Paris (AFP)
A modest office worker or piano tuner, a nice tramp or an old servant, Michel Robin has collected supporting roles in the cinema as well as in the theater, attracting an indefinable sympathy with his familiar presence.
Former member of the Comédie Française (1997-2010), the bald-headed actor obtained the Grand Prix for interpretation at the Locarno festival in 1979 for "Les Petites Fugues" by Yves Yersin as well as the Molière for best supporting role in 1990 for "The crossing of winter" by Yasmina Reza.
For some, he was Beckett's Lucky du Godot directed by Roger Blin in 1970. For others, it was the old farmhand who offers himself an escape on his solex in "The little fugues".
He was also the Doc of the series "Fraggle Rock" (1983) who became the imaginary grandfather of a whole generation.
For many, it was above all these roles of faithful servants on the stage (Trivelin in "La Double inconstance", Firs in "La Cerisaie") and of old men with an uneasy sweetness on the big screen ("The fabulous destiny of Amélie Poulain "," A long engagement Sunday ").
"I do not understand why I am always distributed against the job in these roles of old minions when I am made to play the Cid!", He joked in 2003 in Le Monde.
- Complex -
Born November 13, 1930 in Reims, Michel Robin - although complexed by a very banal physique of a bald man, a lunar face and later a bent figure - arrived at the theater at the age of 26, after studying law.
A pupil of Cours Dullin, he spent six years in Roger Planchon's troupe at the National Popular Theater in Villeurbanne (1958-1964) and played in 17 shows including "Les âmes mortes", "George Dandin" and "Les Trois mousquetaires".
At the start of the 1970s, Roger Blin hired him to play Lucky in "Waiting for Godot" with Renaud-Barrault at the Récamier theater.
Beckett's discovery - "in whom there is nothing to understand but everything to feel" - is a revelation for the actor.
He finds the playwright ten years later in "End of the game" where he plays Clov.
It is the role and the part of his life.
"It may seem pretentious but at Beckett I am at home. It's so funny and so awful at the same time," he confides to the World.
It is directed in particular by Lucian Pintillé ("Le Canard Sauvage" by Ibsen), Alfredo Arias ("La Tempête" by Shakespeare), Brigitte Jaques ("L'Imposture" by Bernanos), Marcel Maréchal ("Glengarry Glen Rose" by David Mamet), Claude Régy ("Sauvés" by Edward Bond) and Jérôme Savary ("La nuit des rois" by Shakespeare).
In the cinema, discovered by Claude Goretta ("The invitation", 1972), he plays a host of supporting roles in about fifty films, including "L'Aveu" (Costa-Gavras, 1969), "A bag of marbles" (Doillon, 1975) and "You haven't seen anything yet" by Alain Resnais (2012).
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