Paris (AFP)
Tender and ferocious vindicator, Guy Bedos, who died Thursday at the age of 85, was a comic-citizen engaged on the left, not always charitable with his family of thought, who was also illustrated in the cinema and at the theatre.
"I feel at first humorist and satirist. That's my religion. So free from any kind of leash that could hold me. I want to be able to say everything, including bullshit," he said in his husky voice.
Half a century after his debut, he said goodbye to the one-man show at the Olympia in 2013. But he continued to play theater. His longevity, he explained thus to "Liberation": "I think, by my resistance displayed to all powers, to have become a spokesperson".
He loved playing editorial writers, with his famous cards, exercising his verve against the Le Pen family, his game of choice, but also Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean-François Copé, Nadine Morano - who sued him for defamation but lost his trial in 2015 -, or François Hollande and Manuel Valls.
Because, over the years, the defender of undocumented migrants (he still demonstrated in favor of migrants from Calais at 80), the admirer of the Camus of solar Algeria and the fight for liberties, reserved his most pikes vachardes at his camp.
Small size with white hair, black eyes remained mischievous, this sniper belonging to "the left couscous" ducked with virulence "the left caviar" while specifying: "I cannot be disappointed by the right, since the right, I I don't care. There is only the left to disappoint me. "
Those who did not like him called him "bad": "I was stuck with this reputation, which I challenge. I do not try to hurt at all costs. But I can be violent, yes," he admitted .
Born June 15, 1934 in Algiers, he had a difficult childhood. After her parents separated, her stepfather beat his mother, who beat her son in return. In this sordid environment, the child, who develops obsessive-compulsive disorder, curls up, shocked by the cruel treatment that the colonists, including his parents, give to the natives. He will declare having spent his life atoning for the faults of colonialism.
A high school student in Paris, where his family settled in 1949, he entered the theater school on rue Blanche. His first role in the cinema, in 1955, is in the aptly named, "Futures vedettes", by Marc Allégret. He is also very present on the boards.
In 1963, he mounted his first duets with Sophie Daumier, whom he married. A sketch reveals them to the general public: "The dredge". Two years later, it was his first music hall, in Bobino, with Barbara. The consecration came in 1968: this time he was alone on stage at Bobino. From that time, dates his friendship with the screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie, who died on Sunday, who notably wrote for him the famous sketch "Bonne fête Paulette".
- Great anguished -
After his separation in 1977 with his wife, he remained in high demand in the cinema. His greatest successes are "An elephant that deceives enormously" (1976) and "We will all go to paradise" (1977), by Yves Robert. He also works for Marcel Carné, Claude Berri or Patrice Chéreau. Later, we will also see him in popular TV movies like "A family like no other" or "Dear Marianne".
He performs in many comic shows, of which he is the author, goes to the Zenith, triumphs at the Olympia with Muriel Robin. They obtain Victory 93 from the humorist. Fueling hypochondria, this great anguish, "cameo with sleeping pills", as he says, stages his own material and lets explode his dirty character, his cynicism, the rage of his childhood, to better attack hypocrisy and stupidity.
In 1993, he triumphed at Chaillot in "La resistible ascension d'Arturo Ui" by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Jérôme Savary.
Guy Bedos, who divided his time between Neuilly and Corsica, has written around fifteen books with well-found titles like "Inconsolable and gay", "Diary of a megalomaniac", "Stop the world, I want to go down" or the poignant one "Memories from beyond mother".
Married 3 times - to Karen Blanguernon, Sophie Daumier (died in 2003, following a rare genetic disease) and Joëlle Bercot -, he is the father of 4 children, Leslie, Mélanie, Victoria and Nicolas.
It was the latter, actor, screenwriter and humorist, who announced the death of his father. "He was beautiful, he was funny, he was free and courageous. How proud I am to have had you as a father. Embrace Desproges and Dabadie since you are all in paradise", he wrote on his Instagram account .
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