Four times he will have played alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo, in
Le Voleur
,
Le Cerveau, L'affaire Stavisky and L'Héritier
.
Belgian actor Fernand Guiot, who displayed the reassuring bonhomie of a man from the north, died on June 26 in Paris where he had lived for over sixty years.
He was 88 years old.
Read also: Claude Zidi, the ingenious charlot of cinema
A second role as essential as it is prolific, he was, during a career that lasted more than half a century, one of the familiar faces of French cinema.
His admirers will remember that he had admirably portrayed the somewhat stupid inspector of the guide Duchemin in
The Wing or the Thigh
by Claude Zidi.
A comedy that brought together for the one and only time the two giants of humor, Louis de Funès and Coluche.
The irrepressible urge to play
Born August 7, 1932 in Namur, Belgium and trained at the Conservatoire dramatique de Bruxelles, Fernand Guiot moved to Paris at the end of the 1950s, starting a long career in cinema, theater and television with nearly two hundred films, plays and series to his credit.
Passed by the National Popular Theater with Georges Wilson, Fernand Guiot often interpreted candid characters alongside Michel Piccoli and Michel Serrault, but also Jean-Paul Belmondo and Bourvil in
Le Cerveau
by Gérard Oury. In the theater, Fernand Guiot was among others on the bill of
L'Avare
,
Tartuffe
and Le
Médecin Despite Him
by Molière, directed by Jean Meyer. An eclectic actor, he will also have played
Le Dindon
by Feydeau,
Knock
by Jules Romains and
Bacchus
by Cocteau, in a production by Jean Marais.
For the big screen, he was chosen by Jean Girault (
Les Moutons de Panurge
), Robert Dhery (
The American Beauty)
, Louis Malle (
The Thief
), Marcel Camus (
The Atlantic Wall)
, Philippe Labro (
L'Héritier
) or Coluche (
You won't have Alsace and Lorraine
) . On television, Fernard Guiot has appeared in such popular series as
The Investigations of Commissioner Maigret
,
Les Brigades du Tigre
,
Une Famille formidable
and
Julie Lescaut
.
A man of spirit and commitment, he is involved in the defense of the profession of actor and cultural action. Fernand Guiot notably chaired the Federation of Arts, Entertainment, Audiovisual and Press (FASAP-FO). Representative of the Federation Force Ouvrière, he also sat for several years at the general assembly of the Cannes Film Festival.
Happy to be a mountebank, Fernand Guiot had mentioned his philosophy and his profession a few years ago, only regretting that he is no longer called, even to play grandfathers: “
I never look in the rearview mirror. I have had an extremely varied career. I did radio and television in Belgium. I was an actor, playing silhouettes and sometimes very beautiful roles.
My happiness was complete ”
When Fernand Guiot spoke of his career and his filming memories with Funès, Belmondo, Bourvil, Delon ...