The year 2021, like unfortunately the previous one, will have been cruel for the best of our entertainers.
Of course, Belmondo the magnificent has passed away, but also Jean-Pierre Bacri the indispensable grumbler of the seventh art, Charlie Watts the historic drummer of the Rolling Stones, Marthe Mercadier the queen of the boulevard, Bertrand Tavernier the indisputable master of committed cinema. ..
Le Figaro
pays homage to them.
To discover
The peasant humor of Bodins does not make Paris laugh
Read also Christophe, Juliette Gréco, Michel Piccoli, Claude Brasseur ... They passed away in 2020
January
18: Jean-Pierre Bacri, 69, actor
Smart and popular, funny and grumpy, modest and abrupt.
Jean-Pierre Bacri was all of these at the same time.
He was the best to make us laugh or move us by playing the one who shoots the face.
The chronic grumpy, the permanent moaner, the mood breaker.
But was he really playing?
"I don't sell anything,"
he said.
I am not accountable to anyone, an actor is not a television host, I am not obligated to be in a good mood. ”
Read also Jean-Pierre Bacri, the grumbler without concessions
18: Catherine Rich, 88, actress
Distinction, elegance ... like her dear husband the unforgettable Claude Rich, on stage or on the screen, Catherine Rich's game with finesse and nuances will have been her trademark for more than half a century. careers.
In cinema, television (
Les Rois maudits
) and theater, the intelligence of her compositions, always delicate, have enabled her to be nominated six times for the Molières.
Read also Death at 88 of Catherine Rich, refined actress and wife of Claude Rich
21: Nathalie Delon, 79, actress
It belongs to the legend Delon.
Same feline and insolent beauty as Alain.
The history of cinema will remember that Nathalie Delon's first film appearance was her master stroke.
In The
Samurai
by Jean-Pierre Melville, she plays Jane Lagrange, the mistress of Jeff Costello, a hired killer.
It is she who provides him with his alibi.
The two lovers are almost as silent as each other.
Their gazes, heavy with meaning, are enough to make the camera shudder.
The director, as always, will know how to use this strange alchemy to create a mythical couple of the seventh art.
Read also Nathalie Delon, eternal accomplice of the
Samurai
21: Rémy Julienne, 90 years old, stuntman
His last stunt, he wouldn't have put it on the screen. It was no longer cinema. Dying from Covid is nothing spectacular. A malicious director said "
Cut
". With him, when we said “
Engine!
On a tray, it was not an empty word. The cylinders roared and it was time for action. He would never have accepted a script in which the hero dies in a hospital bed in Montargis. "
He is a very great stuntman who has done a lot ... a lot for the cinema.
This praise has its price and it was delivered by someone who knew what he was talking about: Jean-Paul Belmondo, with whom Rémy Julienne will have worked no less than fourteen times.
Read also Remy Julienne, the ace of the stunts, died of Covid-19 at the age of 90
February
8: Jean-Claude Carrière, 89, writer
From the
discreet charm of the bourgeoisie
to
Cyrano de Bergerac,
he had written for the greatest of cinema, from Luis Bunuel to Jacques Deray, including Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle and Milos Forman in particular.
A tall man.
Read also Jean-Claude Carrière, writer and screenwriter, died at 89
16: Uncle David, 53, reggae singer
Uncle David, unforgettable performer of the title
Everyone his way was a
tar of French reggae music.
He had achieved success in 1994 for having signed the soundtrack of the film An Indian in the City.
A sudden disappearance, since the musician, retired in a small town of Lorraine for several years, got down to the preparation of his tenth album.
Read alsoTonton David, boss of French reggae, died at 53
19: Philippe Chatel, 72, singer
He admired Georges Brassens.
Minstrel Philippe Chatel died on February 19 at the age of 72.
"My father died last night of a heart attack, at his home in Paris,"
said modestly his daughter, Émilie, to whom the world-famous musical tale
Émilie Jolie
was dedicated
, created in 1979 and which will be repeated. , unceasingly, for 40 years.
Posterity has already spoken for him.
To read also Death of Philippe Chatel, the loving father of
Émilie Jolie
March
5: Patrick Dupond, 62, principal dancer
He died as he lived.
In a lightning way.
He remains forever the last male star of French dance.
"The last one who made the crowds get up
," said Claude Bessy.
The director of the Paris Opera Ballet School “made” Patrick Dupond, with Max Bozzoni, whom he considered to be his absolute master.
“Patrick was as he was: eccentric, telling lies, creating characters for himself.
Spoiled child and child terrible.
Everyone loved it
, ”adds Claude Bessy.
And that look of adoration that others gave him was his oxygen
Read alsoPatrick Dupond, the enfant terrible of dance
25: Bertrand Tavernier, 79, director
Eminent personality of French cinema, artist committed to eclectic work and recognized abroad, Bertrand Tavernier has made period and contemporary films, with a predilection for societal subjects. He was born on April 25, 1941 in Lyon, a high place of cinema with the Institut Lumière, of which he was president. Son of the writer and resistance fighter René Tavernier, he discovered cinema during a stay in a sanatorium. He became known in 1974 by directing Philippe Noiret in
L'Horloger de Saint-Paul, the
first collaboration with an actor who will co-sign some of his greatest films:
Let the party begin, The Judge and the Assassin
or
Coup de torchon.
. His films have won numerous awards: Louis-Delluc Prize for
L'Horloger de Saint-Paul
, Oscar nomination in 1983 for
Coup de torchon
, director's prize at Cannes in 1984 for
A Sunday in the countryside
, BAFTA 1990 for best foreign film for
Life and nothing else
, Golden Bear in 1995 in Berlin for
L'Appât
, Golden Lion in Venice for his entire career.
Read alsoDeath of director Bertrand Tavernier at the age of 79
April
1st: Patrick Juvet, 70 years old, singer
One of Eddie Barclay's discoveries, Patrick Juvet first became known for his talents as lyricists, composer and author. To him, in particular, the demanding Claude François is one of his hits:
Monday to sunlight
. But his fame in the 1970s is mainly due to the hits he sang himself:
Where are the women, I Love America
and
Lady Night
. His album
La Musica
has sold over a million copies.
Paris by Night,
1977 album featuring
Where are the women ?,
is the result of the collaboration between Patrick Juvet and Jean-Michel Jarre (for the lyrics).
Read alsoPatrick Juvet, disco star and composer for Claude François, died at the age of 70
4: Nick Kamen, 59, singer
With his glowing gaze and his very calibrated hits, the interpreter of
Each time you break my hearts
left his mark on the 1980s. Protected from the queen of pop Madonna, the man with the tender gaze and the rebellious wick had made a name for himself in music thanks to his hit
Each time you break my hearts
released in 1987, certified platinum.
Read alsoDeath of singer and sex symbol Nick Kamen, Madonna's protégé, at the age of 59
24: Yves Rénier, 78, actor
The actor enjoyed immense popularity from 1976 to 2008 with his character as an adventurer with a leather jacket and unorthodox methods.
In recent years, he had passed brilliantly to the realization, by tackling the affairs of various facts: Jacqueline Sauvage and Michel Fourniret.
Read alsoDeath at 78 years of Yves Rénier, unforgettable interpreter of Commissioner Moulin
31: Romain Bouteille, 84, playwright
Romain Bouteille was a figure in the early days of the café-theater in France.
"My artistic vocation took shape around 1955 under the angle: to find a job which makes it possible to get up at any time and does not suppose any diploma, neither real work, nor obedience"
, he will tell in 2005 His great creation, Le Café de la Gare,
"the first and last theater in real anarchy"
according to Romain Bouteille, saw the light of day in June 1969 in the premises of a former Odessa Passage factory, near Montparnasse station. The team gathered around him and the young Michel Colucci, who will know fame under the name of Coluche, a band of aspiring actors, many of whom will be successful, like Miou-Miou, Patrick Dewaere and all the Splendid band.
Read alsoDeath of Romain Bouteille, co-founder of the famous Café de la Gare at the age of 84
July
22: Jean-Yves Lafesse, 64, humorist
Its hoaxes, hidden cameras and all kinds of gags have made the French laugh for over thirty years.
The comedian suffered from Charcot's disease, a serious neurodegenerative disease, diagnosed a year before his disappearance.
The life he loved to the point of derision was ultimately cruel to him.
Read also Jean-Yves Lafesse, king of hoaxes and tender provocation, dies at 64 of Charcot's disease
27: Dusty Hill, 72, rocker
It was a monument of blues rock.
Since his first concert with ZZ Top on February 10, 1970 in Beaumont, Texas, Joseph “Dusty” Hill had never left his two companions, the band's founder, guitarist Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Lee Beard.
ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill died at 72
27: Jean-François Stevenin, 77, actor
Director of three films considered as cult (
Passe montagne
,
Doubles Messieurs
and
Mischka
), Jean-François Stévenin has been a prolific actor seen in films as eclectic as
Pocket money
by François Truffaut,
Une chambre en ville
by Jacques Demy or Christophe Gans' pact of wolves.
A figure of the world of the seventh art.
Read alsoDeath of actor and director Jean-François Stévenin at the age of 77
August
24: Charlie Watts, 80, drummer
For many, many years, he was, without fail, the most acclaimed of all during the presentation of the musicians by Mick Jagger, at the end of the group's concerts.
Impassive, impeccable in putting on, relentless punching, Charlie Watts was the most elegant of those real false bad boys from the suburbs of London.
The most ardent fans of the group were moved that the group had decided to hit the road without him.
Today it has become the symbol of the rock band's immortality.
Read also Charlie Watts, historic drummer of the Rolling Stones, is dead
September
6: Jean-Paul Belmondo, 88, actor
The spoiled child of French cinema died in 2021 and France mourned the king, its king, acrobats. Actor, producer, theater director, he had interpreted with panache, both in cinema and on stage, a host of characters during a career spanning more than fifty years. From
Pierrot le Fou
to
L'Homme de Rio
or
L'As des as
, he embodied French cinema. With his broken mouth, his banter of Parisian titi, his daredevil side and great lord he was revered, even if the critics reproached him for his facilities and his roles of clown. Belmondo didn't care and for a long time claimed this closeness to this public which made him a popular actor. His credo was simple: “
First of all, he said, I must say that I never worked for money.
What mattered above all to me was to make myself happy, to work with quality people and to do everything so that the public could have a good time with good films.
»Farewell Bébel.
Read the dossierDeath of Jean-Paul Belmondo, sacred monster of French cinema
15: Marthe Mercadier, 92, actress
Her demeanor, her banter, her verve and her authority on stage have made her one of the greatest boulevard actresses of the twentieth century.
Like no other, she will have known how to play Feydeau, Françoise Dorin, Barillet and Grédy, Poiret, Marcel Aymé ... Like a Louis de Funès, we came to the theater to see her on stage.
Read also Marthe Mercadier, queen of the boulevard theater, died
20: Anna Gaylor, 89, actress
His mischievous smile and his subtle acting have made many comedies and dramas happy.
The actress Anna Gaylor, noticed in the committed works of Alain Jessua (
Life upside down
,
Shock treatment
,
Armageddon
,
The Dogs
...) and in very popular films like
The Visitors
or more recently
The Heart of men
passed away on September 20.
Read alsoDeath of actress Anna Gaylor, the muse of Alain Jessua and actress in
The Visitors
21: Willie Garson, 57, actor
Willie Garson thus played Stanford Blatch in the series broadcast over six seasons from 1998 to 2004, the homosexual friend kindly referred to as
"the fifth daughter"
of the band, always dressed to the nines.
He then stepped up to play the same character in
Sex and the City, the film
and its sequel, derived from the soap opera.
Read alsoDeath of actor Willie Garson, famous for his role in "Sex and the City"
October
3: Bernard Tapie, 78, upset artist
It should never be forgotten: his first vocation was an artist.
As early as 1966, he tried his hand at song, recording records and sometimes venturing on stage.
His advantageous physique, his ability to write the article, whether he is intermittent in the show or minister, has always imposed it.
A face, a voice, an aplomb not devoid of malice, Bernard Tapie had everything to have an undeniable presence on stage.
Claude Lelouch entrusted him with a role in
Men, Women, Instructions for Use
(1996), he also worked a bit for television.
Basically, a mountebank lost in business ...
See also Bernard Tapie, disappearance of a stage animal
23: Marcel Bluwal, 96 years old, director
His adaptation
of Molière's
Dom Juan
, shot in 1965 with Michel Piccoli and Claude Brasseur, in natural settings devoid of human presence, marked the history of television and is still cited as a model of adaptation of a play for the little one. screen.
"I have never felt neither a guru nor an intellectual,"
he declared to
Liberation
in 1994.
"The following year (
Dom Juan,
Editor's note), moreover, I followed up with
Vidocq
, who was the symbol of vulgarity. You think: a soap opera! "
. This
Vidocq
, with Bernard Noël then Claude Brasseur and Danièle Lebrun (who would become his wife), had also achieved considerable success.
Read also Death of director and director Marcel Bluwal
November
1st: Nelson Freire, 77, pianist
Born in 1944 in the village of Boa Esperança, in the state of Minas Gerais, in the hills where coffee is grown, the Brazilian virtuoso passed away at the age of 77.
With him disappears much more than a pianist: a musician at heart, deeply human, who had known how to weave despite (or thanks to) his great modesty and humility an authentic bond with the public, founded on sensitivity more than on virtuosity.
And yet, she was immense, her virtuosity even extraordinary.
Read alsoPianist Nelson Freire, subtle interpreter of the great romantics
26: Stephen Sondheim, 91, composer
"A God in Broadway"
. One could say of Stephen Sondheim in the world of musical comedy in the United States, the same thing as of Jean d'Ormesson in France for a few decades:
"Let him sneeze, and that's everyone in the publishing industry." who catches a cold. "
Stephen Sondheim possessed a rare genius: he was both a man of theater and music. His definition of a good musical?
“Perhaps a quality and popular show. Many musicals today are primarily entertainment that does not need dramatic tension or strong characters. I see myself more as a playwright who writes plays to music. For me, the theatrical notion is very important, ”
he explained with humility.
Read alsoStephen Sondheim, the last legend of Broadway
December
18: Richard Rogers, 88, architect
At a time when we are building our metropolis, we must remember that he was one of the architects of Greater Paris.
He was part of one of the ten teams, with his project on urban reinforcements so that the infrastructures are not ruptures, but make the link.
“
His involvement in town planning, with a reflection on the city, was one of his major concerns, as evidenced by his many writings,
” said art critic Francis Rambert.
Everything will have been consistent in his work, from start to finish ...
The king of high-tech architect Richard Rogers, co-creator of the Center Pompidou, is dead
20: Pierre Cassignard, 56, actor
On the stage, for more than thirty years, we will see him perform practically the best of the great comic and tragic repertoire: Corneille (
L'illusion comique
), Tchekhov (
Uncle Vania
), Georges Feydeau (
On purge bébé
) and obviously
Les Deux Jumeaux. Venetians
by Carlo Goldoni which earned him the supreme French theater award, the Molière for best actor in 1997.
Read alsoPierre Cassignard, Molière for best actor in 1997, died at the age of 56