emotion has more resonance than speech," he said.
His last film role in "Goliath", released in March, echoes his environmental fights: in this thriller around pesticides, he teams up with a formidable lobbyist from the phytosanitary industry, camped by Pierre Niney.
With AFP
The summary of the
France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 app
google-play-badge_EN