Michel Piccoli

Michel Piccoli
Piccoli at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival
Born	(1925-12-27)27 December 1925 Paris, France
Died	12 May 2020(2020-05-12) (aged 94) Saint-Philbert-sur-Risle, France
Occupation	Actor, screenwriter, director, musician, singer
Years active	1945–2015
Spouse(s)	Eléonore Hirt ​ (m. 1945⁠–⁠1965)​ Juliette Gréco ​ (m. 1966⁠–⁠1977)​ Ludivine Clerc ​ (m. 1980)​
Children	3
Signature

Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide variety of roles and worked with many acclaimed directors, being awarded with a Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival.^[1][2]

Life and career[]

Piccoli was born in Paris to a musical family; his French mother was a pianist and his Swiss father was a violinist from the canton of Ticino.

He appeared in many different roles, from seducer to cop to gangster to Pope, in more than 170 movies. He appeared in six films directed by Luis Buñuel including Belle de Jour (1967) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), but also appeared as Brigitte Bardot's husband in Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (1963) and as the main antagonist in Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz (1969).^[3] He also appeared in many films by Claude Sautet, sometimes co-starring in them with Romy Schneider, and became a frequent collaborator of director Marco Ferreri, with which worked on several films, including Dillinger Is Dead and La Grande Bouffe.

In the 1990s, Piccoli also worked as a director on three films.^[4] One of his last leading roles was his portrayal of a depressed, newly elected pope in Nanni Moretti's We Have a Pope (2011), for which he was awarded with the David di Donatello Award for Best Actor.^[3]

Political views[]

Piccoli was part of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés circle in the 1950s, which included Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. He was a member of the French Communist Party in this era.^[1] A life-long left-winger, he objected to repression in the Soviet bloc, and supported the Solidarity trade union in Poland.^[2]

Personal life and death[]

Piccoli married three times, first to Éléonore Hirt, then for eleven years to the singer Juliette Gréco and finally to Ludivine Clerc. He had one daughter from his first marriage, Anne-Cordélia. He also had two adopted children with Ludivine Clerc.^[4]

Piccoli died from complications of a stroke on 12 May 2020, at the age of 94.^[5][6]

Filmography[]

Michel Piccoli in 1945

Awards and nominations[]

Michel Piccoli at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival

• Cannes Film Festival
  • 1980: Best Actor Award for A Leap in the Dark^[7]

• Berlin Film Festival
  • 1982: Silver Bear for Best Actor for Strange Affair^[8]

• Locarno Festival
  • 2007: Best Actor Award for Les Toits de Paris
  • 2007: Excellence Award

• César Awards
  • 1981: Nominated for the César Award for Best Actor for Strange Affair
  • 1984: Nominated for the César Award for Best Actor for Dangerous Moves
  • 1990: Nominated for the César Award for Best Actor for May Fools
  • 1991: Nominated for the César Award for Best Actor for La Belle Noiseuse

• Shanghai International Film Festival
  • 1997: Golden Goblet Award for Best Actor for Traveling Companion

• David di Donatello Awards
  • 2012: David di Donatello for Best Actor for We Have a Pope

• European Film Awards
  • 2001: Nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actor for I'm Going Home
  • 2007: Nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actor for Belle Toujours
  • 2011: Honorary Award
  • 2011: Nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actor for We Have a Pope

In 2001 he was the recipient of the Europe Theatre Prize.^[9]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michel Piccoli.

• Michel Piccoli at IMDb