From the new wave to popular cinema, Jean-Paul Belmondo has performed in all categories.
Bébel (since his exploits in
The Man from Rio
) has been able to combine all genres and styles, infusing his characters with his sympathy, his good humor, the incorrigible charm of a happy man.
Since the terrible stroke which struck him down in 2001, his health was the subject of all the attentions.
After a long convalescence which allowed him to recover a good part of his means, Jean-Paul Belmondo still displayed his famous mocking smile.
In September 2019, at the age of 86, the actor was recovering after a "bad fall".
Read also Jean-Paul Belmondo: "I have never worked without a net"
His boxer face with an angelic smile has appeared in nearly 85 films.
He was the biggest popular star of the 60s and yet nothing destined him to play the leading roles in the cinema.
“I wanted to be a clown, I always went to the circus.
It was only that that I liked.
Boxing and the circus, ”
he replied to
Figaro.
Jean-Paul Belmondo in the ring in the early 1960s. AFP
From Belmondo to Bébel
Itinerary of a spoiled child
, title of the film by Claude Lelouche (1988) and biographical slogan of Jean-Paul Belmondo born April 9, 1933, in Neuilly, into a bourgeois and artist family.
He admires his father, Paul Belmondo, renowned sculptor, member of the Institute.
A museum is dedicated to him at Château Buchillot in Boulogne-Billancourt.
Jean Paul Belmondo and his father Paul at a painting auction on June 13, 1974. Giovanni Coruzzi / Bridgeman images
His father pushes him to do theater.
It is therefore on the boards that the young Belmondo made his debut.
And the theater becomes his great passion.
A pupil of the Conservatory, he is the mascot of his comrades and forges strong friendships with Jean-Pierre Marielle or even Jean Rochefort.
After three years of study, he left the scene with a recall of first runner-up, no one!
He waves an arm of honor to the jury and his comrades carry it in triumph.
The Bébel style was born.
Mariolle and sympathetic.
Newsboy and popular.
In 1960, the young first denotes indeed.
Belmondo is to this cinema of the sixties what Omar Sy was able to represent in that of the years 2010. They embody lively, smiling, spontaneous and offbeat men.
Limot / Bridgeman pictures
Belmondo is also having fun at the Comédie-Française.
Sometimes valet with Michel Galabru in
La Mégère
apprivoisée with Pierre Brasseur and Suzanne Flon, or sentinel in
César et Cléopâtre
with Jean Marais… In the meantime, he sets up a small company with his friends, Annie Girardot, Guy Bedos, crisscrossing France , on tour.
His name gradually circulated in the profession and, in 1957, he won in
Claude Magnier's
Oscar
, at the Théâtre de l'Athénée, alongside Pierre Mondy and Maria Pacôme.
Caught up in the cinema, he will have to wait twenty-eight years to return to the theater.
Actor any category
His film career took off in 1959, thanks to Godard. The director chooses Jean-Paul Belmondo to play the seductive thug Michel Poiccard in
À Bout de souffle
. We discover his casual style in this descent of the Champs-Élysées with Jean Seberg, his hands in his pockets and the cigarette in his mouth.
Overnight, Bébel continued with
Classes all risks
, by Claude Sautet, alongside Lino Ventura. In the 1960s, he will shoot no less than thirty-four films, including
La Ciociara
, by Vittorio De Sica (1961), with Sophia Loren,
Une femme est une femme
, where he meets Godard (1961).
The actor turns film on film, good as bad,
"Like my children, I love all my films, even the duds!", He
declared. In the company of director Philippe de Broca, he signed popular successes with
Cartouche
in 1962 - 3 million admissions - and
L'Homme de Rio
in 1964. In
Un singe en hiver
, by Henri Verneuil, he gives the answer to the idol of his youth, Jean Gabin.
The same director will play him in
Week-end à Zuydcoote
.
Another great success,
Pierrot le fou
by Godard (1965).
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina in
Pierrot le Fou
by Jean-Luc Godard.
Georges Pierre / Bridgeman pictures
The 1970s were just as flourishing.
They begin, however, with a quarrel between Bébel and Alain Delon on the occasion of the release of
Borsalino
, in 1970. Delon, producer of the film, places his name first on the poster, before that of Belmondo, contrary to what was provided for in the contract.
Bébel then decides not to attend the premiere of the film, takes the case to court and wins the case.
"Borsalino" by Jacques Deray with Jean Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon in 1970. Giovanni Coruzzi / Bridgeman images
The ace of the stunt
In 1971, Jean-Paul Belmondo founded his own production company, Cerito Films, and continued to shoot at a sustained pace with Philippe de Broca, Henri Verneuil, Claude Chabrol, Claude Zidi, José Giovanni, Philippe Labro.
Directors who know how to exploit its vast register.
It was the time of the intrepid, funny, brawler, seducer, daredevil Belmondo.
Read also Belmondo, a risky profession
At the same time superman or his opposite, clown, cop or vigilante.
He does not cheat by performing his own stunts.
On the program:
The Casse, Doctor Popaul, The Heir, The Magnificent, Fear of the city, The Incorrigible, The Alpageur, The Animal.
And Belmondo wouldn't be Belmondo without his stunts, which he did himself.
Because Bébel is one of the rare actors in history to have refused any form of dubbing on the set.
“For the Parisian intelligentsia, I had become a stuntman, I no longer knew how to act.
"
Jean-Paul Belmondo
He is remembered perched on the wings of an airplane in
The Animal.
In
Le Guignolo
, he is walked on a trapeze attached to a helicopter, for more than a minute over Venice.
In
Le Casse
by Henri Verneuil, hanging by the strength of his arms on a bus.
"For the Parisian intelligentsia, I had become a stuntman, I no longer knew how to act
,
"
he declared.
For five years, from 1978 to 1983, he triumphed alone on the screens, practically without rival.
Back to the boards
At the end of the 1980s, Bébel realized that his roles as superheroes superbly frankly began to tire. In 1985, he found Jacques Deray in
Le Solitaire,
which flopped
. “
The Solitaire
was too many thrillers. I was fed up and the public too, ”
he admitted with his usual frankness.
Bébel takes refuge in the arms of his great love: the theater. His friend Robert Hossein directed him wonderfully in two plays: first in 1987 in
Kean
, by Jean-Paul Sartre after Alexandre Dumas, then in 1989 in
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand, a role cut out for him and a triumph. extended by an international tour.
Jean-Paul Belmondo with Richard Anconina in "Itinerary of a spoiled child" by Claude Lelouch, released in 1988. Mondadori Portfolio / Bridgeman images
In 1988, Claude Lelouch nevertheless succeeded in convincing him to return to the cinema with a very beautiful film,
Itinerary of a spoiled child,
which allowed him to change register. It is a public success. Belmondo wins the César for best actor but, angry with the profession, does not go get his statuette. The actor continues the adventure of the theater with popular comedies,
Tailleur pour dames
and
La Puce à l'oreille
by Feydeau and Désiré by Sacha Guitry.
Everything seems to smile on her when a tragedy strikes her family: on October 31, 1993, her eldest daughter, Patricia, is killed in the fire in her apartment. Two years later, he suffered a heart attack which forced him to abandon the representations of
Flea in the ear.
“I got it wrong from time to time, like everyone else.
I'm only going to do that: act out ”
Jean-Paul Belmondo
In 1998, Patrice Leconte seals Belmondo's reconciliation with Delon in
Une chance sur deux
, a nostalgic detective comedy in which the two actors give the answer to the young Vanessa Paradis.
Here again, the reception of the public is mixed.
Pragmatic, Belmondo feels that his cinema rating has become uncertain, but he has no regrets:
“I made a mistake from time to time, like everyone else.
I'm only going to do that: play comedy, ”
he admits, before returning once again to the theater with
Frédérick or the Boulevard du crime,
by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.
Privacy side
Bellâtre, he will seduce many women.
The private life of Jean-Paul Belmondo will be punctuated by meetings and divorces.
First married to the dancer, Élodie Constant, he will have three children.
In 1965, the couple divorced, and the actor appeared with the international icon Ursula Andress then with the Italian actress Laura Antonelli - who died in June 2015 - until the beginning of the 80s. In 1989, he met Natty Tardivel .
The couple married in December 2002, and gave birth to a daughter.
But after twenty years of living together they divorced in 2008. Jean-Paul Belmondo will then appear on the arm of Barbara Gandolfi before ending the relationship in 2012.
Jean-Paul Belmondo and two of his children, Florence and Paul, during the summer of 1970 in Monaco.
Agip / Bridgeman Images
End of career and rain of tributes
The early 2000s marked the end of Belmondo's career.
Victim of discomfort on stage in 1999, he was hospitalized and forced once again to rest.
A year later, after an appearance in
Les Acteurs
, by Bertrand Blier, and the failed release of
Amazon
, a film by his old friend, Philippe de Broca, Jean-Paul Belmondo suffered a stroke in Lumio, in Corsica in the house of his friend Guy Bedos.
The accident was severe and marked the abrupt end of his career.
Also read Jean-Paul Belmondo for his 80th birthday: “Life goes on!
"
In 2008, physically diminished, he still shoots his last film, under the direction of Francis Huster
A man and his dog
, remake of Umberto D., by Vittorio De Sica. Surrounded by many actor friends, it is the expected and moving return to the cinema of Jean-Paul Belmondo in a role where he does not cheat with his age or with his past as a star.
During the Venice Film Festival 2016, he was awarded the Golden Lion from the hands of the actress Sophie Marceau for the career. In 2017, the 42nd César ceremony also paid tribute to the actor for his entire career. The following year, he was in the spotlight at the 71st Cannes film festival with the poster from the film
Pierrot le fou.
Reunited with Anna Karina, time for a kiss.
The vibrant tribute of Jean Dujardin during the César 2017 ceremony in honor of the career of Jean-Paul Belmondo.
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